The Control Tower

Point A in the overhead. The Control Tower is another object that was left completely untouched when they decided to rip up the old US airbase. For years the powers that be who are concerned with such matters had been intending to do it up a bit and turn it into a visitors centre - cafe, toilets, screaming and unruly kids, and a view over the common from the glass thing at the top. This work must have started and stopped several times, and at one point it was shown as being on sale (no takers.) Meanwhile it remained securely padlocked and behind stout fences, impenetrable to even the most determined metal thief.

Then, early 2019, work had restarted, and it was finished and opened to the public. It opens at weekends, staffed by volunteers, and there is a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating, plus access (via a steep and scary set of stairs) to the tower control room itself, which has been equipped with binoculars so that visitors can enjoy the good views.

The tower sits right in the main common car park and as such will be the first remaining evidence of the past that visitors see. There are, though, other access points to the common, and first-time visitors might be amazed and surprised to spot the tower off in the distance.

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