Building No 19 (Sergeants' Mess)

Building No 19 (Sergeants' Mess)

Regimental Headquarters building, formerly Sergeants' Mess, dated 1913. The architect was D M Franklin, with the drawing counter-signed by Colonel A M Stuart, Assistant Director of Fortifications and Works.

The building is constructed with softwood framing, asbestos-cement panel facings and linings, and joints covered with painted softwood battens. It is set to a concrete levelling-slab with plinth offset. The roofs are covered with asbestos-cement diagonal slating.

The building is a single-storey block originally designed to accommodate 46 sergeants. It has a long south front facing the airfield and parade ground, with two inset symmetrically-placed gables. A door offset to the right opens into a lobby, with the mess-room to the left and recreation-room to the right. The cookhouse is located in a long wing to the rear left, with a smaller wing to the right across a narrow courtyard; a later flat-roofed extension was added to the east. At the time of survey in June 1998, the building had been subdivided and was in use as offices.

Externally, the building follows the same design philosophy as the Officers' Mess group. Sash windows have an overlight to the transom, set within a grid of vertical and horizontal battens framing the openings, with sole-plate, sill and head-bands. The sashes generally have 6-pane fixed overlights. The two slightly projecting canted gables have 8:12:8-pane sashes with overlights, flanking the central section which has 2 deep sashes and, to the right, a pair of part-glazed panelled doors beneath a multi-pane overlight. The left-hand gable-end has a plank door and a vent at the ridge. Beyond this is a set-back wing with hipped outer end, containing plank doors to a plant-room and paired or single sashes. A lower wing is also hipped, with 3 sashes. A later pebble-dashed extension was added.

Internally, the building is much divided for current uses but retains many original panelled doors. No fireplaces were observed.

The Sergeants' Mess, together with related store and service buildings, was located between the officers' quarters to the west and the airmen's barracks to the east. It is one of a significant early group built to a standardised pattern and construction. The mess originally included reading and writing rooms and a billiard room, and accommodated 46 NCOs at a time when this rank had just been given its own separate facilities distinct from the regimental institute.

Netheravon, together with Upavon and Larkhill, comprises one of three sites around the Army training ground at Salisbury Plain relating to the crucial formative phase in the development of military aviation in Europe prior to the First World War. It was the first new squadron station selected and developed by the RFC's Military Wing, the second being Montrose in Scotland where original hangars have survived. It was also the second new site built by the Royal Flying Corps, the first being the Central Flying School at Upavon, which was established in June 1912. A first move to Netheravon was made prior to Christmas 1912, and in June 1913 the men and machines of the Royal Flying Corps' 3 and 4 Squadrons were relocated from Farnborough to Netheravon; at that time the technical buildings were ready, but tented accommodation was still in use as the barracks had not been completed. As one of the stations developed by the Military Wing of the RFC, Netheravon also hosted a general mobilisation of the RFC's squadrons, from Montrose in Scotland to Farnborough, before they went to France with the Expeditionary Force in August 1914. From autumn 1914 the base was increasingly used for training, playing an important role in preparing some of the first squadrons for aerial combat. From June 1918 it was used as a Training Depot Station, and special hangars were provided for the Handley-Page 0/400 bombers, which formed the cornerstone of Trenchard's Inter-Allied bomber force. No 1 Flying School remained here, with some interruptions, until 1942, after which it was largely used by RAF Transport Command for airborne exercises and the preparation of gliders for the invasion of Europe in 1944. The Army Air Corps has been based here from 1966, including TA units from 1995.