Monument record MBC47953 - Second World War Royal Air Force accommodation camp Site No 12 (RAF Wescott)

A Second World War Royal Air Force accommodation camp Site No 12 (RAF Wescott) is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in a field opposite Gypsy Bottom woods and centred at SP 72286 15415, aerial photographs taken in 1943 show that the camp at that time comprised 15 rectangular military buildings that range in size from 6 X 5 metres to 19 x 6 metres, accessed by a road and linked by a network of linear paths. At the entrance to the camp is a sentry box (RAF picket post), that leads to officers’ quarters and latrine, sergeants quarters and latrine, airmens barracks and latrine, along with four earth covered air raid shelters. Between 1943 and 1947, two further rectangular buildings are constructed in the camp that do not appear on the Air Ministry drawing. All the camp buildings and structure remain extant in 1952, when it appears the site may still be inhabited (by post-war ex-servicemen’s ‘squatter’ families?), as there appear to be vegetable beds outside on building and the network of pathways is well-used. By 1961, the site appears to be abandoned and one of the barrack buildings has been demolished. By 1999, all the remaining buildings except one, along with all the pathways and air raid shelters, have been demolished. The last surviving building is then demolished between 2006 and 2017 and on aerial photographs taken in 2023, only the access road survives (1-10).