Building record 7051/1/6 - The Bungalow (Former Military YMCA clubhouse)

Former WW2 clubhouse, part of Chipping Warden Airfield facilities. Now private residence.

{1} Letter from Mr D Smith saying that he was based at the airfield as a ATC (cadet) in c.1943. The cadets used the YMCA (building 237) on communal site number 3. This building at NGR5053/4912 still survives being used as a residence called 'The Bungalow'.

{2} A level 3 Historic Building Recording survey was carried on The Bungalow on the 13th and 14th October 2022. The Bungalow was built during the 1940s as a YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) building, to provide entertainment and refreshments to the personnel stationed at RAF Chipping Warden. In keeping with many RAF sites of the time, Chipping Warden comprised a number of dispersed sites, with buildings in clusters some distance from the principal airfield. The YMCA was part of a cluster of communal facilities, which also included several shops, a large dining room, a barber and a post office. Aerial photography from 1944 illustrates that the YMCA was on the outskirts of the communal site, although its location within a ‘spinney’ would have provided it with some protection from enemy attack. The Bungalow comprised two buildings, linked by two separate roofed walkways. The Bungalow retained a number of original features, predominantly in the part of the building used as a workshop in recent times. A stage with its two antechambers had been retained within the communal section of the structure, and this part of the building also retained its original metal casement crittall windows, albeit the majority of the glazing panes had been lost. The residential section of the building had been altered and modernised significantly. However, underneath the modern stud walling, the original hollow terracotta ‘half-bricks’ of which the building was built remained, allowing for reconstruction of the original layout of the building to be undertaken. The roof comprised asbestos sheets and during demolition it became apparent that the roof trusses were asbestos and not iron, as originally assumed. [Taken from OASIS]

<1> Smith, D., 1998, Letter re. Chipping Warden airfield, (checked) (Letter). SNN39578.

<2> Emma Ings and Rowena Henderson, 2023, Level 3 Historic Building Recording and Structural Watching Brief, The Bungalow, Calves Close Spinney, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN116763.

Record last edited

Mar 11 2025 12:10PM