WW II Watch office (control tower )

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

WW2 watch office (control tower) located near the original runways at J 2892 1192, on the west side of the Slatemill Road.

Flat, slightly overhanging concrete roof, which advances as a canopy over an opening on the left (west) elevation). Permanent (200mm thick) cement rendered red brickwork in English garden bond. All openings are either blocked, partially blocked or contain new windows.

Front elevation has a cantilevered concrete observation platform projecting at first floor level and wrapping around the front third of the left and right elevations. This has the remains of a thin tubular metal balustrade. On each floor are three equally spaced linear window openings.

Left (west) elevation has a central door (partially boarded up), with two window openings to its left and a linear one to extreme right. At first floor there is a doorway at right with integral window to its right, leading onto the observation platform. To extreme left is a window opening, to the right of which is another, just below the cantilevered canopy.

Rear elevation has a central door with transom (boarded over). To its left are two rectangular windows and to its right is a tall window of a similar width, which rises to first floor. To extreme left at ground floor is a small square window. At first floor, over the door, is a small rectangular window, and to its left are two sets of paired windows.

East (right) elevation has five rectangular windows to ground floor. To extreme left at first floor is a doorway and integral window (both infilled) leading to the observation platform and one to first floor (right of centre).

Historical information

This structure is the most common type of watch office (control tower) constructed on temporary airfields built during WW2. Its Air Ministry drawing number is 12779/41. The 1946 Air ministry map of Greencastle Aerodrome shows this structure with the three runways to its NW, SW and East.

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: ‘Greencastle Record Site Plan’, (1946).

Secondary Sources:
1. G.B. Innes, ‘British Airfield Buildings of the Second World War’ (Leicester 1995), p.10.
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.