Building 80 (Workshops And Parachute Store)

Building 80, a carpenters’ workshop and dope shop, was constructed in 1917 by the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works. The building is rectangular in plan, consisting of two parallel gabled ranges. It has painted brickwork walls and piers, and low-pitched corrugated iron roofs, which were originally slate. The south elevation features twelve 16-pane steel casements, with two doorways positioned off-centre, one of which has been partially blocked. The north elevation is similar, and the twin-gabled end elevations each have four 12-pane steel casements, except for one later 20th-century window in the north-east gable, along with plank double doors. Internally, the building has timber trusses supported by iron tension rods. Duxford represents the finest and best-preserved example of a fighter base from the period up to 1945 in Britain, and includes a uniquely complete group of First World War technical buildings. The Training Depot Station at Duxford is the most complete WWI airfield grouping in Britain; it was initiated in 1917 and involved the largest airfield construction programme of the First World War, used for training pilots for service overseas. The workshops are among several specialist buildings characteristic of these sites, including engine repair shops, technical stores, and plane stores.