Monument record MBC44929 - Second World War Royal Air Force camp, Site No.5, RAF Turweston

A Second World War Royal Air Force camp, Site No.5 at RAF Turweston, is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in Biddlesden Park and centred at SP 63301 39085, Site No.5 was one of 8 satellite camps for military personnel serving at adjacent RAF Turweston, an operational wartime military airfield. The camp comprised airmens’ barrack huts, sergeants’ and officers’ quarters, ablution blocks, latrines, sentry post, earth-covered air raid shelter, mechanical and electrical (M&E) plinth which acted as an electrical transformer/junction box, accessed by a network of pathways and roads. The majority of the camp buildings or infrastructure that are shown on the 1945 dated Site Plan have not been mapped as they are all located under woodland cover and most not visible on the available aerial photographs. Aerial photographs taken in 2019 show that the site remains under heavy woodland cover, but remote sensing data suggests that the buildings are likely to have been demolished, though some of the concrete building platforms remain extant, as does the earthwork air raid shelter (1-4).