Monument record 7109/3 - WAAF Communal and Quarters Site No 1, Husband's Bosworth Airfield

The remains of the communal and living quarters for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force personnel working at Husbands Bosworth airfield. Constructed to the south-east of the airfield, the camp contained a number of accommodation huts, decontamination block/showers, air raid shelter, fuel compound and other buildings. After the war the buildings were placed under the control of the National Assistance Board and were used as a camp for displaced Polish families for ten years.

{1} A Level 2 building recording survey was undertaken in 2020 of surviving buildings within the former WAAF site 1, prior to redevelopment. The site was one of a number of personnel accommodation sites constructed at dispersed locations around Husbands Bosworth Airfield to minimise the risk from enemy attack and aircraft crashes. Personnel arrived the airfield in August 1943, although construction wasn't completed until October of that year. Buildings at the camp included a number of accommodation huts, a decontamination block/showers, air raid shelter, fuel compound and other buildings. Sick quarters were apparently planned in the southern half of the site but according to the airfield map were abandoned before construction began, although a road does lead to the proposed sick quarters site.

The airfield was decommissioned in 1946 and the buildings were placed under the control of the National Assistance Board who were responsible for housing the many thousands of displaced people following the end of the war. By 1950 the camp was home to more than 500 people who were served by its own church, school, theatre and recreation room.

At the time of the survey, a British Concrete Federation modular hut, a Stanton air raid shelter and two blast shelters survived on the site along with a brick retaining wall belonging to a fuel compound and a transformer plinth. A number of former building bases and roadways are also still present.

<1> Hyam, A, 2020, A level 2 historic building survey of the retained World War II airfield infrastructure buildings on land south of Welford Road, Sibbertoft (Sulby parish), Northamptonshire (Report). SNN112273.

Record last edited

Feb 20 2025 4:11PM