Description

FIGHELDEAN

1382/0/10023 AIRFIELD CAMP (FORMER RAF NETHERAVON)
01-DEC-05 Buildings 29P-29T (Airmen's Barracks)

GV II
Airmen's barracks blocks. Designed 1913, completed mid 1914. Architect DM Franklin, but drawings counter-signed by Col A M Stuart, Assistant Director of Fortifications and Works. Softwood framing with asbestos-cement panel facings and linings, joints covered with painted softwood battens, some masonry stiffening to gable-ends, all set to concrete levelling slabs with plinth offset: asbestos-cement slates set diagonally to roofs.

PLAN: The five buildings are set in parallel in single row, centred on the former Institute (qv) and a matching group of barracks (qv) on the far side of a parade ground. The five blocks were identical, each a long narrow gabled range with central lobby sited opposite rear ablutions block.

EXTERIOR: These buildings are built to the same philosophy of design as the Officers' Mess group (qv), with sash windows set to grid of vertical and horizontal battens, framing openings, and with sole plate, sill and head bands: the gables have central stiffening sections in masonry, plastered flush with the remainder of the wall. Fronts are in 12 bays, with 8-pane timber sashes, including one paired, with wide central mullion, two bays in from each end, and on off-centre pair of glazed doors, on 2 steps and under a 5-pane transom-light. The rear is similar, including paired lights and smaller paired lights adjacent to the service wing, which has a ledged, braced and battened door each side and various small sashes. Gable ends are plain, and some inserted doors in long rear elevations.

INTERIOR: Partly inspected only. Various sub-divisions for later use. The iron tension-bars are exposed below canted panelled ceilings on timber trusses.

HISTORY: Designed in 1913 and completed in mid 1914, this group comprises one half of two rows of five barracks blocks, each for 24 airmen, flanking the parade ground and the Institute (qv). Each barrack block was planned as two internal rooms for 12 men each, the entrance lobby being sited opposite the ablutions area. The Institute had a billiard room and bar flanking a central hall, with bathrooms and a shop to the rear.

Part of a uniquely important prototype air base of the pre-1914 period. For fuller history, see description of the Officers' Mess. (gv)

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670840

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)