Former Control Tower, Langford Lodge Airfield, 97 Largy Road, Crumlin, Co Antrim

Former Control Tower at Langford Lodge Airfield

This is a clearly proportioned building in a plain and utilitarian modern style, exhibiting the deliberate lack of ornamentation associated with the 20th century Modern Movement in architecture, and incorporating an uncommon glazing detail. It remains in a relatively unaltered state both inside and out, and enjoys a setting still recognisable as an airfield. The building is of historical importance due to its association with the Second World War and of local historical interest as part of the development of the Langford Lodge estate. Its value is further enhanced by the rarity of this particular building type.

The building is a one and two-storey flat-roofed rendered brick structure in Modern Movement style with asymmetrical elevations, laid out on a T-shaped plan. The main entrance faces south-west. The walls are finished in smooth cement render, slightly spalling or chipped in small areas to reveal the red brick carcass beneath. Small terracotta louvered air bricks are positioned at the top and bottom of the ground floor walls all round. Large windows serve the main rooms and narrow windows the minor rooms. The windows are metal-framed with small panes and horizontal glazing bars, comprising fixed lights with top-hung vents; some frame sections are badly rusted. With the exception of a large window in the north corner set in a conventional vertical plane, the windows are set in an angled plane, canted out at the top. Projecting concrete cills support all windows; projecting concrete heads top all windows of the single storey block and two narrow windows in the upper floor of the two-storey block, while other windows are set in plain unmoulded reveals.

Both storeys have flat concrete roofs, with the lower block's roof continuing as a cantilevered canopy projecting around three sides of the two-storey block at first floor level. The roofs and canopy are covered with a poured bituminous asphalt screed. Tubular steel railings on perforated vertical angle-section steel posts are mounted all round the perimeter of both roofs and canopy. Asbestos gutters run along the ground floor on the entrance front and along the first floor on the rear elevation, damaged on the entrance front and mostly missing on the rear elevation. Asbestos downpipes are partly missing on the south-east facing side. Cast iron soil pipe and waste pipes are located on the entrance front.

The main entrance is a rectangular flush timber door with a raised rectangular smooth cement rendered surround, approached by three concrete steps bounded by low plinth walls. The north-west facing side has a rectangular four-panel timber door to the ground floor leading to a former switch room, now an enclosed store, and the same elevation has a rectangular door at first floor level leading onto the roof of the ground floor. On the south-east facing side elevation is a steel runged cat ladder leading up to the roof of the upper storey. To the right of the ladder, in a recess, is a small later infill wall with an exposed timber fascia now badly rotted and revealing the red brickwork carcass behind.

The building was built in 1942 as a control tower for Langford Lodge airfield by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. The airfield was opened in 1941 as a Satellite Landing Ground established for the temporary storage of new aircraft in the care of the RAF's Maintenance Unit (no. 23) at Aldergrove. It was one of five Satellite Landing Grounds in Northern Ireland allocated to RAF Aldergrove and one of about 50 such airfields in the United Kingdom. Unusually, while other military airfield control towers were designed and built by the Air Ministry, this one was built by the Ministry of Aircraft Production and its design appears to be unique. During 1942–3 the site was developed into an Air Depot for the assembly, modification, repair and storage of aircraft for the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Force. Initially operated jointly by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the 8th Air Force, the base handled more than 10,000 aircraft between August 1942 and July 1945, comprising almost every type used by the USAAF during the Second World War. It was one of three such primary air depots in the UK, along with Burtonwood and Warton in Lancashire, providing complete logistical back-up facilities to the USAAF. The base was known variously as 'Scheme Y' Northern Ireland, HQ First Service Area, Langford Lodge Air Depot, 2029th Air Depot (Provisional), 403rd Air Depot, and 3rd Base Air Depot. The base closed in 1945 and was briefly used for the RAF's No. 5 Air Navigation School from 1952–3. It was acquired by the present owners in 1958.

The building stands isolated in a flat area of grassland and cornfields in a former airfield now used for agricultural and manufacturing purposes, with distant views to Gartree Church to the north-east and Lough Neagh to the west. Modern factory buildings, some wartime stores and a hangar stand well to the east. A concrete area lies immediately in front of the control tower, with a concrete path around its perimeter.