(Image: Richard Croft, cc-sa-2.0)

Situated somewhat oddly in a farmer’s field, this abandoned control tower is one of the few remaining buildings at RAF Coleby Grange near Lincoln, England.  Opened in 1939 and operated as a fighter and night fighter base during World War Two, Coleby Grange was at various times home to British, Polish, U.S. and Canadian fighter squadrons.  The base closed at the end of the war but reopened in 1959 as an RAF Bomber Command Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) launch facility, and was placed on a high DEFCON 2 launch alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Finally decommissioned in 1963, the land has been returned to agricultural purposes with some of the few remaining structures reused as farm buildings.  Only the control tower, which is reputedly haunted, betrays the historic role of RAF Coleby Grange.