First World War royal engineers workshop, Stow Maries Aerodrome, Cold Norton (EHER 81732)

A brick-built eight-bay building on the west side of the north-south road across the airfield. It has three outshots to the west, enclosing a small yard. There is a double-doored vehicular entrance in the fourth bay from the south on the east elevation. Internally, the building is partitioned to create a small room in the NE corner and a slighter larger room in the SW corner, possibly an office. The room in the NE corner is accessible only from within the building, and may therefore have been the armoury, though it is small. When surveyed in 1997, the RCHME interpreted the building as most probably a series of technical stores, but when it was listed in 2012, it was reinterpreted as the royal engineers workshop.

1997. RCHME field survey. What may have been the technical stores building stands on the west side of the road crossing the airfield from north to south. It is eight bays long and consists of a main range (24.52 x 6.81 metres), gabled north-south, with two three-bay outshots (each 9.39 x 3.84 metres) against the west wall to either side of a partially enclosed yard. Adequate headroom in the outshots is maintained by the use of asymmetrically pitched roof trusses, with a shallower slope west of the ridge. Along the east and west walls the main range and outshots have internal piers supporting the roof trusses, and there are similar piers in the four corners and in the centre of each gable. There is a double-doored vehicular entrance in the fourth bay from the south on the east elevation, and a pedestrian entrance at the east end of the south gable. Internally a small room is partitioned off in the NE corner and a somewhat larger room in the SW corner; both rooms are unheated and each was originally lit from the gable. The remaining space is lit principally from the east elevation, which originally had windows in all bays except the northernmost. In addition there was a further window in the north gable, a large west window in between the two outshots and a skylight on the west roof slope. Both the north windows and the southernmost east window are now blocked, and the west window has been reduced in size and moved slightly northwards. Doors, both internal and external, are ledged and braced, with tongued-and-grooved boarding, the internal doors on butt hinges, the external doors pintle-hung on long straps. All the doorways have the standard form of chamfered architrave. The roof is carried by king-post trusses with lattice braces, the tiebeam/king-post joints being additionally strengthened with boards. There are seven sets of cleated purlins, the upper set close together to act as the ridge, and diagonal boarding. Each outshot has a double-doored entrance to north and south, light being provided by skylights alone. The outshots do not communicate with the main range. The roofs are carried by principal rafters and seven rows of purlins laid with diagonal boarding. A short length of wall projects southwards from the north outshot, terminating at a gate pier. The principal uses of the building are likely to have been as a series of stores. The small NE room would appear to have been a secure area, accessible only from within the building. This might suggest that the building was the armoury, which has not otherwise been located, but the size of the building seems disproportionate to such a function. The larger SW room, with a doorway off a passage leading from the south entrance, is more likely to have served as an office, placed so as to control pedestrian movements in and out of the building. Later alterations have included the rebuilding of a substantial section of the east wall in fletton brickwork, which contrasts with the more even-textured orange-red brickwork of the original building. The rebuilding extends from the vehicular entrance northwards to the blind bay, and from one course below window-sill level upwards to the eaves. At the same time the window frames were renewed in timber. Other alterations have included the provision of timber props supporting the outshot roof timbers. <1> Notes from A. Doyle amended to the end of <1> describe this building as the armoury. April 2012. Grade II* listed. Plan: An eight-bay range with two three-bay outshots to the west enclosing a small yard. Exterior: The main elevation has a central full height, double timber door hung on metal pintles, flanked by six, timber casement windows. The outshots are covered with a slated, catslide roof; double doors lead into the outshots on the north and south elevation and there is a pedestrian entrance on the south elevation of the main range. To the rear, the yard formerly had a double-gated entrance, which was accessed by a east-west access road. The main rear entrance is blocked with fletton brick, with a later window inserted, but the stone steps to the door and lintel remain. The outshots have diagonal boarding. Interior: The RCHME survey recorded two rooms in the main range, the NE room secured and likely to have been the armoury, the southern room probably serving as an office. The roof is carried by king-post trusses with lattice braces, purlins and diagonal boarding. <2> The building is depicted on the 3rd edition OS map. <3>