Monument record 8630/1/11 - WWII dispersed site 6 (Living Site 2), Silverstone Airfield

A Second World War Royal Air Force camp identified during woodland survey. The camp is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of Historic England’s North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project.

{2} Concrete footings and tracks for Silverstone aerodrome service buildings. Some of these sites are probably bomb stores.

{4-12} A Second World War Royal Air Force accommodation camp is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of Historic England’s North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project. Located within The Straights woodland and centred at SP 65748 42545, Site 6 (Living Site 2) was one of 10 satellite RAF camps for military personnel serving at adjacent RAF Silverstone, an operational wartime military airfield. Aerial photographs taken in spring 1942 show the airfield under construction at that time and the camp had yet to be created. By 1943 the airfield was operational. Site 6 was one of four camps within the woodlands that provided accommodation and mess services for Silverstone airfield’s male members of the Royal Air Force and comprised a sentry box that guarded an access road leading to airmens’ barrack buildings, officers’ quarters, sergeants’ quarters (mess), ablution and latrine blocks and a fuel store compound. An associated M&E plinth (a mechanical and electrical junction/transformer box) is sited about 120 metres north of the camp. By 1973, the woodland has been cleared and aerial photographs show that all the buildings have been demolished by that time, though the fuel compound remains visible. Aerial photographs taken in 2019 suggests that the Site 6 (Living Site 2) camp has remain unchanged since that time. Recent remote sensing indicates that many rectangular concrete platforms laid for the camp buildings remain intact within the woodland.

<1> Hall D.N., 2001, Northamptonshire Woodland Survey Archive, (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN109590.

<2> Hall D.N., 2000, Forest Enterprise Woodlands In Northamptonshire: Whittlewood Forest And Other Woods, Archaeological Survey, Part 3, p.10 (unchecked) (Report). SNN100485.

<3> Hall D.N., 2000, The Historic Landscape of Whittlewood Forest: Historic Landscape Mapping, (unchecked) (Report). SNN102634.

<4> RAF, 1945, RAF Silverstone Record Site Plan All Sites 1/2500 scale No. 1757/45, June 1945 (Plan). SNN116527.

<5> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-HLA-544 RV 6103 20-MAY-1942 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<6> Vertical Aerial Photograph, US-7PH-GP-LOC201 PORT 13053 06-MAR-1944 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<7> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-3G-TUD-UK-86 RV 6044 26-MAR-1946 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<8> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-106G-UK-1380 RP 3323 09-APR-1946 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<9> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-CPE-UK-1994 FS 2035 13-APR-1947 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<10> Vertical Aerial Photograph, OS-73336 V 541 24-JUN-1973 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<11> Vertical Aerial Photograph, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 14-SEP-2019 SP6542 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<12> Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DTM - 1m, LIDAR SP64SE Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme DTM 1 Metre dated 2019 SP6542 (Digital Plots). SNN111710.

Record last edited

Nov 26 2024 10:57AM