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458th Bombardment Group at Horsham St Faith

Remaining buildings

A number of the buildings used by the 458th Bomb Group remain, although they have been converted for a variety of purposes.

Two of the five large pre-war hangars are still being used for aircraft maintenance and aircraft refinishing.

Two have been converted for commercial use, with the third housing an aeronautical academy in association with Norwich City College.

The original control tower used by the 458th still exists.

Air traffic continued to be controlled from this building until a new tower was built near the main runway in 1992.

Other wartime buildings now form part of the industrial estate and are intermingled with many newer structures.

The blocks used as enlisted men's living quarters situated towards Catton have been demolished to allow a housing development to be built on the site.

However, some of the housing on the other side of the Fifers Lane has been converted into private dwellings complete with their wartime camouflage brickwork.

As for the runways, taxi-tracks, etc, these largely remain.

Only one runway is now used and the east-west runway, 10-28, which was extended eastwards by the RAF in 1956, has become the main runway to avoid take-offs and landings over built-up areas.

The old main runway has been converted into a taxiway for larger aircraft and a parking area.

The north-west corner of the airfield now lies under the Northern Distributor Road, which opened in 2018 to take traffic around the north of Norwich.