640 RAF Yatesbury 2013 New Cover

RAF Yatesbury Yatesbury Wiltshire A Heritage Statement June 2013 Mercian Heritage Series No.640 RICHARD K MORRISS & ASSOCIATES - HISTORIC BUILDINGS CONSULTANTS BROMLOW HOUSE BROMLOW SHROPSHIRE SY5 0EA RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire RAF Yatesbury Yatesbury Wiltshire Centred on NGR: SU 052 712 A Heritage Statement Text Richard K Morriss MA(Hons) MSocSc Assistant R Little R Lucy S Patterdale July 2013 Mercian Heritage Series No.640 1 Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SY5 0EA [email protected] RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire Ex-RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire Centred on NGR: SU 052 712 Fig.1: Location plan, based on slightly reduced version of the Ordnance Survey 1:250,000 map. (Crown Copyright, OS licence: 100048008) 2 Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SY5 0EA [email protected] RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire RAF Yatesbury Yatesbury Wiltshire Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Planning Guidance 6 3. The Setting & Outline History 8 3.1 The Setting 8 3.2 Pre-Airfield History 8 3.3 The RFC Airfield 9 3.4 The BAC Flying School 12 3.5 The RAF period to date 14 4. Building Identification 15 5. The RFC Hangers 16 5.1 Development 17 5.2 Design 18 5.3 The Yatesbury Hangers 19 6. The Flying School Buildings 29 6.1 Teaching Block (Building No.5) 29 6.2 Combined Offices Mess/Flight Offices (Building No.4) 45 6.3 The Mess Extension (Building No.4a) 66 6.4 The Accommodation Block (Building 37) 68 6.5 The NCOÄs and AirmensÄ Hostel (Building 38) 77 7. The Smaller Buildings 84 7.1 The Squash Court (Building 39) 84 7.2 The Sick Bay (Building 40) 86 7.3 The Female Rest Room (Building 41) 88 7.4 The Lecture Room (Building 7) 90 7.5 Motor Transport Shed (Building 28) 92 7.6 The Power House (Building 27) 92 7.7 The Four-bay Garage (Building 23) 95 7.8 The Single-bay Garage (Building 20) 97 7.9 The Seven-bay Motor Transport Workshop 99 7.10 The Fire Engine Garage 101 7.11 The Oil & Petrol Stores (Buildings 11 and 12) 102 7.12 Other Buildings 103 8. Conclusions & Heritage Impact Statement 104 9. References 106 3 Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SY5 0EA [email protected] RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire RAF Yatesbury Yatesbury Wiltshire Centred on NGR: SU 052 712 Summary The extensive former RAF base at Yatesbury began as a Royal Flying Corps airfield in the First World War, was abandoned before being refurbished as a ÄcivilianÅ flying school in 1935-6 and then taken over by the RAF before the outbreak of the Second World War. It remained in RAF hands until 1965, used mainly for training rather for flying. Since then the remaining buildings have been disused and inevitably have become derelict and ruinous. An ambitious redevelopment scheme to restore and refurbish the more important buildings and adapt them to new uses has been revived. The surviving RFC hangers from the First World War are listed Grade II* because of their rarity value, but two of the three have collapsed. Another 1930's building is Grade II listed and the other buildings on the site are considered to be listed by curtilage; the site was recently designated a Conservation Area and is within an AONB. The RFC hangers had clearly been refurbished in the mid-1930Ås and possibly again shortly after the Second World War and were in a fairly poor state before some restoration was begun in 2008. The nature of their prefabricated construction meant that they had to be virtually dismantled to be repaired; only one could be finished. The 1930Ås buildings were all of a vaguely modernist design, but despite being intact and little altered, are in conditions varying from derelict to ruinous - though some consolidation has been undertaken. This report concludes that the proposed redevelopment of the site will have a positive impact on the heritage value and significance of the surviving buildings and on the character of the Conservation Area and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in which they stand. 1. Introduction This Consultancy was originally sub-contracted by Cotswold Archaeology to undertake the building analysis associated with the redevelopment of RAF Yatesbury in 2007. Three RFC hangers on the site were upgraded to Grade II* listing in 1989, and at the same time, most of the airfield was designated a Conservation Area. Another building was listed Grade II. These designations are the reasons why the planning authority placed the assessment of the buildings in the planning conditions. Originally, following the guidance of the conservation team of the local planning authority, the work was targeted at several specific buildings on the site, rather than being a comprehensive extensive survey. Just two of the listed RFC hangers were initially included (Buildings 2 and 3), but then the OfficersÄ Mess & Offices (Building 4) Å Grade II listed - and the unlisted Teaching Block (Building 5) were added, followed later by two other unlisted buildings - the Accommodation Block (Building 37) and the NCO and AirmensÄ Hostel (Building 38). 