Gibraltar Farm Barn

1779/0/10001 20-NOV-03

TEMPSFORD Gibraltar Farm Barn

II

Also Known As: GIBRALTAR FARM BARN Barn, later adapted to store flight equipment for Special Operations Executive agents,and now a memorial. Early-C19 with mid-C20 modifications.. Concrete plinth, weather-boarded and brick-lined walls under a pitched old tile roof. 5- bay barn with central threshing entrance, that to west blocked and with Crittall windows that are also in the gable ends. INTERIOR: Concrete racks with brick partitions around perimeter formerly stored the flight equipment. To west wall, a memorial: 'Tempsford Airfield Gibraltar Farm I Erected to commemorate the brave deeds of the men and women of every nationality who flew from this wartime airfield to the forces of the resistance in France, Norway, Holland, and other countries during the years 1942 to 1945 I The equipment for their dangerous missions was issued to them from this barn'. Roof structure comprises 4 trusses of tie beams with slightly curved braces to walls and raking struts clasped to single rows of purlins with collars. Rafters joined by ridge piece. SOURCES: Roger A. Freeman, 'Bases of Bomber Command Then and Now' (After the Battle, 2001). Michael J. Bowyer, 'The Airfields' (Patrick Stephens Ltd. Cambridge, 1983).

Listed for its historic interest and as a memorial to the Special Operations Executive agents who were kitted out from this barn before flying from the adjacent runway to missions in occupied Europe

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 16 January 2017.