Watch Office, former RAF Great Orton

Watch Office (control tower), former RAF Great Orton

This is a watch office built in 1943 by the Air Ministry Works Directorate, constructed to Air Ministry drawing number 3156/41. It is built from fair-faced brick with galvanized-steel Crittal windows and a reinforced concrete roof surfaced in asphalt.

The building has a two-storey rectangular plan aligned roughly south-west to north-east, with a square-plan single-storey switch room attached to the north-east elevation and an entrance porch attached to the north-west elevation.

The main south-west elevation has a single bay, two-storey front with wide observation windows to both ground and first floors. The windows have concrete sills and reinforced concrete beams forming the lintels. Each window is divided by two brick pillars into three sections; the outer pair of windows have two-panel casements and the central window has three-panel casements.

The south-east elevation features similar windows with two on the ground floor alongside a high-set steel-framed door opening that gave external access to the former pyrotechnic cupboard, and a narrow closet window. The first floor has two casements. The north-east (rear) elevation has three windows lighting the internal staircase, with the upper window permitting a view from the control room over the airfield to the north-east. The attached square-plan switch room is accessed by an external doorway and has a flat concrete roof with ventilation panels set under the eaves.

The north-west elevation has a single three-panel casement at its right end, lighting the signals and watch office. A projecting narrow single-storey flat-roofed porch with concrete steps is flanked to the left by a narrow window lighting the base of the stairs. The first floor has a narrow single-panel window lighting the staircase and two three-panel casements lighting the control room.

The reinforced concrete roof has a protective layer of asphalt and features corroded stanchion bases for tubular handrails around its edges. An open rectangular hatch at the eastern corner has raised sides and a pair of low carrier walls that once supported a sliding hatch.

Interior: The ground floor comprises an entrance porch leading to the square-plan signals and watch office, which has a concrete floor and ceiling supported by a transverse reinforced concrete beam. The remains of the pyrotechnic cupboard, comprising a concrete shelf supported by brick carrier walls, are situated in the east corner. A door in the rear wall leads to a closet beneath the stairs. From the entrance corridor, a door gives access to the staircase rising to the first-floor landing, positioned between the rear wall of the signals and watch office and the outer wall.

On the first floor, a doorway to the right of the landing leads into the control room, flanked by a wide internal window beneath a concrete beam in the rear wall. This internal window allowed a view to the north-east through the external windows. The control room has a concrete floor and ceiling with a transverse reinforced concrete beam identical to that on the ground floor. A hatch in the ceiling above the landing permits access to the roof. Both the control room and the watch office bear witness marks in the floors and cable openings and conduit brackets on the walls.