In June 1939 Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State for Air, visited the camp, by which time it already had 1,700 trainees.

Although it had no proper airfield at least three instructional aircraft were flown in and landed on the camp sports field.

Ten days after the last passing out parade at RAF Hednesford, 800 refugees from Hungarian Uprising of 1956 moved in, the first batch of a total of some 1,200.

The RAF initially helped with feeding arrangements although the camp was run by Staffordshire welfare services.

In April 1959, a sale of all the moveable buildings and equipment on the site was arranged (except for the officer's mess, a small number of huts in the North-East corner).

Various plans for the sale of the site fell through and it was becoming vandalised and dangerous with the air-raid shelters still remaining and increased subsidence from old mine-workings.

In 1963 the camp was acquired by Staffordshire council who had the remaining air-raid shelters demolished and the mining subsidence filled in.