Prewar wooden huts in UK

[Moonraker]

This is about wooden huts built before the war but no doubt they were in use during it.

Given that most barracks were of stone or brick, were there many wooden huts at UK army camps before the war? And were they of standard design? (Even if there weren't too many wooden huts in the UK, there must have been standard designs for those erected overseas.)

From my narrow, Salisbury Plain, perspective I can only think of huts at Netheravon, built in1907 as annexes to the manor house that been taken over as a cavalry school, and in 1913 Choulston Barracks were built as living-quarters for the new airfield. There was also the "navvy village" at Brimstone Bottom, between Ludgershall and Tidworth, built early in the 20th century to house men building Tidworth Barracks, some of which appear to have been retained for military use.

When war broke out Major R H O Armstong at the War Office quickly produced plans for a variety of wooden buildings for new camps. Presumably some at least of the designs were evolutions of those for existing buildings.

Moonraker

[centurion]

This may be relevant

http://suite101.com/...inquiry-a242332

The Amiens Hut was a prefabricated wooden frame canvas covered hut used at base camps from 1915 onwards, Armstrong produced a folding wood and canvas hut that bore his name.

[NigelS]

Given that most barracks were of stone or brick, were there many wooden huts at UK army camps before the war? And were they of standard design? (Even if there weren't too many wooden huts in the UK, there must have been standard designs for those erected overseas.)

When Aldershot Camp was established in the 1850s it started with temporary huts, and it seems that some of these may have survived beyond the GW; the original contract called for 1,260 built of Memel & Niger fir at a cost of £150 each with 800 for the accomodation of twenty-four men in each with the rest being used for 'officers' quarters, administrative offices, stores, mess rooms, kitchens, hospitals and other installations'. The more permanent stone & brick buildings followed but replacement of the huts (guaranteed by the contractor in 1855 for thirteen years, but expected to last twenty) didn't begin unti 1881 and continued piecemeal. Field-Marshall Sir Evelyn Wood took over command of the Aldershot Division in 1895 when he strongly recommended 'the immediate reconstruction of South Camp and the replacement of the remaining huts in North Camp by brick buildings' . The source for this information (Howard N. Cole's The Story of Aldershot) doesn't actually mention when the last of the huts disappeared, but this pdf Army camps: history and development, 1858-2000 (which gives a lot of useful information) suggest that many may have survived until 1929, although not in their original locations

Prefabricated huts were used at Crimea (also the Brunel designed Renkioi Hospital), and I have read (unfortunately, I can't remember where) that huts returned from there were used at at Colchester. If the information given Here is correct, although undoubtedly altered substantially, there is a survivor of a Crimean 'hut'

I suspect that like today's 'Portakabin' & container type buildings, in the 19th century, when military huts & other 'temporary' buildings were no longer suitable for their original use or in the wrong place, they would be moved and adapted for some new purpose (both civilian and military); this certainly seems to be the case with those of both WW1 & WW2, some of which are still in use, although rapidly becoming less in number, today.

NigelS

[Moonraker]

Nigel, that's an excellent article you linked to and told me a bit about Salisbury Plain camps after "my" period of 1897-1920. Can you please provide bibliographical details - author, where published, when. (I did try to find out for myself, but got nowhere.)

Moonraker

[NigelS]

This link should (I hope) do the trick Click . The mainsite http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/ has a wealth of information on the archaeology of all ages.

NigelS

[Moonraker]

Nigel

Thanks for that. Clicking on the downloads link takes one to regional lists of army camps that may interest others, but there are some very funny entries under "Salisbury Plain", including some for Bicester in Oxfordshire and at least one for Berkshire.

Moonraker

[tony paley]

Moonraker,

during the late 1950s I was stationed at RAF.Netheravon, then the Depot of the RAF Police, for training. The Officers and Sgt's mess had the RFC badge above the doors and the classrooms, wooden huts, we were told were the original WW1 accomodation. there were still many other buildings and hangers that I believe were built just prior to WW1

tony P

[Old Tom]

There is to be a commemoration at Netheravon on 12th August. I spoke to an MOD Policeman there the other day while reminding myself of the location. He mentioned that the Officers Mess building was now Grade II listed. An Army Air Corps unit was stationed there back in the 80's.

On a similar topic an article in The Times, 9/8/14, talked of pioneer aircraft hangars and described the 'Belfast Truss' roof spans comprised of a lattice of short pieces of timber nailed and bolted together and said that some hangars with these had survived and were also listed Grade II. I seem to recall that the hangars at what was RAF Andover had these trusses. The army took over the buildings there in the early 70's and I think those hangars have been demolished. Most of the airfield is an industrial estate. I believe Andover was one of the earliest RFC stations.

Old Tom

[Guest]

I heard that the wooden cases, that were sent to the front full of tins of corned beef, were designed to be taken apart and reassembled as shelters.  Anybody got any information on this?

[Moonraker]

I don't know about being "designed", but no doubt anything made of wood was recycled and used to reinforce shelters, trenches and whatever, quite apart from being useful as firewood.

 

(Off topic, but recently on an environmental task we've been working on/in a trench that partly relies for support on wood from broken-up pallets. The trench was built 20 years ago, the wood is rotting and needs to be replaced.)

 

 

Moonraker

Edited 20 September , 2016 by Moonraker
errant p (in "relies", in case you were wondering)

[kld50]

On 20 September 2016 at 09:44, old fogey said:

I heard that the wooden cases, that were sent to the front full of tins of corned beef, were designed to be taken apart and reassembled as shelters.  Anybody got any information on this?

