Buildings 63 and 66 (Stores)

Details

DUXFORD

1767/0/10031 SOUTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME 01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD) Buildings 63 and 66 (Stores)

GV II Former main stores (63) and clothing stores (66), now general stores or offices. 1917. By the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works. Drawing Nos 285/17 and 284/17. Painted brickwork, slate roofing on steel trusses.

PLAN: Simple open gabled sheds, set end-to-end with continuous frontage. Building 63 has a higher roof at slightly steeper pitch than 66, and the two buildings may have been originally separate, as an intermediate section has a roof separate from 66. Entrances are by wide doors on the long sides to the S.

EXTERIOR: All windows are steel small-pane casements to thin slate sills and flush concrete lintels, set to very slight reveals. There is a pair of full-height plank doors centred to the main store. The gable end has one 2-light casement, and there is a further casement in an extension to the rear under a roof of lower pitch. There are three large patent-glazing ridge roof lights. The lower unit is similar, but with windows taken to the eaves level, with 2 windows on the return, and with 2 roof-lights.

INTERIOR: The metal roof trusses carried on internal brick piers.

HISTORY: Duxford is the finest and best-preserved example of a fighter base representative of the period up to 1945 in Britain, with a uniquely complete group of First World War technical buildings in addition to technical and domestic buildings typical of both inter-war Expansion Periods of the RAF. It also has important associations with the Battle of Britain and the American fighter support for the Eighth Air Force. See descriptions of the aircraft hangars for further historical details.

These buildings are historically important, since they relate to a uniquely well-preserved group and remain from the original layout and designs of 1917; they have survived with minimal external change, and are representative of the basic designs in use during the early years of military aviation. They are closely associated with the main hangar group immediately to their south. The Training Depot Station at Duxford is the most complete WWI airfield group, with hangars and ancillary buildings, in Britain. The training of pilots for service overseas formed a critical aspect of Britain's air service in the First World War period, and the Training Depot Stations - initiated in 1917, and of which 63 were built by November 1918 - comprised the largest airfield construction programme of the First World War period. Each TDS comprised three flying units, each having a coupled general service shed, and one repair section hangar (the only surviving examples of the latter is at Old Sarum, Wiltshire) for the provision of serviceable engines and aircraft. Other specialist buildings, such as carpenters' shops, dope and engine repair shops, and technical and plane stores, characterised these sites.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

496008

Legacy System:

LBS

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