Hutment
We don't know directly the capacity of the camp. The available records give snapshots of the numbers resident, in August 1945 this was 1,324 personnel.
It is possible to estimate the maximum capacity from the number of air raid shelters. The recommendation was that air raid shelters hold no more than 50 people in case of a direct bomb hit. Thus, with 46 air raid shelters, Belton Park Camp could have accommodated around 2,300 persons. Support for this number is that the two dining areas for other ranks catered for 1,400 places and had two sittings. Air raid shelters likely came from the Stanton Ironworks Co Ltd near Nottingham. They manufactured widely used precast arch-shaped concrete units bolted together in a modular fashion. The author has noticed such derelect units in areas a few miles from the Depot (figures 1 to 3). The walls are 2" thick concrete with 4" thick ribs. Figures 1 & 2 show two very well preserved examples from former RAF Bottesford.. A layer of earth and turf strengthened & concealed these semi-sunken structures. Nearly 80 years on the concrete floor is intact with limited deterioration of the reinforcd concrete. Even iron work for a wooden door remains in one. At former RAF Blyton near Gainsborough, planning permission was applied for in 2019, to convert 4 Stanton air raid shelters into holiday lodges!
Figures 1, 2 & 3: Stanton air raid shelters in 2020 and under assembly at the factory in 1939. One extant shelter is denuded of its earth covering the other has it intact. The view inside is towards the emergency escape hatch, the square outlet visible in the foreground of the denuded shelter
There were an additional 16 blast shelters, semi-submerged brick structures without roofing. These had a dual function serving as defence trenches, but also for protection during air raids or strafing when the airman or airwoman could jump into the shelter at short notice.
Figure 4: a blast shelter available to try out is at the Lincolnshire Heritage Aviation Centre, former RAF East Kirkby & see fig 14.
Figure 5: Depot building types
So potentially the camp had a capacity of up to two to three thousand including any non-resident personnel and civilian workers. The two dining rooms for other ranks catered for 1,400 covers. Again with two sittings and alternative facilities for officers and N.C.O.s this gives a maximum population of ~3,000. We interviewed former Aircraftman Kenneth Thorndale who trained at the Depot in 1946, he remembers 20 men sleeping in bunk beds in a Nissan hut, equating to ~1,500 personnel if all occupied.
Fifty-two percent of the 231 buildings were constructed of brick (figure 5). Brick-built sleeping huts measured 59 or 35 feet long by 181/2 inches wide. Five examples of brick-built structures remain on site, two Drill sheds (figure 6), the Free Church, part of the RAF Officers' Mess, the NAAFI institute for HQ staff and a WAAF building (figure 7).
No formal inspection has taken place, but these structures match up to those on the georeferenced December 1942 plan and visually appear of the period. Photos of other surviving brick buildings appear in the gallery.
Figure 6: the two Drill Sheds on either side of a later, central addition not shown on the plan.
Figure 7: brick built Administrative Office, WAAF
Figure 8: WAAF airwomen and their uniforms. Sergeant Joan Mortimer, Flight Officer Elspeth Henderson and Sergeant Helen Turner, recipients of the Military Medal for gallantry, standing outside damaged buildings at Biggin Hill, Kent. 1 September 1940 (© IWM, click image for source).
Originally, there were 28 buildings in this WAAF compound. These included a Hairdressers Shop to ensure that hair was either cut short or, if long, rolled into a sausage to fit under the WAAF cap. WAAFs could use 4 air raid shelters and one blast shelter. This suggests a WAAF contingent of up to 200 or so. In June 1944, the contingent comprised 4 officers & 192 other ranks recorded as permanent staff. WAAF bedding included a solid mattress, called a "biscuit", a pillow and three grey blankets (Beckett 1999, "The Sky Sweepers" Regal Life Ltd, London).
Figure 9: 452 Squadron RAAF pilots outside their Nissan hut at Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire 18 June 1941 (colourised photograph © IWM ).
Seventy-eight Nissan huts were the next most frequent edifice. Originally designed by Peter Norman Nissan, a Canadian mining engineer while serving in the Canadian Royal Engineers in 1916. Extensively used in WW2, six men could erect a prefabricated corrugated iron half cylinder Nissan hut in 6 hours.
If used for accommodation such as the Belton WAAF Sergeants quarters, the hut could hold 40 individuals, but were bitterly cold in winter with one or two stoves for heating.
The Guard House at the main entrance was a Nissan and so, it is credible that Nissans were the first buildings on site whilst the brick barracks were completed.
Figure 10: inside a Nissan hut at former RAF East Kirkby.
Figure 11: Handcraft Airman accommodation Huts at former RAF Desborough
There were 5 Handcraft huts, a seven-sided bolted asbestos roofed polygonal hut with bricked front and back (figure 11). Note, their location along a hedgerow to aid camouflage.
At Belton these provided accommodation for WAAF personnel. Manufactured from 1942 by the Universal Asbestos Company for use as airfield accommodation.
Ivy Warwick a WAAF NCO provides a detailed description of living in RAF accommodation and the role played by WAAF personnel (recorded oral history). In 1944 she was probably based in St Vincents Hall, Grantham as a telephone operator for the IX Troop Carrier Command who took off from RAF Barkston Heath for Operation Overlord (D-Day) (reel 5).
Figure 12: Seco huts (image source Alantikwall)
Figure 13: Alan Sorrell "Up in the Morning Early: RAF Camp 1941" (The Tate Gallery, Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND)
Other ranks used 4 Seco huts for some of their accommodation (figure 12). Uni-Seco Structures ( Selection Engineering Co Ltd) mass produced timber huts from September 1942. A timber frame clad with asbestos sheets and a timber roof of shallow pitch with a plasterboard ceiling beneath,The prefabricated panels were a sandwich with a wood-wool filling between sheets of corrugated asbestos-cement, supplied by Turners Asbestos Cement Co Ltd. Designed as airfield accommodation that could be reused as post WWII emergency housing. Below post-war RAF Alconbury Seco huts & blast shelters.
Romney huts similar to an oversized Nissan hut catered for a large stores building. A prefabricated structure of a steel frame clad in corrugated iron. Semi-circular in section they were used for storage and as workshops, cinemas etc during WWII. Designed at Romney House, London by the Directorate of Fortifications & Works.
The YMCA Information Centre at the entrance to the camp was a Boulton & Paul prefabricated temporary structure made of lightweight timber framed panels clad externally with corrugated iron sheets manufactured by Boulton and Paul Limited. The company specialised in wheeled shepherds' huts, but also produced the Jane corrugated iron hut. The dimensions of the Belton hut 42 feet long by 21 feet wide suggests the latter style.
The Y.M.C.A. canteen is described as a Thorn hut. We have not identified the nature of this hut term.
Lastly the term TB or temporary brick referred to walls half a brick thick strengthened with intermittent brick buttresses. Used at Belton for laundry, bath houses etc.
The Depot used allotments immediately east of Witham Brook to supplement food supplies.
Figure 14 a blast shelter (8 on plan) is seen behind the podium bearing Lord Trenchard during his march pass January 1943. Colonel Liardet, Commandant General of the RAF Regiment is seen to the far left. A possible cement mixer and piles of earth further to the right suggest it to be a recent construction.