WW II structures

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A) Single storey, nine and a half bay (structural) ablutions block, aligned SW-NE in field to west of 47 Kitty's Road. Constructed on a concrete plinth, each bay c. 10ft wide.

Pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof, semicircular ridges with circular asbestos stops. Moulded asbestos cement barge boards, upstanding asbestos cement vents, and no rainwater goods. Temporary red brick walls (100mm thick), cement rendered, with buttresses at intervals forming the bays, and supporting the roof structure.

NE gable is three bays with a large doorway set to centre and a blocked up (single casement) window opening to left and right bays.

Each side elevation has a single steel window to each bay, these are typically three paned casements with no cills (most altered or infilled). Doors are typically framed and sheeted painted timber. There is a single door on second bay from left on SE elevation.

SW gable is abutted to centre by a rendered brick water tower. To its left, on gable, is a door and to its right a window (both infilled). Tower rises above ridge of roof and has a flat, overhanging concrete roof. The tank can be seen through an opening on its NE face, and there is a doorway at ground floor left cheek.

B) Small single storey / two bay picket post, aligned SW-NE to NW of Block A. Constructed on a concrete plinth.

Pitched corrugated asbestos roof, semicircular ridges with circular asbestos cement stops. Moulded asbestos cement barge boards and no rainwater goods. Temporary red brick walls (100mm thick), smooth cement rendered are buttressed at either end and between bays.

A single door forms the main entrance on right (narrower) bay of NW elevation. On left bay is a pair of casement windows (infilled) without cill.

NE gable is three bays wide and has an infilled single casement to left and right bays.

SE elevation has a door to left (narrower) bay and two paired casement to right bay (both infilled).

SW gable has a door to left of centre (flanked by single paned shoulder height windows and a fixed window to right.

Historical information

The 1946 map of Greencastle Aerodrome shows these buildings to be a part of ‘Living site Four’. The ablutions block is almost identical to one illustrated in Lowery (Fig.64a, p118); and the picket post matches Air Ministry design number 14294/40. Living site four had approximately 70 structures (not including air raid shelters) of which only these two buildings 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 Kilkeel. The 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.78.
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. These buildings are not architectural masterpieces. Their interest lies in the historical reasons for their construction (WW2), their short practical lifespan, and their austere ‘temporary’ construction.