Building 48 (Works Services Building)

DUXFORD

1767/0/10042 SOUTH CAMP, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM (FORME 01-DEC-05 R RAF DUXFORD) Building 48 (Works Services Building)

GV II - see Bicester

Works maintenance yard and buildings. 1935, by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing No 1134/27. Yellow brick in Flemish bond with slate roof and brick stacks. PLAN: rectangular plan single-storey structure containing separate offices for the clerk of works and station engineer, a fitter's shop and a large store. An attached yard bounded by brick walls for the storage of building materials. EXTERIOR: concrete lintels over all openings. South elevation has small 6-pane stell casement to right of half-glazed door with overlight; further to left, a similar set of double doors is flanked by multi-paned transomed steel casements. The roof to either side is hipped for the returns to the rear wings, and on the left is a lean-to with similar door and flanking small casements. Similar fenestration to rear, the right retrun having double doors to workshop with skylights. INTERIOR: retains original doors and joinery.

HISTORY: Duxford is the finest and best-preserved example of a fighter base representative of the period up to 1945 in Britain, with a uniquely complete group of First World War technical buildings in addition to technical and domestic buildings typical of both inter-war Expansion Periods of the RAF. It also has important associations with the Battle of Britain and the American fighter support for the Eighth Air Force. Externally unaltered, this building served in a key support function to the base, and has been included because of its integral relationship to this uniquely well-preserved and historically important site. See descriptions of the aircraft hangars for further historical details.