Monument record 0951000000 - Halton Camp

Halton has been associated with military flying since 1912 when 3 aeroplanes and an airship made use of the ground of Halton House then owned by Alfred Rothschild. On 10 September 1917 the Halton School of Technical Training was established to train men and boys in aircraft fitting and rigging. After the First World War the school was renamed and in 1920 became No 1 School of Technical Training (Boys) Halton. An RAF hospital was established in 1919 and a larger hospital was opened in 1927 with the opening ceremony performed by HRH Princess Mary after whom the hospital was named. In 1940 a burns unit was established and by the middle of the war Princess Mary's Hospital held over 700 equipped beds. Here in 1957 the first artificial kidney unit in Britain was set up. Alongside the camp is a grass airfield and was the last landing ground for countless old aircraft brought here for technicians to be trained upon (B1).
As part of the forces involved in the 1913 army manoeuvres, 3 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps deployed to Halton to support the operations of the Household Division. They set up a temporary airfield on what was later to become the Maitland Parade Square, which was at the time pasture. 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. Old Worksops was built in 1917, using German PoW labour, and the current airfield was established. Alfred Rothschild died in 1918. The Royal Flying Corps had been established as the Royal Air Force and it needed permanent bases. They had already invested a considerable amount in the workshops and accommodation they had built at Halton and so eventually bought the whole property to house the new No 1 School of Technical Training. A major building programme produced barrack blocks, messes and an education block to replace the wartime huts. The narrow gauge railway link to Wendover, which had been used to transport timber from the estate in support of the war effort, was replaced with a standard gauge branch line bringing in coal and building materials. Plans were laid for a permanent hospital, to replace the temporary wartime structure, and a headquarters formation moved into Halton House itself. Princess Mary's RAF Hospital was opened in 1927 with its younger partner, the institute of Pathology and Tropical Medicine, providing an excellent specialist and general service. Its closure in 1995 was a major blow to the local community as well as the RAF. After the Cold War there was a brief fear of closure and technical training was moved to RAF Cosford but Halton is now for non-technical ground training (B2).
The earliest record of the use of Halton by military aircraft dates to 1912, when three aeroplanes and an airship taking part in military manoeuvres in the area used Halton Park as a base. The first hangars on the site were two reused sea-plane hangars augmented by tented Bessoneau hangars (B3).

A military training camp of 20th century date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant buildings, earthworks, levelled earthworks and cropmarks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in the parishes of Wendover, Halton and Aston Clinton and centred at SP 87775 09534. The military training camp at Halton was set up in 1913 for the Army as a tented camp for summer manoeuvres but by 1916 20,000 troops were stationed there. The camp was expanded to include the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and purchased for the Royal Air Force on its creation in 1918. Immediately after the First World War the Groves and Henderson Barracks Blocks, 16 in total, and two Mess blocks were designed and built to replace the huts; these are all Grade II Listed.
Traces of the World War I camp buildings are still visible on lidar visualisations in woodland to the south of the Groves and Henderson Barracks but the levelling of the ground for the parade areas and to construct the barracks blocks has removed most of these. What remains are very similar to training camps mapped in Cannock Chase and fits with a plan showing the buildings in the camp in WWI published in a book about architecture on Royal Air Force Stations. Traces of these camps are also visible across areas which are now sports fields. A further separate camp, North Camp, sat outside current area of the current camp (see MBC22241) and associated practice trenches were also created near this (see MBC22239).
Air raid shelters are visible between the barrack blocks and near the workshops, a mixture of Anderson and Stanton Shelters and also larger Seagull Trench shelters and possibly just open trenches to hide in, between other buildings. Some blast shelters are also visible on the 1940s aerial photographs. Practice trenches and slit trenches are visible, dug in to areas which are now wooded and also as very low earthworks on sports pitches.
A railway leaves the main line to Aylesbury to Wendover and continues towards the main workshops in the camp; this was closed in 1963 (see MBC24945). The southern part of the site mainly comprised medical buildings, the Princess Mary Hospital and the Infectious Diseases Hospital. The hospitals were demolished after 2006. Married quarters are also shown in this area, some were specifically constructed, some of which remain, and others were existing houses.
Against the Chilterns escarpment the sites of Rifle Ranges are visible as earthworks on lidar visualisations and in photographs from 1915 (Beechwoods and Bayonets, p89). Sports fields for football, rugby, cricket, an athletics track, bowling greens, and tennis courts are visible on 1940s aerial photographs, and described on the plans. A polo pavilion is also recorded on the plan, near the airfield.
Tall chimneys for engine houses, a church and a cinema, drill halls, motor transport workshops are also listed on the plans and visible on the photographs.
Two RAF plans of the site, from 1934 and 1948, were consulted and the building types are recorded from there. (9-27)