Rougham Tower (Former Control Tower To Raf Rougham)

Rougham Tower (Former Control Tower to RAF Rougham)

Control tower built in 1942 to designs of the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings, designated as an Office for All Commands design to Drawing No. 12779/41. The building is constructed of rendered brick with an asphalt roof.

The ground floor contains a watch office to the front, with a duty pilot's rest room, meteorological office, switch room and lavatories positioned to the rear. The first floor holds a control room to the front, with a controller's rest room and signals office to the rear, opening onto a passage with access to the stairs.

The exterior is notable for its large multi-paned steel casements to the front and flank walls of the watch office and control room, which provided clear views of the flying field. These windows were reduced in size later during the war, according to design 343/43. Access to the building is by steel stairs on the return elevation, leading to a concrete balcony fitted with tubular steel railings and supported by iron columns. Smaller steel casements serve the rear portions of the side and rear elevations, with doors to the left-hand and rear elevations.

Inside, the building retains concrete stairs, painted brick walls with rendered dados, and original joinery including panelled doors throughout. Remarkably, wartime signs survive on the doors and walls.

This control tower is one of 162 examples built to the Air Ministry's Watch Office for All Commands design, of which only 82 now survive. It is among a very small number preserved to this degree, with comparable examples at Alconbury (with operations room attached), Duxford, Dunkeswell, East Kirkby, Little Walden or Matching Green, and Ludham.

Rougham airfield was occupied by the United States Army Air Force's 94th Bomb Group during the war. The Group undertook notable missions including attacks on the ball bearing works at Eberhausen and Schweinfurt, and the Marienburg raid of 9 October 1943, which was hailed as the most accurate of that year. The Group's leader, Colonel Frederick Castle, died in action on Christmas Eve 1944. The control tower itself was targeted by ME 410s on the night of 3 March 1945. During the war, the 94th Group lost 153 aircraft and 1,800 airmen killed, missing, injured or captured.

Control towers first emerged as a recognisable design in 1934, becoming the most distinctive building associated with military airfields. Their development followed increasing attention from the mid-1930s onwards to the dispersal and shelter of aircraft from attack, the ensuring of serviceable landing and take-off areas, and the control of movement. From 1938, the first airfields were planned with runways and perimeter tracks. During the Second World War, control towers served as focal points for base personnel as they awaited the return of aircraft from operations. This tower represents one of a very small number on Second World War airfields that is either exceptionally well-preserved or has a distinguished operational history. Their iconic value as operational nerve centres and memorials to the enormous losses sustained by American and Commonwealth forces during the Strategic Bomber Offensive has long been recognised. A deserted control tower featured as the focus of the opening scenes of Richard Asquith's 1945 film The Way to the Stars, which explored the thoughts of a veteran returning to a deserted airbase.