Mystery building at RAF Bicester

[ricardian]

The public has been asked to help solve the mystery of a building discovered in thick undergrowth and trees at a former RAF Bomber Training Station. The structure is described as "shelter-like" by Historic England and does not appear on any RAF records or maps.
BBC Report (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-38151297)

[Arclite01]

Definitely part of the fuel farm installation. May be the pump facility. I think it is lagged/tanked to make sure that the fuel does not get contaminated by water. Someone else on here will have the specifics.

Arc

[XV490]

Looks a bit like an 'M & E plinth' to house electrical switchgear, transformer or similar. Either that or a NAAFI ice cream kiosk.

[airborne_artist]

Hardened shelter for the crew of the Wiggins Aerodyne assigned to carry top Govt officials to safety in the event of an invasion.

[Always a Sapper]

IMHO very unlikely to be a direct part of the fuel installation, if you look at the overfly picture you can see the fuel installation to the left of the red ring. IIRC This was a standard installation with the tanks buried in a concrete tank room in the centre of the grassed area, the pump room, again buried or partially buried was to the front of the tanks and there were was a single receipt and dispense gantry on each side. Also, if it was then where is the building near the other, southern BFI?

DIO or rather DE as it was back then should still have the project file from the works that were carried out circa 2001/2 to remove the old BFI's. (Copies were handed to the DE Property Manager & RAFIO by the EWC when the project was completed and they signed for their copies!)

The BFI's were all photographed and recorded before demolition as a means to historically record the design, location etc in context with a expansion period airfield. The access roads and grassed areas for the BFI's were left in place to aid context etc. Again the DE Property Manager & RAFIO all had copies along with the Cherwell District Council Conservation Officer (and yes, they signed for them! I didn't make people sign for the biscuits in the meetings, but pretty much every thing else was fair game...)

At a guess... I would consider:

A. Some form of pill box, IIRC there's a crash gate just off the right of it. There is a complex of pill boxes, trench and command centre used for the ground defence of the airfield running along the southern boundary of the site (2002). May have been something similar.

B. Water borehole or pump room, I know of one in a pump room on the Tech Site that was pretty close to the hedgerow and another one up the A4421 on the other side of the road in a brick pump house near the turning into the old O/Mess. The location of this Bldg would put it in line with those two assets.

C. Electrical Sub-Station, outside chance on this one mind, in 2002 the main intake (HV) was on the domestic site, with a radial to the old SBSH located in the Tech Area with LV Feeder Pillars run from there covering the Tech Area. IIRC there was a LV Feeder Pillar in the grassed area about halfway between the Northern End of the smaller Hanger and the BFI.

D. Has any one considered something going back even earlier? There was a presence on site from 1918, if you look in the grassed area about 20 to 30 mtrs in from the boundary of the A4421 at the northern edge of the airfield you will find the remains of a Bldg. IIRC early maps of the site indicate the 1918 airfield having some hangers in that area.

[PapaDolmio]

I'm no expert but my money would be on a pillbox of some kind given its position. Judging by the pictures and description it could be for a larger weapon (a/t gun)?

I believe pillboxes of this type were quite rare, usually being designed for a 2pdr a/t gun although invariably fitted with anything available, usually a leftover from WW1. There is a fine example at Brandon Creek on the Norfolk/ Cambs border on the old GHQ line. It could even be a locally built bespoke emplacement for a locally sourced weapon. Shades of Dads Army but remember these were desperate times and anything was better than nothing.
If you visit the tank museum at Bovington you can see a reconstruction of a 'tank' which is basically a 3 ton truck with a sandbag pillbox built on the back and which does not conform to any of the standards required of a successful AFV, namely firepower, protection and speed!
My uncle (ex Irish Guards) spent most of the Battle of Britain defending Northolt in an Austin Beaverette- an open top austin civilian car with a few sheets of metal bolted on and a 0.5inch Boys anti tank rifle-hardly a match for a Panzer!

[teeteringhead]

My uncle (ex Irish Guards) spent most of the Battle of Britain defending Northolt in an Austin Beaverette- an open top austin civilian car with a few sheets of metal bolted on and a 0.5inch Boys anti tank rifle-hardly a match for a Panzer! Mind you, if Panzers had got as far as Northolt, we'd have been well and truly f:mad:ed!

[Wander00]

And I definitely would not be here (we (well the parents, I was not quite around) lived about 3 miles from and under the circuit of that airfield). In 1940 dad was in the Fire Brigade ay Pinner Road North Harrow - if the Hurricanes went over they got the appliances on the forecourt ready to roll

[PapaDolmio]

Mind you, if Panzers had got as far as Northolt, we'd have been well and truly f:mad:ed!

True enough, mind you they then got moved to defend Dover Castle 'to the last man'.

[Arclite01]

I think their fear was Airborne invasion/assault on airfields at that stage more than how quickly the tanks got to them. On the basis of what happened in Crete the following year maybe not so fanciful............

Actually I am reminded of the words of William Woollard in the 'Secret War' [BBC] when he was investigating the Gigant Glider - That at this moment in time the Me321 Gigant must seem complete folly, but at that time [in 1940] 'half a dozen of them descending out of a dawn morning into a field in Southern England with little more than the rifles of the Home Guard to stop them..............' shows just how close run a thing it may have been..........

I live in Norfolk !!, frankly between the North Norfolk Coast and Colchester there wasn't a great deal to stop an invasion, there are many fortifications of that era dotted about, to say they seem inadequate in the understatement of the year...............

