SNN116763 - Level 3 Historic Building Recording and Structural Watching Brief, The Bungalow, Calves Close Spinney, Northamptonshire

This report details a Level 3 Historic Building Recording (HBR) survey and a Structural Watching Brief (SWB) undertaken prior to and during soft stripping and demolition of The Bungalow at Calves Close Spinney, Chipping Warden, Northamptonshire. The Bungalow was located at NGR 450529, 249121 and was a non-designated heritage asset. As a rare survival of this building type on a 1940s RAF airfield, it was considered to be significant enough to be the subject of a Level 3 built heritage record and structural watching brief. This report contributes to the HERDS objective KC45, 20th century conflict sites. The Bungalow has previously been the subject of Level 2 Historic Building Recording (document no. 1EW03-FUS_WAR-EV-REP-CS07_CL13-000001). The HBR and SWB were undertaken in accordance with the Project Plan (Doc No: 1MC12-EKF-EVREP-CS10-000108) 1 and the Location Specific Written Scheme of Investigation (Doc No. 1MC12-EKF-EV-APP-CS10-000113) 2. In accordance with Historic England’s description of a Level 3 survey, the report consists of an analytical record and includes the results of a programme of laser scanning throughout the building. The recording was undertaken between 10th October and 11th November 2022. Access was available to all parts of the building. 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. This report provides the only known record of the original layout of the building, as no plans are held by the RAF Museum archive.