The last fighter squadron to use North Weald was 111 Squadron who left in 1958 and the airfield then became home to a maintenance unit. In the sixties, the aerodrome was used as a private airfield but the land was put up for sale by the Ministry of Defence and was purchased by the Epping Forest Council.
North Weald Airfield Museum is situated at what was the main entrance of the famous Battle of Britain Fighter base - RAF North Weald. The former RAF North Weald Station Office has now been converted into a museum and the building is now known as Ad Astra House. There is an extensive collection of photographs and artifacts that are displayed in the theme rooms that tell the story of the airfield and its people from 1916 right through the second world war to the present day. There is access to an extensively researched history of the airfield and because of the importance of North Weald in 1940, full details of the events of this time are retold in “The Battle of Britain Room”. The area is enhanced by the new Memorial. Combine a visit to the Museum and the RAF North Weald Memorial, dedicated to all who served at North Weald.
The Battle of Britain Room commemorates this historic event in a manner that recognises the debt owed by us all. 39 aircrew were killed flying from RAF North Weald and many more died on the ground as a result of the hundreds of bombs that were dropped on the airfield and the local community. North Weald suffered badly during the time of the Battle of Britain commencing with the airfield attacks on August 24th 1940 when over 200 bombs were dropped on the aerodrome. Both the Officers mess and the pilots married quarters were badly damaged and nine soldiers of the Essex Regiment who were stationed there were killed when an air raid shelter that they were in, received a direct hit. Another attack was made on the aerodrome on September 3rd and was said to be the heaviest attack made on the aerodrome.
North Weald Parish Church stands in open countryside near one corner of the airfield. Visit the graveyard; here are graves of some of the airmen, and other service personnel, killed in enemy attacks on the airfield or after having taken off from North Weald. The first airman killed during WWII, Pilot Officer M.Hulton-Harrop took off in a Hurricane from North Weald, three days after the outbreak of war and was shot down in the infamous Battle of Barking Creek. His is the first grave in the rows of WWII graves.
On June 19th 1952, Princess Astrid, the Crown Princess of Norway unveiled an obelisk on behalf of the people of Norway close to the old main gate of the aerodrome. Sunday 3rd September, 2000, the anniversary of the declaration of war and the 60th anniversary of the heaviest raid on North Weald Airfield, saw the dedication of a unique Memorial at North Weald. It was built around the Norwegian obelisk, a stone curved memorial wall forming a fine foreground setting against the old station office, now the headquarters of the North Weald Museum.
[Information from the Battle of Britain Historical Society].