Building record 8630/1/8 - WWII dispersed Site 2 (Instructional), Silverstone Airfield

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

{1}A series of derelict buildings including a double bombing teacher. Also at least one standard Handcraft Hut.

{2} Photo of double turret trainer and text reference to there being 'a rare triple bombing teacher' plus Procedure Centre being used by an agricultural firm whose address is painted on the side of their vehicles as 'Airmanship Hall, Silverstone'.

{3} "Turret and Bombing Trainers, Messes etc. Limited access."

{4-15} A Second World War Royal Air Force camp is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of Historic England’s North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project. Located at Henhood Farm and centred at SP 66554 42202, Site 2 (Instructional) was one of 10 satellite 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. Instructional Site 2 comprised a large instructional building, gunnery and crew procedure centre, 2 link trainers, a turret instructional building, a bombing teacher building, a wireless telegraphy operational instruction centre, an astro instruction hut, 2 celestial navigation trainer plant rooms, latrines, 2 brick and earth-bermed blast shelters, an emergency water supply tank, 3 circular water tanks and a mechanical & electrical (M&E) plinth, which acted as an electrical transformer/junction box. A long single building that contained both a shadowgraph trainer and post office building sat about 200 metres to the east of the main camp buildings, adjacent Dadford Road and with a separate access road to it. The instructional site had a system of connected paths and access roads. Aerial photographs taken in 1963 suggest that most of the camp’s buildings remain intact, though the astro instruction hut, turret instructional building and 2 other support buildings having been demolished. By 1973 the W/T operational instruction centre has been demolished to be replaced by an electricity substation. By 1991 the main instructional buildings have been demolished to make way for large new buildings attached onto the back of the old gunnery procedure centre. The remaining buildings remained upstanding in 1995, though the roof of the turret instructional building is in a partly ruinous state. By 2004, the site has been entirely cleared of the old farm buildings and almost all the remaining wartime buildings and structures have been demolished and a large tarmac car park constructed on the site. On aerial photographs taken in 2019, the only building that remains extant is the shadowgraph trainer and post office building. However, ground photographs taken in April 2022 suggest that this building has now been demolished.

{15} Another WW2 building at the circuit has been demolished, the old post office is now gone.

<1> CADMAN G.E., 1997, Oral Report to SMR, (unchecked) (Oral Report). SNN51453.

<2> Smith D.J., 1989, British Military Airfields 1939-45, (unchecked) (Book). SNN39512.

<3> OSBORNE M., 1998, Information Supplied to DoB, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN48122.

<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 6104 20-MAY-1942 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<6> Vertical Aerial Photograph, RAF-HLA-544 RV 6104 20-MAY-1942 (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-CPE-UK-1926 V 5230 16-JAN-1947 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN105266.

<9> Vertical Aerial Photograph, MAL-63617 V 117992 12-OCT-1963 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

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

<11> Vertical Aerial Photograph, OS-91166 V 12 16-AUG-1991 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<12> Vertical Aerial Photograph, OS-95265 V 127 19-OCT-1995 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<13> Vertical Aerial Photograph, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM dated 19-JUN-2004 Accessed 09-SEP-2022 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

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

<15> Northamptonshire HER, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments, Harris, D. 2022, 17 OTU RAF Silverstone and RAF Turweston, Facebook (Oral Report). SNN115011.

Record last edited

Nov 26 2024 12:48PM