About
RAF Ingham Heritage Centre is a small volunteer-run museum in the Lincolnshire village of Ingham, north of Lincoln, telling the story of the wartime airfield that once occupied the flat farmland around the village. RAF Ingham opened in 1943 as a satellite station within No. 1 Group, RAF Bomber Command, part of the dense concentration of airfields across Lincolnshire that earned the county its enduring nickname "Bomber County." What sets Ingham apart from the many other former bomber stations scattered across the region is its close association with the Polish Air Force operating in exile under RAF command — the airfield was home to No. 300 (Masovian) and No. 301 (Pomeranian) Polish Bomber Squadrons, whose Wellington and later Lancaster crews flew night operations over occupied Europe alongside their British counterparts.
The heritage centre was established by local volunteers determined that the sacrifice and service of the Polish airmen based at Ingham should not be forgotten. Many of those who flew from the airfield had already escaped occupied Poland by circuitous routes — through France, North Africa, or the Baltic states — before reaching Britain to continue the fight, and a significant number never returned from operations over Germany and occupied Europe. The centre's displays draw on wartime photographs, personal artefacts, squadron records, and testimony gathered from veterans and their families to reconstruct daily life on the airfield and the operational history of the two Polish squadrons during their time at Ingham, before they moved on to nearby Faldingworth later in the war.
The collection includes uniform items, insignia, navigational and flying equipment, and a substantial archive of photographs documenting the airfield's construction, its Nissen hut accommodation, and the ground crews who kept the bombers flying. St Bartholomew's Church in Ingham village retains its own memorial connections to the Polish airmen, and the heritage centre works alongside the church and local history groups to keep this chapter of Anglo-Polish wartime cooperation visible to visitors. As with several small former-airfield heritage sites across Lincolnshire, opening is limited and volunteer-dependent, and the centre is best visited on advertised open days or by prior arrangement — visitors should check current arrangements before travelling.
For anyone tracing the wider story of Lincolnshire's bomber airfields — alongside larger sites such as the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln and the Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre — RAF Ingham offers a more intimate, community-rooted perspective on the county's wartime aviation heritage, with a particular focus on the international dimension of RAF Bomber Command's war.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Saturday morning
Busiest: Open day weekends
💡 Advertised open days, when volunteer guides with direct knowledge of the airfield's history are typically on hand to talk visitors through the displays.
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the heritage centre's current opening days before travelling — as a volunteer-run site its hours are limited and centred on Saturdays and advertised open days.
- Combine a visit with the short walk to St Bartholomew's Church in Ingham village, which holds its own memorial connections to the Polish airmen who served at the airfield.
- If visiting to research a specific individual or squadron connection, contact the volunteer group in advance — they may be able to make relevant archive material available.
- The International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln (around 20 minutes' drive) provides a valuable wider context for Ingham's story and is a natural pairing for a Bomber County heritage day out.
- Bring cash for the small shop and any donations box, as card payment facilities may be limited at this small volunteer-run site.
- Ask about the self-guided walk to surviving airfield remnants in the surrounding fields if you have extra time — sturdy footwear is recommended as paths can be uneven.
- Group visits, including those connected to RAF or Polish veterans' associations, are often welcomed outside normal hours with advance notice.
- This is a small, focused site best suited to visitors with a specific interest in Bomber Command or Polish wartime history rather than a general family day out.
Highlights
No. 300 and No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadrons Display
The centrepiece of the heritage centre is its display on No. 300 (Masovian) and No. 301 (Pomeranian) Squadrons of the Polish Air Force, which operated from RAF Ingham as part of RAF Bomber Command's No.
1 Group during the Second World War. Formed from Polish airmen who had escaped their homeland after the 1939 invasion, the squadrons flew Vickers Wellington bombers on night operations over occupied Europe and Germany, before No. 300 later converted to the Avro Lancaster.
The display uses photographs, personal letters, squadron records, and recovered artefacts to tell the story of airmen who continued the fight for a free Poland from English soil, at considerable cost — casualty rates among Bomber Command crews, Polish and British alike, were exceptionally high throughout the war.
Airfield Layout and Construction Archive
A collection of wartime plans, aerial photographs, and construction records documents how RAF Ingham was built from open Lincolnshire farmland in 1943, following the standard pattern of a Class A bomber airfield with three intersecting concrete runways, dispersed hardstandings, and scattered Nissen hut accommodation and technical buildings.
The display helps visitors understand how rapidly Bomber Command's airfield network was constructed across Lincolnshire during the war, and how thoroughly the rural landscape was transformed — and, in most cases, subsequently returned to agriculture once the airfields closed after 1945, leaving only fragments like those preserved at Ingham.
Personal Testimony and Veterans' Archive
Over the years, volunteers at RAF Ingham Heritage Centre have gathered testimony, letters, and photographs from veterans who served at the airfield and from the families of Polish airmen who did not return from operations. This archive of personal recollection gives the displays an intimate, human dimension beyond the technical history of aircraft and squadrons, capturing details of daily life on a wartime bomber station — briefings, ground crew routines, off-duty hours in the local villages, and the losses that touched every crew during the war's most intensive bombing campaigns.
Wellington and Lancaster Aircrew Equipment
The centre displays flying equipment and personal kit associated with Bomber Command aircrew of the period, including navigational instruments, flying clothing, and squadron insignia, alongside explanatory material on the role of each crew position aboard a Wellington or Lancaster bomber — pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, and gunners.
These objects help visitors understand the physical experience of flying long night operations at altitude in an unpressurised, unheated aircraft, a reality often obscured by the abstract statistics of Bomber Command's wartime campaign.
Collections
RAF Ingham Heritage Centre holds a focused collection built around the wartime history of the airfield and its Polish Bomber Command squadrons, No. 300 and No. 301.
The collection combines photographs, squadron records, personal letters and testimony, flying equipment, uniform items and insignia, and archival material documenting the airfield's construction and operational life between 1943 and its postwar closure. A particular strength is the archive of personal recollection gathered from veterans and the families of Polish airmen who served at Ingham, which gives the displays an intimate human perspective alongside the broader operational history.
The collection is modest in scale compared with major national aviation museums, but it preserves a specific and otherwise easily overlooked chapter of Anglo-Polish wartime cooperation within the story of Lincolnshire's Bomber Command airfields.
The Polish Squadrons at RAF Ingham
The history and operations of No. 300 and No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadrons during their time at RAF Ingham, told through photographs, records, and personal testimony.
📍 Main exhibition room
Life on a Lincolnshire Bomber Station
The daily reality of RAF Ingham as a working airfield — construction, ground crew life, aircrew equipment, and the airfield's place within Lincolnshire's wartime Bomber County landscape.
📍 Main exhibition room and archive area
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.