Okehampton Camp: Building 69 (formerly Warrant Officers' and Staff Sergeants' Quarters)

Former Warrant Officers’ and Staff Sergeants’ Quarters, built in 1894 to the designs of James Julian, War Office contractor.

MATERIALS: constructed of snecked slatestone blocks with brick quoins and brick window and door openings. The interior of the walls is lined in fair faced brick. The window cills are granite. The timber roof structure is covered in Cornish slate tiles.

PLAN: aligned north-west to south-east the quarters building is rectangular on plan. It is laid out as eight bedrooms of near equal size. The four central rooms have a shared porch and internal lobby. The two rooms to each end have an external porch with entrances side-by-side.

EXTERIOR: the single-storey building is of five bays, with a central projecting bay to all four elevations. The north and south porches have gabled roofs, and those to the east and west are lean-to. The windows have rubbed brick flat arches, and there are a number of iron and terracotta air vents in the façade. To the side elevations the chamfered ends of the purlins are exposed. The north, west and east elevations are concrete rendered and painted. The window frames, doors, fascias and rainwater goods are modern replacements. Both brick chimney stacks have been removed.

INTERIOR: the building was not inspected internally, but is thought to retain its original layout. There are replacement fire doors and uPVC window cills. The roof consists of timber rafters with collars supported longitudinally by a central dividing wall.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a concrete path lines the outside of the building, with granite curbs and gullies that curve at the building’s corners. An adjacent shower block and boiler room (Building 68) of c.1940 is attached to the east end via a water pipe, and is not of special interest.