Monument record 8630/1/4 - Dispersed Site 9 (WAAF Communal), Silverstone Airfield

A Second World War dispersed site for Silverstone Airfield. The camp is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of Historic England’s North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project.

{1} Aerial photograph March 1946: RAF AP ref:- 3G/TUD/UK86 6044 26.3.46. (ident by P Markham). DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY: Shows airfield related buildings within and adjacent E part of Hazelborough Wood. Main areas of buildings at SP65654240; SP66104235; SP65804220 and SP 66304255. The plan on p272 of Gibson (1982) indicates these are part of Sites 3, 5, 9 and ?8.

{3-10} 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 in fields between The Straights woodland and Litchlake Farm and centred at SP 66269 42586, Site 9 (W.A.A.F. Communal) 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 9 provided accommodation and mess services for Silverstone airfield’s members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and comprised a sentry box that guarded an access road leading to nine barrack buildings, an officers mess and accommodation, sergeants mess and accommodation, ablution blocks, a sick quarters building, airmens’ institute buildings, a gas decontamination building/bath house, an M&E plinth (a mechanical and electrical junction/transformer box), a large rectilinear emergency water supply tank and an open-topped brick-built, earth-bermed blast shelter. Aerial photographs taken in 1963 show that some of the buildings have been demolished by that time. By 1973 the only buildings that remain upstanding are part of the sergeants’ mess and the sick quarters, though the concrete base platforms for many of the other camp buildings remain visible. The blast shelter, emergency water supply tank and the road system remain intact also, though some of the pathways appear to have been demolished. By 1991, these remaining buildings have also been demolished and a new building constructed on the site of the former sick quarters. Only the M&E plinth appears to remain intact. Aerial photographs taken in 2019 suggests Site 9 (W.A.A.F. Communal) camp has remain unchanged since that time

<1> 1946, Aerial Photographs, (unchecked) (Photographs). SNN51679.

<2> Gibson M.L., 1982, Aviation In Northamptonshire: An Illustrated History, p.272 (unchecked) (Book). SNN100276.

<3> RAF, 1945, RAF Silverstone Record Site Plan All Sites 1/2500 scale No. 1757/45, June 1945 (Plan). SNN116527.

<4> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-HLA-544 RV 6104 20-MAY-1942 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<5> Vertical Aerial Photograph, US-7PH-GP-LOC201 PORT 13053 06-MAR-1944 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<6> Royal Air Force, 1940s, RAF Vertical Aerial Photographs, RAF-3G-TUD-UK-86 RV 6044 26-MAR-1946 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<7> Vertical Aerial Photograph, MAL-63617 V 117991 12-OCT-1963 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<8> Vertical Aerial Photograph, OS-73336 V 694 24-JUN-1973 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<9> Vertical Aerial Photograph, OS-91166 V 12 16-AUG-1991 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<10> Vertical Aerial Photograph, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 14-SEP-2019 SP6642 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

Record last edited

Nov 26 2024 12:50PM