This is indeed true... The Tarrant company produced a hut in France built of wooden packing cases. I will attach a picture of the Tarrant Dechets Hut that I found in the IWM archive. During the war, any materials that could be recycled and improvised as building materials were used. While this hut wasn't originally designed to be built of packing cases, it does show some creative ingenuity to the austerity of the time. 

[Ron Clifton]

Am I right in believing that a number of huts built for the Army in France, especially at Etaples, were built by Sir Robert McAlpine's company?

 

Ron

[kld50]

47 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said:

Am I right in believing that a number of huts built for the Army in France, especially at Etaples, were built by Sir Robert McAlpine's company?

 

Ron

 

 

Yes, that's correct... The McAlpine's were involved in building many hutted camps across France and in England too. However, W.G. Tarrant also had a factory near Calais that was run predominately by women workers. I believe the difference is that Tarrant supplied huts to his own design, of which there were three types, whereas McAlpine (I believe) built to whatever design the War Office supplied... 

[Ron Clifton]

Thank you - I thought I had read it somewhere but I could not recall the source.

 

Welcome to the Forum, by the way!

 

Ron

[Simon R]

Armstrong's plans for a standard wooden hut are frequently referred to, both online and in print.

I have yet to see them, or find a decent reference to them. Do they in fact exist?

 

The figures/illustrations for EH's 'Army Camps' report referred to above, are not included in the ADS online version.

This makes the report difficult to assess.

 

re: prewar wooden huts - the Yorkshire example is Colsterdale, later camp for Leeds Pals; multiple postcard views.

 

 

[Moonraker]

For a plan of Armstrong Hut no 4, see

 

this recent thread

 

Moonraker

 

[Howard]

I do not know when it was built but this wooden buildng was in use during the 2nd World War and is still in use at North Weald airfield. This image taken in 2006.

 

Howard

 

[Simon R]

The version illustrated in Work of the RE is the No4 flat-pack version and not the type commonly known from the 14-18 camps in the UK.

Many of the UK camps were not made from portable, sectional hutting. Many were built up by contractors on site, the common complaint being that 'not being made in sections they are a heavy item'.

 

As far as I am aware, no-one has been able to produce Armstrong's original plans.

It seems that Karey is hitting exactly the same problem.

I would consider them weeded.

Edited 16 June , 2017 by Simon R
spelling

[kld50]

On 17/06/2017 at 06:56, Simon R said:

The version illustrated in Work of the RE is the No4 flat-pack version and not the type commonly known from the 14-18 camps in the UK.

Many of the UK camps were not made from portable, sectional hutting. Many were built up by contractors on site, the common complaint being that 'not being made in sections they are a heavy item'.

 

As far as I am aware, no-one has been able to produce Armstrong's original plans.

It seems that Karey is hitting exactly the same problem.

I would consider them weeded.

 

Good news: I've had some success with Armstrong's original type plans. They were sent out to contractors all over the country from August 1914 so a good place to look is in local builders files that may still survive in local record offices. Hope this helps those of you interested... Here is the original standing camp plan and the original type hut: 

 

 

[Simon R]

I like those.

So these are Dept. Fortifications and Works drawings - 9/7/14?

What archive did you find these in? Can you please provide a reference.

I have thought that building control records were the key for a long time, but the particular ones for my area appear to have been destroyed.

If you found this in a County archive, did you find a site plan of the camp it was intended for?

 

 

[kld50]

They were in the Suffolk County Archive under R.G. Hogg's files... He was a local builder. I got these images from a colleague at Great War Huts, an organisation near Bury St. Edmunds who is organising a First World War experience centre, which includes restoring several huts. However, I need to pop over and have a look at them myself, so can let you know what other evidence I find...

 

[Simon R]

Builder's archives are very hit and miss, pleased you found what you were looking for.

If you dig out a full reference for the above drawings, that would be great.

Reorganisation of local authorities in 1974 meant the wholsesale shifting of archives to a variety of record centres distant from their original source.

There is no doubt that some did not survive the transfer.

[Moonraker]

On 01/10/2012 at 11:02, Moonraker said:

... There was also the "navvy village" at Brimstone Bottom, between Ludgershall and Tidworth, built early in the 20th century to house men building Tidworth Barracks, some of which appear to have been retained for military use.

Moonraker

A very rare postcard of one of the huts in the "navvy village". The inked note on the back identifies the residents as Mr and Mrs Annetts and a pencilled annotation says "demolished about 1970". The mature rose bush behind Mr Annetts suggests that this photograph was taken some years after the village was built, whilst Mrs Annetts' dress suggests pre-WWI.

Cryptic references in the Andover Advertiser suggest that the huts were built of corrugated iron and that  between the completion of Tidworth Barracks and the outbreak of WWI some  were demolished, to the regret of some locals: "There was no accommodation for the people who worked at Tidworth… Look at the waste at Tidworth [Barracks] where stores were rotting for want of cover. Could not Tin Town have been used for storage purposes?"

The site, and presumably some of the huts, was used as an isolation hospital during WWI. There are several references to the site (not all by me!) elsewhere in the GWF.

(The card attracted some last-minute -  literally - sniping on eBay, when one person put in a modest bid with 52 seconds to go, then two of us put in higher bids with four seconds left.)