Monument record 0662400000 - North Camp, WWI training camp, Field SE of Hill Copse (parkland NW of Halton House)

Probable WWI army camp showing as extensive complex of earthworks in a field to the SW of Hill Copse, in 1945 RAF AP. Later APs show entire complex to have been ploughed out (B1).
Area of slight, regular terraced earthworks seen in grass pasture. Almost certainly a former hutted barracks dating to the First World War. Seen on air photograph 1945 (B2).
Alfred Rothschild offered his estate as a training ground in 1914. 20,000 troops descended on Halton and lived in tents as they trained for the Western front. The weather forced the military authorities to erect more durable buildings and in 1916 the Royal Flying Corps moved into a semi-established camp (B3).

An Army and Royal Flying Corps training camp of World War I date is visible on historic aerial photographs as extant earthworks, and as soilmarks on modern aerial photographs, and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located on the north side of Halton Hall, Aston Clinton, and centred at SP 88371 10671. The camp is situated outside of the area of the later training camp, and is made up of Areas L, M, N, O and P in the WWI camp at Halton and it is situated to the north of the extent of the modern training camp. No plan was available to the project, to identify the individual buildings, but the ‘pre-RAF Army Division Camp’ is recorded in ‘Work and Bricks’ p27, and shows the layout of most of the buildings that are visible as earthworks on the 1940s aerial photographs. Aerial photographs taken in 2022 show the locations of buildings as cropmarks within the growing crop on the field. The camp consisted of five different areas of temporary huts set on the hillside; it was only visible as earthworks of the foundations of the buildings on 1945 aerial photographs. Lidar visualisations show very low earthworks where the buildings were, and cropmarks are visible in the arable field on recent aerial photographs on Google Earth. Some of the features are hard to see because of modern land use; the south of the camps is in use for allotments and the northern corner has houses and gardens on part of what was the camp. Contemporary photos of the buildings and the camps are printed in Beechwoods Bayonets (p81). (5-12)