Description

UPAVON

1182/0/10003 A 342
01-DEC-05 Upavon Camp, Trenchard Lines
(North side)
Building no 36 (Nettleton Block)

GV II
One of a group of five airmen's barrack blocks (the other 4 not included). 1914, designed by the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works. Drawing No 8/14. Painted concrete block, asbestos-cement diagonal slating to roof.

PLAN: A long narrow gabled range in single depth, with off-centre entrance, and short rear service wing. Entrance lobby and hall flanked by NCO's rooms, corridor through to rear ablutions block; to each side open dormitory spaces, now sub-divided.

EXTERIOR: Wooden sashes, mainly 8-pane, to deep weathered concrete sills. The long unbroken front has a pair of part-glazed panel doors on 2 concrete steps; window to left, and 2 to the right - in each case three bays in from the outer ends in a paired unit. Gable ends are plain. The rear has been slightly modified, but is fenestrated as to the front, again with paired lights. The short wing has a door to the E side, and 2 plain gable placements, and to its left 2 large square plain casements replace original sashes.

INTERIOR: Interiors were of severe simplicity, but original panelled doors have been replaced by flush ones. The canted tie-rods to the composite roof structure are still visible in part, below canted fibre-board ceilings.

HISTORY: Nettleton is the best retained, externally, of 5 original units in a close group on the site, to the east of the Officer's Mess (qv). As such it is an important survival from the earliest lay-out on the site, and characteristic of the basic accommodation supplied for other ranks, by comparison with the smaller units for officers (qv York Cottage). Detailing, of the simplest, is nevertheless careful, including, for instance, deep weathered and stooled sills, as developed traditionally to avoid staining on walls below windows.

Upavon comprises one of three sites around the Army training ground at Salisbury Plain which relate to the crucial formative phase in the development of military aviation in Europe, prior to the First World War. The selection of Upavon was a direct result of the Committee for Imperial Defence's decision to unify the army and naval arms of British military aviation within one organisation. Opened in June 1912 - one month after the formation of the Royal Flying Corps - Upavon was established as the Central Flying School (CFS) for the RFC, under Capt. Godfrey Paine RN; the temporary buildings of 1912 were replaced from 1913, as pupil numbers and the demand for improved accommodation rose. The CFS ran an advanced course for military purposes, as pilots had already completed the elementary stage before arriving here. Upavon, like the nearby sites of Larkhill and Netheravon, offered an ideal hill-top position for military flying, close to the army training areas on Salisbury Plain. The first pilot's certificate issued at the end of the first training course was to Captain (Brevet Major) Hugh Trenchard, who by January 1918 had risen to the post of Assistant Commander at Upavon and went on to become the RAF's first Chief of Air Staff.

Upavon remained the Central Flying School until 1924, when its location at the core of the Wessex group led to its replacement by Wittering in Lincolnshire. This function was re-established after a brief period as a Fleet Air Arm shore base in 1935, by which time a large building programme was underway. It became a Flying Training School from 1942 to 1945, and a transport base from 1946: 38 Group was responsible for organising the Berlin Airlift from here.

The varied buildings reflect the complex history of the base, the most significant part of which is the domestic camp located on the north side of the A343. The precise direction of its future development as the Central Flying School was not planned at the outset, its construction in permanent fabric waiting for two years after its opening. The buildings of 1914 were all designed by the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works, the most notable of these being the Officers' Mess (Building 21), the airmen's barracks and officers' quarters planned after those at Netheravon and Buildings 68, 70 and 110.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672234

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.

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