4 Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SY5 0EA [email protected] RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire After the draft report on those buildings was completed, the third RFC hanger (Building 47) was added to the list and included as an appendix. The report was issued in December 2008.1 Following the banking crisis, work on the redevelopment of the site had to be stalled and then postponed, but is now beginning again. This Consultancy was approached by the owners to upgrade the original report in light of recent changes in planning policies. The opportunity was also taken to include all the extant buildings within the study area. In 2010 the then government replaced the existing Planning Policy Guidelines Nos.15 and 16 (PPG15 and PPG16) with a combined Planning Policy Statement No.5 (PPS5). This reiterated the fact that it is the responsibility of owners to understand the value of each Çheritage assetÄ and to produce sufficient relevant information to inform the planning making process. Two years later, PPS5 was in turn replaced by a few paragraphs in the governmentÄs National Planning Policy Framework. This report has been commissioned to provide a better understanding of the buildings in order to inform any proposals being developed for it, under the guidance of the National Planning Policy Framework. As well as the archaeological and architectural assessment of the buildings, it concludes with a heritage impact assessment of the present redevelopment proposals for the site. The general level of the analysis of the building and structures is that of Level 2/3 of the English Heritage guidelines. A Level 2 survey is a Çdescriptive record...Both the exterior and interior will be viewed, described and photographed. The record will present conclusions regarding the buildingÅs development and use but will not discuss in detail the evidence on which these conclusion are based...Ä.2 A Level 3 record introduces a greater degree of analysis and discussion. 1.1 Report Format The report format is quite simple. After this brief introduction there is an outline of the latest planning guidelines (Section 2). That is followed history of the site (Section 3). The individual surviving buildings in the study area are identified in Section 4, after which they are described and discussed in turn Å the RFC hangers in Section 5, the main Flying School buildings in Section 6, and the smaller buildings in Section 7. Section 8 is a conclusion and heritage impact statement, and Section 9 a list of the references used for this report. 1 Morriss, R K, 2008, RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire: An Architectural and Archaeological Assessment of Key Buildings (Mercian Heritage Series No.417). 2 English Heritage, 2006, Understanding Historic Buildings: A Guide to Good Recording Practice, 5.2 5 Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SY5 0EA [email protected] RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire 2. Planning Guidelines Government guidelines regarding listed buildings and conservation areas recently changed twice in two years. In March 2010 the long-lasting Planning Policy Guidelines Nos.15 and 16 (PPG15 and PPG16) Å relating respectively to archaeology and buildings Å were amalgamated into a new set of guidelines - Planning Policy Statement No.5 (PPS5).3 This introduced a new term in planning legislation Å the Çheritage assetÄ. This was identified in the guidance as: ÇA building, monument, site, place, area or landscape positively identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions. Heritage assets are the valued components of the historic environmentÄ.4 Parts of PPS5, much condensed, were incorporated and regurgitated into a new prÇcis of planning guidance published in March 2012 Å the National Planning Policy Framework [NPPF] Å which effectively replaced all other separate Planning Policy Guidelines and Planning Policy Statements and relevant local planning policies.5 Because of the condensed, generalised and centralised nature of the new document there has been considerable confusion as to the guidance within it, but in essence, excepting the over-arching concept of presumption in favour of Çsustainable developmentÄ, the heritage aspects have changed little. Much of the existing advice outlined in the earlier guidelines is still deemed to be of relevance and this is summarised best in a guidance note to planning inspectors issued by the Planning Inspectorate, which states that ÇThe Framework [i.e. NPPF] largely carries forward existing planning policies and protections in a significantly more streamlined and accessible formÄ.6 The main relevant paragraph in the NPPF (largely based on policies HE6-HE8 of PPS5) states that local planning authorities should require applicants: Ç...to describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting.

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