World War II Structures

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A) Single storey / two bay latrine block, aligned NE-SW.

Mono-pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof and no rainwater goods. Temporary red brick walls (100mm thick), buttressed at intervals.

NE gable has a doorway on its right side. SW gable is blank. NW elevation has a single paned small steel casement window at head height on each bay. SE elevation has two such windows on left bay and one (infilled) on right.

B) Single storey / single bay latrine block.

Monopitched corrugated asbestos cement roof and no rainwater goods. Temporary red brick walls (100mm thick), buttressed.

NW elevation has a doorway at left. NE elevation has a small window opening (no cill) which formerly contained a single paned steel casement. SE elevation has a vent and no openings. SW elevation has two infilled window openings.

Running SW-NE between the two buildings is a contemporary concrete road, and off it are a number of concrete plinths which are, presumably, floor platforms.

Historical information

The 1946 map of Greencastle Aerodrome shows these latrines within ‘Living site Five’. Their materials are typical of those hastily constructed to temporary WW2 airfields; and are similar to Air Ministry design number 9026/41. Living Site Five had approximately fifty buildings (not including air raid shelters), of which only these latrines remain. The vast majority of the others were Nissen huts which were sold after the war.

There were over 600 airfields in Britain at the end of WW2, and 29 in Northern Ireland. Construction work began at Greencastle in spring 1942, the main contractor being Carmichael of Edinburgh. Kilkeel RAF Station (as it was known) was commissioned on 30th July 1942, and handed over to the United States Army Airforce (USAAF) on 3rd August 1943, becoming Station 237, one of 12 such American airfields in N. Ireland. Its principal building groups were of utility construction, and dispersed around the local area to avoid concentrated enemy bombing; its radar station being furthest away, located at Maghereagh to NE of KilkeeThe station was a satellite to Langford Lodge (near Antrim), preparing aircraft for operational bases in East Anglia. Its second important role was as a training school for aircrews arriving from America; this Combat Crew Replacement Centre (CCRC) was instigated on 20th December 1943, and was disbanded in autumn 1944. The base was handed back to the RAF on 31st May 1945, and decommissioned soon afterwards. They remained in Air Ministry ownership until the early 1960s when they were sold back to the locals.

Primary Sources:
1. Air Ministry Map entitled; ‘Greencastle Record Site Plan; Dispersed Sites’, (1946).

Secondary Sources:
1. G.B. Innes, ‘British Airfield Buildings of the Second World War’ (Leicester 1995), p.63.
2. B. Lowery (ed), ‘20th Century Defences in Britain, an introductory guide’ (British Council for Archaeology 1996)
3. L. Murphy, ‘Action Station: The story of Greencastle Aerodrome’, 12 Miles of Mourne vol. 3 (Kilkeel 1989), pp. 33-50.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Austerity architecture of the second world war attempted to simplify construction down to the minimal amount of materials and marry it with the maximum utility. This building is not an architectural masterpiece. Its interest lies in the historical reasons for its construction (WW2), its short practical lifespan, and its austere ‘temporary’ construction.