Main Gates, Piers And Railings

STANTON ST QUINTIN

1384/0/10028 HULLAVINGTON BARRACKS 01-DEC-05 Main gates, piers and railings

GV II Main gates with piers and attached railings. 1935-6. A Bulloch, architectural adviser to the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Drawing No 4935/35. Bath stone piers, cast iron gates and railings.

Square piers approx 3m high and 5m apart have a plain plinth but deep moulded cornice to a concave pyramidal capping with spherical lantern. Two wide gates, with a small pedestrian gate immediately beyond each pier, followed by straight runs of railing in 7 bays, stepped to a plain square pier with flat capping. Railings and gates have plain square uprights to spear-head tops, with top and bottom rails and low mid-rail.

HISTORY: A distinguished ensemble in the classical tradition, part of the original design concept for the base; the gates are centred to the principal axis of the station layout, with guardroom to the left, and station HQ straight ahead.

Hullavington, which opened on June 6th 1937 as a Flying Training Station, is in every respect the key station most strongly representative of the improved architectural quality characteristic of the air bases developed under the post-1934 expansion of the RAF. Its position in the west of England with other training and maintenance bases also prompted its selection in 1938 as one of series of Aircraft Storage Units for the storage of vital reserves destined for the operational front-line. For further details on the site, see Buildings 59, 60 and 61 (The Officers' Mess).