Former Squadron HQ (Building 234), Upper Heyford Airbase, Somerton, Oxfordshire

Description

SOMERTON

1715/0/10011 Former Squadron HQ (Building 234), Upp
07-APR-08 er Heyford Airbase

II
Hardened Squadron Headquarters building. Currently identified as Upper Heyford Building 234.

EXTERIOR: The building is of two distinct parts: a 1950s 'soft' section to the front, and a late 1970s 'hard' section to the rear. The 'soft' part of the building, which has an offset H-plan, comprises linked, single-storey brick buildings of the 1950s with low pitched roofs and clad with foam-backed pebbledash insulation added in the 1970s. Connected to the rear of the left-hand range is the rectangular, bunker-like, 'hard' section of the building, constructed of hardened concrete. This is of a single storey apart from a raised section to its rear which is a blast-proof inlet for fans.

INTERIOR: The soft part of the building is entered by doors into a lobby, off which the main corridor leads left to the 'hard' section. Plans indicate the rooms in the left-hand section of the building were being used in the mid 1980s for intelligence, weapons and radar analysis and briefings, and there was also a photolab with dark room. The internal fixtures and fittings of the 'soft' section are not reckoned to be of special historic significance.

A lobby with blast door gives access to the 'hard' structure to the rear. Inside is a decontamination suite with showers, plant rooms, a foyer area with blue Perspex operations display board and fixed wooden desk/consol, and map rooms with sliding wooden display boards. The largest room is the operations/briefing room. On the right side wall (facing the front) is a wooden board on which daily flight details were recorded, while the front wall is fully covered by a sliding wooden board on which maps were stuck. This board conceals a square escape hatch, again with blast-proof door. The greater part of the 'hard' section's fixtures and fittings including electrical and telephone equipment, map, display and notice boards, showers and drinking fountain, remain in situ and are regarded as of special interest.

HISTORY: A Royal Flying Corps station was established at Upper Heyford in 1915. In the 1920s it became one of the RAF's bomber stations under the Home Defence Expansion Scheme promoted by Lord Trenchard. In the early 1950s the base was among those which passed to the USAF's Strategic Air Command, one of four which lay well inland from the vulnerable east of England. It was extensively remodelled, structures erected at this time including new runways and bomb stores, the control tower and four Nose Docking Sheds for aircraft maintenance. Between 1953 and 1965 B-47 SAC Stratojets operated out of here. The base then passed to USAF Europe and for the remainder of the 1960s it was mainly used by reconnaissance aircraft including U2s, RF101 Voodoos, and later Phantoms. Then in 1970 a new generation of advanced bomber, the F-111, was deployed here. Their all-weather capability and technical sophistication made the aircraft one of the key components of NATO's nuclear deterrent in the 1970s, it being the sole carrier of the USA's intermediate range nuclear deterrent in Europe. Upper Heyford was the only F-111 Wing in Europe until the allocation of F-111s to RAF Lakenheath in 1977. In the 1970s the appearance of the airfield was transformed by NATO's policy of hardening and 'dulling down' its main operating bases against conventional, chemical and biological attack. Fifty-six hardened aircraft shelters were built including a new Victor Alert area, four hardened Squadron Headquarters (including this example), a hardened Avionics Centre and a hardened Battle Command Bunker and Telephone Exchange. After 1984 and the introduction of Cruise Missiles the F-111s' purpose became the hunting down of the Warsaw Pact's mobile SS20 missiles. In 1986 F-111s from Upper Heyford and Lakenheath attracted worldwide attention for a retaliatory strike on Libya, while in 1990 Upper Heyford's F-111s participated in operation Desert Shield after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait. In 1993 in the defence draw-down after the end of the Cold War, and in part due to the obsolescence of the F-111, the USAF withdrew from the base. Shortly afterwards Upper Heyford was returned to the RAF which declared it surplus to military needs.

The Squadron HQ (Building 234 as currently numbered) is one of four at Upper Heyford. Three, this example (55th Squadron), and Buildings 370 (79th Squadron) and 209 (77th Squadron) have the same plan, with a 1950s 'soft' section to the front and a late 1970s 'hard' section to the rear to which personnel would withdraw at times of Maximum Alert. The fourth Squadron HQ (Building 383, for 42nd Squadron) was added in 1984 and is a fully-hardened concrete structure with a different layout.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Listed primarily for historic reasons, Building 234 is one of four Squadron HQs at Upper Heyford remodelled or newly-built in the 1970s under NATO's policy of hardening and 'dulling down' its main operating bases against conventional, chemical and biological attack. Structures erected during the Cold War (1946-89) are among the most potent physical manifestations of the global division between capitalism and communism that shaped the history of the second half of the C20. Upper Heyford was among the key Cold War defence sites in England in the 1970s and 1980s when USAF F-111s based here provided part of NATO's European intermediate range nuclear deterrent. The Squadron HQs were key elements of the base's operational infrastructure. It was in these that pilots were briefed and debriefed, and from these that they departed on missions. Of the four Squadron HQs operational from the 1970s 234 is notable for the completeness and good condition of its surviving fixtures and fittings and this is why it has been selected from them for listing.

SOURCES: Former RAF Upper Heyford Conservation Plan (3 vols., September 2005); P.S. Barnwell (ed.), Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-1989 (2003)

Reasons for Listing

Listed primarily for historic reasons, Building 234 is one of four such Squadron HQs at Upper Heyford remodelled or newly-built in the 1970s under NATO's policy of hardening and 'dulling down' its main operating bases against conventional, chemical and biological attack. Structures erected during the Cold War (1946-89) are among the most potent physical manifestations of the global division between capitalism and communism that shaped the history of the second half of the C20. Upper Heyford was among the key Cold War defence sites in England in the 1970s and 1980s when USAF F-111s based here provided part of NATO's European intermediate range nuclear deterrent. The Squadron HQs were key elements of the base's operational infrastructure. It was in these that pilots were briefed and debriefed, and from these that they departed on missions. Of the four Squadron HQs operational from the 1970s 234 is notable for the completeness and good condition of its surviving fixtures and fittings and this is why it has been selected for listing.

External Links

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