Defford

Defford
Defford
 Defford shown within Worcestershire
DistrictWychavon
Shire countyWorcestershire
RegionWest Midlands
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Worcester
Postcode district WR8
EU Parliament West Midlands
List of places
UK
England
Worcestershire

Coordinates: 52°05′14″N 2°07′09″W / 52.087346°N 2.119104°W

Defford is a small village in the county of Worcestershire, England, located between the towns of Pershore and Upton-upon-Severn.

Defford also has a primary school, Defford cum Besford First School, and three pubs.

Defford is home to one of the radio telescopes that make up the Jodrell Bank MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network) radio telescope array linking six observing stations that together form a powerful telescope with an effective aperture of over 217 kilometres.

Defford Village Hall

The village hall is owned and run by a charity, the Defford Village Hall Trust, and managed by a committee of trustees . In 2011 a new village hall was built on a greenfield site some 50 yards to the south west of the old hall, adjacent to the car park.

Defford airfield

Main article: RAF Defford

In 1941 during World War II, a Royal Air Force airfield was constructed mainly for the flying experiments for radar that was being developed in nearby Malvern. For a few months the airfield was used as a satellite station by the Wellington bomber training unit located in Pershore.

A small grass airstrip remains on the now disused airfield that has been used as a location for telecommunications installations. The site is now owned and used by the West Mercia Constabulary, but the central part of the airfield still houses a Satellite Communications facility now operated by QinetiQ.

Village hall reconstruction

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Defford.