Unknown camp scene

[EastSurrey]

Can anyone comment? I found it in a postcard fair at Margate today. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the back to indicate date, location or unit. The men appear to be wearing white arm bands.

Michael

[eh657]

Could be umpires on field exercise, say on Salisbury Plain?

[Moonraker]

I can't recall seeing a photo relating to Salisbury Plain of a hut like that - but then there were several thousands huts there during the Great War,

Moonraker

[Stoppage Drill]

Moonie, I don't recognise the precise style, but could it be one of the Black and Whites at Netheravon ?

[Moonraker]

The thought had crossed my mind, but the pattern of the timber bonding panels is different:

I've checked through my photos of Netheravon and Chisledon and can't find any where the design exactly matches that shown in the opening post.

Rod Priddle's Wings over Wiltshire tells us that at Netheravon the huts - erected in 1913 - were lined with asbestos (!) sheeting and clad in corrugated iron coated with Silesian spelter. "Unusually for military buildings, the external design consisted of white panels bordered by vertical and horizontal timber bonding strips. These were painted black, giving a Tudor appearance."

Chisledon was one of the very first sites on which hutments were built in the war, and it may be that the design was compromised by problems in sourcing Silesian spelter (which presumably came from Silesia). And it would have been time-consuming to fix the external panels and bonding strips (and paint the latter). So perhaps the design was dropped in favour of something more rudimentary.

I think that some of the Netheravon huts still stand, presumably with the asbestos removed (though some aver that it's only a health hazard when "disturbed").

[FROGSMILE]

The thought had crossed my mind, but the pattern of the timber bonding panels is different:

huts x 2.jpg

I've checked through my photos of Netheravon and Chisledon and can't find any where the design exactly matches that shown in the opening post.

Rod Priddle's Wings over Wiltshire tells us that at Netheravon the huts - erected in 1913 - were lined with asbestos (!) sheeting and clad in corrugated iron coated with Silesian spelter. "Unusually for military buildings, the external design consisted of white panels bordered by vertical and horizontal timber bonding strips. These were painted black, giving a Tudor appearance."

Chisledon was one of the very first sites on which hutments were built in the war, and it may be that the design was compromised by problems in sourcing Silesian spelter (which presumably came from Silesia). And it would have been time-consuming to fix the external panels and bonding strips (and paint the latter). So perhaps the design was dropped in favour of something more rudimentary.

I think that some of the Netheravon huts still stand, presumably with the asbestos removed (though some aver that it's only a health hazard when "disturbed").

The huts in lower Airfield Camp still stand and comprise the officers' mess (which is listed) and adjacent accommodation blocks. I lived there happily for a few years and, as you say, the inner walls are safe unless you disturb them.

Conversely some later huts from the 40s and 50s were also lined with asbestos and when they had to be dismantled in the 1990s it was a major and expensive undertaking for the reasons you have suggested.

[FROGSMILE]

I think they might be signallers armbands on a group of so many ORs. Umpires is less likely as they were mostly officers and SNCOs. Where was the main camp for signals service Royal Engineers?