Down Barn Destructor

[Glengarry]

There is a curious and very large, hexagonal structure located in the SE quarter of Larkhill Camp, Salisbury Plain. I do know that it is called the Down Barn Destructor and it would appear to be a disused military structure. (It's clearly visible in Google Earth)

I have absolutely no idea as to its history or purpose. Although it appears to be a fortification, my guess is that it might have had some more prosaic utilitarian use.

Can anyone shed any light?

[SiegeGunner]

Does it perchance date from the 1930s era of monumental concrete structures for sound location of aircraft, when serious consideration was also given to various kinds of "death ray"?

[Glengarry]

I think you are referring to 'sound mirrors'. No, it is not that sort of structure. I think that it probably has some relationship to the numerous hutted camps such as Fargo Camp and Durrington Camp that appeared during WW1.

I'm wondering if it might have been some kind of sewage treatment plant that serviced these camps.

[Moonraker]

This caught my eye on maps almost 50 years ago. A destructor burns refuse in large quantities and presumably this one was sited some way from the main camp because of fumes.

Moonraker

[Glengarry]

That would make sense. The scale of the thing is pretty massive. Compare it in Google Earth with the size of the married quarters buildings situated immediately to the west.

The core of the structure is now populated with what appears to be an established clump of mature growth deciduous trees.

There is a tail of trees that lead off to the north east of the main hexagon. It is quite difficult to ascertain whether or not this 'tail' indicates an aspect of the structure.

[Moonraker]

Glengarry is probably right in surmising that it catered for the 1914-18 camps in and close to Lark Hill, which accommodated 35,000 men. Down Barn is marked on a early 1920s 1:25000 map of the locality, though "Destructor" isn't specified. N D G James, in Gunners at Larkhill,has a plan showing the boundaries of the Great War camps (though I think it was specially drawn in the 1980s for his book, based on older maps) and the six-sided circular road (if you get what I mean) by the destructor, but again it's not specified. But in a different outline plan of the same Great War camps in his Plain Soldiering Down Barn Instructor is marked.

I think that it would have disposed of "hard" rubbish; I recall seeing ads in local papers inviting bids from contractors to remove human waste from earth latrines or closets. In 1918 there was increasing concern about military activities damaging Stonehenge and the immediate locality; the authorities were sympathetic and promised to fence off the Cursus (an earthwork associated with Stonehenge), but admitted that sewage would still be carried across it in a syphon for distribution on land beyond; I assume this was human sewage.

Moonraker

[SiegeGunner]

In 1918 there was increasing concern about military activities damaging Stonehenge and the immediate locality;

If you google Down Barn Destructor now, the two refs that come up both relate to the ongoing plans to remodel the area around Stonehenge.

[Glengarry]

For anyone interested, the following link will take you to a local government planning application pdf file. The Down Barn Destructor is clearly marked as such in the centre of the plan, just north of the blue planning area boundary line. Zooming in makes things a lot clearer.

http://documents.salisbury.gov.uk/public-p...Information.pdf

[Moonraker]

...ongoing plans to remodel the area around Stonehenge...

As I understand, the plans are no longer ongoing but at a complete halt. Millions of pounds were spent on feasibility studies to deal with the intrusive main roads going past Stonehenge, then before Christmas it was announced that it would be too expensive to provide a bored tunnel. A large number of organisations felt that the tunnel was too short, and that a cheaper cut-and-cover tunnel would have destroyed a lot of archaeology in the area.

Mind you, just after the Great War a great deal of fuss was made about permanently closing a track that ran through the ditch and bank surrounding Stonehenge. In 1916 arrangements had been made to enable troops to "reach their training ground" without interfering with the site (through the creation of an alternative track to the west of the existing one) and, it would appear, the right-of-way had been fenced off by the authorities (an illegal, if desirable, act). On June 24, 1918 it was reported that the barbed wire blocking the right-of-way through Stonehenge had been broken through and that the track was in use again. The Road Board said that the traffic using the right-of-way was civilian, not military, and the track had been used because the "Stonehenge road was closed for traffic following a thaw". With the return of peace, the original right-of-way was legally closed, but only after a great deal of legal activity and Treasury quibbling over expenses charged by local professional people, such as surveyors. (See National Archives files: TS 59/39 and 59/40)

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

I've just come across this reference in an article by Brigadier C Childs in Gunner, number 138, May 1982, describing Larkhill in early 1919: "South of the Packway a large incinerator displayed its presence by a slowly drifting plume of black smoke".

The Packway is the main road running through Larkhill Camp, and the Destructor is south of it.

(The article is quoted in James' Gunners at Larkhill, which I've just been consulting about something else.)

Moonraker

[Simon R]

Martin Brown should be able to help with i) Destructor and ii) Stonehenge plans.

[Moonraker]

I visited Larkhill Camp yesterday and walked to the site of the destructor. In fact there is no structure there anymore, and no evidence of it apart from the odd bit of rubble and a couple of approach roads that have been narrowed by undergrowth (overgrowth?). The spot now consists entirely of trees.

Though Larkhill was a major WWI training camp, there's nothing to see of that period. The original camp comprised wooden huts erected very quickly, and most of these were cleared away after the war. Ironically the pre-WWI aeroplane sheds in Wood Road survive and are in very good condition. The trackbed of the Larkhill Military Railway (laid from 1914-15 and lifted progressively in the 1920s) can be made out between Amesbury and the camp.

Moonraker