WW2 technical site

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Group of six WW2 structures, once the core of the technical site of the Greencastle Aerodrome: Structures A) Mechanical Transport (MT) office and lorry bays. B) Unknown plant structure, C) Sheds, D) Speech broadcasting building, E) shed, F) shed.

A) Mechanical Transport (MT) office and lorry bays at grid: J2880 1244. (demolished as at 22-01-02)

Group of offices and lorry bays situated to north of Greencastle Road (opposite no. 115). Group is aligned NW-SE with NE facing façade, to left are the offices and to right are the lorry bays. Offices are contained within a low single storey / five bay structure to south of group.

Pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof with semicircular ridge. Three cement rendered, coped chimneys, each with two pots. First is on left gable, second between bays two and three and third between bay four and five. Semicircular asbestos cement rainwater goods resting on the buttresses. Walls are temporary red brick (100mm thick) rendered, with buttresses at either end and between each bay. Each bay is c.3m wide.

Front elevation (NE) left to right: Bay one has a single window opening containing a pair of eight paned metal casements. Bay two has a painted, sheeted timber door to left with an eight paned casement to right. Bay three has a pair of eight paned casements. Bay four has a single eight paned casement, and bay five has a sheeted door and an eight paned casement to its right.

Right gable abuts the lorry bays. Left gable has two buttresses and no openings.

Rear elevation from L-R is as follows: Bays one and two each have a pair of eight paned casements. Bay three has a two paned casement and a three paned casement. Bay four has a three paned casement, a sheeted door and a two paned casement. Bay five has a pair of eight paned casements.

Lorry bays abut the right gable of office block. They are higher than the office block and there are six identical bays:

Pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof with semicircular asbestos ridge and circular asbestos cement stops. Walls are cement rendered permanent red brick (200mm thick). Each bay is separated by a buttress, which supports the lintel over each doorway. Each lintel is formed by a pair of iron bars upon which the bricks are built. Between each buttress, at eaves level, is a plain timber eaves board. Each front opening has the remains of a timber doorframe but no doors remain. Abutting each front buttress, a modern concrete block wall has been built, forming the base of each wall is a concrete block with a chamfered front and a hole in each cheek, which seem original.

The right gable is blank and has two buttresses. Left gable abuts offices and remaining wall over is blank. Rear wall of each lorry bay is identical with a pair of 2/2 metal casement windows between each buttress.

B) Plant structure at grid J 2866 1233

In field to north of Greencastle Road. Single storey single bay structure, rectangular in plan, aligned NW-SE. Flat overhanging cast insitu concrete roof. Permanent (200mm thick) red brick walls laid in alternate header and stretcher courses (English garden wall bond) on a concrete plinth. NW elevation has a sheet metal door protected by a brick blast wall to front and right.

NE elevation is blank but for four wall vents and a circular pipe c. 10cm diameter rising from ground and turning (45 degree angle joint) into the wall at c. 75cm high.

SE elevation is blank but for two vents.

SW elevation is blank, has two vents and four pipes (as that to façade), each is S shaped in section. Advancing from wall, rising parallel to it and turning away from it.

C) Sheds at grid J 2840 1227

Group on south side of Greencastle Road, consisting of two sheds aligned parallel to one another NW-SE linked by two smaller link blocks aligned SW-NE. Main blocks both have pitched corrugated asbestos cement roofs with semicircular ridges and circular stops. The right block has a red brick chimney rising from its right pitch. Links have similar lower roofs, which tie into the main roofs.

Temporary (100mm thick) red brick walls are rendered, with buttresses every c. 3m on side elevations. NW facing elevation consists of a gable to left and right linked by a lower block. Right gable advances forward by one bay. Both have a pair of sheet metal doors to centre . Doors are flanked by an infilled window opening. Link between the two is three bays wide with sheeted door to centre and blocked up windows to left and right bays.

Left block is flush with link block on façade. It is eight bays deep, with a blocked up window opening to each bay. Rear gable has a timber sliding loading door at centre. To the rear this block is advanced one bay ahead of the link block, the exposed bay of the SE elevation having a blocked up window opening. Link block to rear has a small lean-to porch to central bay with a blocked up window to left and right bays.

The right block advances two bays forward of the central link block, these exposed cheeks have blocked up window openings. It is ten bays deep, with a blocked up window opening to each and its rear gable has a large modern loading bay. It advances two bays beyond the rear link block, both windows to these exposed bays are blocked up. A small central yard between the two link blocks was not inspected.

D) Speech broadcast building. Small single storey / one bay structure in corner of field at J2902 1210. Flat, slightly overhanging concrete roof. Permanent (200mm thick), red brickwork laid in English Garden bond, on a concrete plinth. Entrance on NE elevation consists of a doorway with concrete lintel, which is protected by a 1½ brick deep blast wall to front and right. Each remaining wall has four small vents.

E) Single storey / six bay structure aligned W-E at grid J 2878 1205. Pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof with semicircular ridges and no rainwater goods. Cement rendered temporary (100mm thick) red brick walls have a buttresses between each bay and at either end. West gable has two buttresses and a blocked up door to left. North elevation has a blocked up window opening (each probably contained a pair of steel casements) on each bay. East gable has two buttresses and is blank. On south elevation, first, second and sixth bays have window openings as east elevation, third and fifth elevations have single narrow windows (probably contained single steel casements). Fourth bay contains a pair of modern corrugated metal doors in an original opening.

F) Single storey / ten bay structure aligned N-S at grid J 28791215. Pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof with semicircular ridge, circular asbestos cement stops and a raised asbestos cement vent to southern end of each pitch. No rainwater goods. Cement rendered red brick temporary (100mm thick) brickwork, with buttresses between each bay. North gable has two buttresses and a pair of internally hung sliding timber doors. East elevation is ten bays long but is much altered. Fourth and ninth bays seem to have contained doorways and the rest window openings. South gable has two buttresses and is blank. West elevation has window openings to bays two, four, six, and ten (all infilled). Bays seven and nine have doors and the remaining bays (one, three and five) are blank.

Historical information

The 1946 Air Ministry map of Greencastle Aerodrome shows this group of buildings to be a ‘technical area’, with runways to its west and south. Mechanical transport (MT) shed and offices were standard features on technical sites of hastily erected temporary airfields built during WW2. The sheds are all common structures, constructed for a variety of uses and the speech broadcasting building housed amplifier equipment which transmitted station broadcasts in the ‘Tannoy’ system. These buildings and the watch tower (HB 16/04/052) are all that remains of over 100 structures which were built on the technical site.

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. However, they remained in Air Ministry ownership until their sale in the early 1960s.

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

Secondary Sources:
1. G.B. Innes, ‘British Airfield Buildings of the Second World War’ (Leicester 1995) , p. 52.
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’, in 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
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 their construction (WW2), their short practical lifespan, and their austere ‘temporary’ construction. The building of most interest is the mechanical transport office which retains most of its original fabric and some interesting painted doors.