Building 68 (Watch Office)
BUILDING 68 (WATCH OFFICE)
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1392051
- Date first listed:
- 01-Dec-2005
- List Entry Name:
- Building 68 (Watch Office)
- Statutory Address:
- BUILDING 68 (WATCH OFFICE)
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1392051
- Date first listed:
- 01-Dec-2005
- List Entry Name:
- Building 68 (Watch Office)
- Statutory Address 1:
- BUILDING 68 (WATCH OFFICE)
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- BUILDING 68 (WATCH OFFICE)
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- North Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Catterick
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 24325 97118
Details
CATTERICK
1871/0/10001 MARNE BARRACKS (FORMER RAF CATTERICK) 01-DEC-05 Building 68 (Watch Office)
GV II Watch office. 1927, by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Buildings and Works (drawing no. 2072/26). Stretcher bond brick with gabled slate roof. Single storey. Gabled S front has bay window with steel casements to duty pilot's office. E elevation has soldier arch over central half-glazed door, providing access to duty pilot's room to S and rest room to N. Interior: plain.
HISTORY: This building comprises a very rare surviving example of a pre-1934 watch office, an early form of control tower to which pilots reported, and is given added significance by its historical associations (see advice for Officers' Mess) and by virtue of the fact that it groups with the later 'tower' design (Building 54) to its east. The development of radio communication, and the increasing need to organise the flying field into different zones for take-off, landing and taxiing, brought with it an acceptance that movement on the airfield needed to be controlled from a single centre: control towers thus evolved from the simple duty pilot's watch office to the tower design of 1934 and integration of traffic control and weather monitoring in the Art Deco horizontality of the Watch Office with Meteorological Section of 1939.
For further notes on Catterick, see description for Building 31 (Officers' Mess and Quarters)
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 500307
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 01-Jul-2026 at 03:09:52.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.