Monument record MBC44786 - Second World War Royal Air Force camp, Communal Site, Finmere.

A Second World War Royal Air Force camp is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in fields on the southeast corner of Tingewick Woods and centred at SP 65827 31539, this is the Communal Site for nearby RAF Finmere, comprising numerous military rectangular buildings of various sizes that functioned as a sentry box, officers mess, sergeants mess, airmens’ dining room, officers’ bath house and separate latrine and ablution blocks for officers, SNCOs and other ranks, sick quarters for both RAF and WAAF personnel, ambulance and mortuary, medical inspection buildings, grocery, ration stores, maintenance stores, airmens’ institute, sports store and barbers shop, all accessed by a network of pathways and roads. Other structures include a standby set house, two fuel compounds, water tank and water tower, and in the adjacent field a sports ground and what appears to be a baseball diamond. Distributed around the camp are 15 brick-built and earth-bermed open-topped blast shelters as well as one earth-covered air raid shelter. Between 1947 and 1961, most of the camp buildings have been demolished, though the concrete hut platforms and paths remain visible. The sick quarters, a shower and ablutions block, the stand by set house and one open blast survive and aerial photographs taken in 2019 show them to remain extant, along with the roads and some concrete building platforms (1-7).