Duxford: Field Force motor transport storage shed

Field Force motor transport storage shed (Building 104), built in 1939 to designs by J H Binge of the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings (drawing no. 3681/38).

MATERIALS: brick walls, steel-framed windows, steel trusses, and pantile roof covering.

PLAN: rectangular in plan, laid out on a north-east – south-west axis.

EXTERIOR: the storage shed is a single-storey double-height structure, with an M-profile hipped roof and a pantile roof covering. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a brick parapet partially concealing the roof, and a projecting cast-concrete eaves course acting as a top rail for the sliding doors on the long (south-east and north-west) elevations. Steel gutters are concealed behind the parapet, and exposed hoppers and downpipes appear on the end (north-east and south-west) elevations. There are four bays of clerestory windows on the end elevations, containing 6-pane steel-framed windows. The long elevations have 11 continuous leaves of steel-framed and clad sliding doors along the full length of the building. The end elevations each have a single-leaf steel door. The building measures approximately 18m in width and 48m in length.

INTERIOR: The interior of the shed measures approximately 4.5m in height, with 12 bays approximately 4m in length. The roof is constructed of steel fan trusses, steel purlins carrying timber boarding, and rolled steel joists, supported by central continuous beams on reinforced-concrete piers. The end walls are clad in cavity brick. A breeze-block partition wall was introduced between bay 6 and 7 (of 12) in the late C20, splitting the length of the building in half. The north-east end was further subdivided with a timber partition frame and wire gauze mesh.