Arc

[Arclite01]

P.S. I still think it's part of the fuel installation somehow..................

Arc

[Always a Sapper]

Shame, but if you'd asked the question in 2004 I'd have had the answer by now because I had the 'as built' drawings for every building built on site / refurbished since the start of the RAF Airfield expansion period (1935/6 IIRC) up to 2004 all of the pre 80's drawings were in microfiche, some on linen, some paper and scanned images and the more modern drawings as cad sat in my office.

The contractor I worked for at the time (Babcock) didn't win the SE Prime contract but did get the SW Prime one, having absolutely no wish to work for the winning bidder I jumped ship to the SW Prime in Dec 2004, returning part time to assist the Prom with the site handover to the incoming Prime Contractor. All drawings etc were left in my old office (EWC) when it went over, rumour had it they didn't stay there for long.

[4mastacker]

P.S. I still think it's part of the fuel installation somehow..................

Arc

If Bicester was on the Government pipeline system (GPSS) and received its fuel through the pipeline, then that building could possibly be the manifold where the pipeline entered the airfield. However, I'm not sure Bicester was ever served by GPSS and would have received it's fuel by road/rail tanker.

[Bigbux]

f Bicester was on the Government pipeline system (GPSS)

I don't believe it was. The construction is inconsistent with any housing that would have been built around a fuel manifold, as it would have required high and low ventilation. The damp-proofing would point either to an inhabited building (unlikely as there are no windows), or a housing for an electrical installation. If it was a pump-house, you would need a BFI close to it. It would have been pants as a pill-box - again no windows or loop holes and brick structures can be dismantled by a GPMG, let alone anything bigger.

[Pontius Navigator]

Really need more information. While a pill box is usually concrete there have been some with concede roof and brick walls. Not too far away, just art of Didcot and on a river, I think the Thames, is a private house with a gun emplacement. This is an earth covered mound, brick faced, and concreted embrasure.

If HA is serious they should produce a diagram and detailed description.

[4mastacker]

I don't believe it was. The construction is inconsistent with any housing that would have been built around a fuel manifold, as it would have required high and low ventilation. The damp-proofing would point either to an inhabited building (unlikely as there are no windows), or a housing for an electrical installation. If it was a pump-house, you would need a BFI close to it. It would have been pants as a pill-box - again no windows or loop holes and brick structures can be dismantled by a GPMG, let alone anything bigger.

There appears to be a former BFI quite close to the structure - it's the circular area just a few yards from the mystery building.

Bearing in mind when this facility was built , I don't think such niceties as high and low ventilation would have been considered. I have operated pipeline manifolds which were nothing more that a valve pit with a sliding, lockable cover.

[JimNtexas]

When I was in the USAF stationed at RAF Upper Heyford I lived in a house adjacent to RAF Bicester. At that time there were a bunch of old red brick three story buildings that had been abandoned, but were still standing.

There was a very active glider operation at the old airfield.

I used to sit in my back <strike>yard</strike> garden watching gliders turning base to final right over the rooftops.

Do they still operate gliders from Bicester?

[blind pew]

Yes they still glide from Bicester

It used to be GSA (forces gliding club) and the British Gliding association used to run their XC and instructors courses...attended both and flew a comp..but think it's a purely civilian club whose CFI is ex Hamble and Big Airways.

[Simplythebeast]

Damp proofing....hermetically sealed...Pyro store?

[Pontius Navigator]

That close to the boundary and nothing nearby?

[ExAscoteer]

The RAFGSA Centre moved from Bicester to Halton some years ago.

These days the 'Windrushers' club flies from Bicester.

[Avitor]

It's on the South side....Air Raid spotters nest?

[POBJOY]

Always difficult without seeing it in context of its surroundings, however if it overlooks the airfield it 'may' be an early airfield Battle HQ designed to be the point from which the Airfield defences would be controlled if it came under a direct assault. We had something similar at RAF Kenley; built in brick during the expansion period. Actual wartime ones were concrete with observation slits but early ones were a basic OP that could coordinate whatever airfield defences were available.No doubt these were in consideration of parachute landings or even enemy troop machines and i suspect in their day had a direct landline link to the local ops/sector centre. At Kenley the works and bricks removed it at the same time as they destroyed the historic Sector ops room (looks like a bungalow) thereby completing the failed Luftwaffe's attemps to do the same. !!!!

[Chugalug2]

"RAF Bicester" by Paul Francis, Airfield Research Publishing (pub. 1996), seems to indicate that this is Building G (ie not allocated an AM building number). It is described as a small brick and concrete air raid shelter close to the North Aviation Fuel Installation (Building No. 72), for use by personnel caught using the latter at onset of an air raid.

There was indeed a Battle HQ, part of an a/f defensive system in the North Sector "between the North dispersal track and the North Sector of the perimeter track, for co-ordinating a/f defence during invasion. It was surrounded by five pillboxes. That doesn't quite tally with the OP building I would suggest.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x199/chugalug2/ARP63.jpg

[Bigbux]

Possible for a valve pit - but why enclose it without banking (assuming for blast protection) or damp proof it? Seems small for a pump house but without details of the former tank farm it would be difficult to tell. Above-ground tankage would provide some static head to prime pumps, but if they were centrifugal then I'm not sure how effective they would be situated that far from the fuel.

Perhaps an electrical distribution station to power the BFI?

It would be interesting to have a gander inside.

Edited: Ignore my last - just read the previous post. That makes a lot of sense.