CONTEXT & BACKGROUND Historic England has been asked to assess the blister hangar at Fairoaks Airport, Surrey for listing. The whole airport is the subject of pre-planning discussions relating to the redevelopment of the site as part of a proposed ‘garden village’. The application site is not situated within a conservation area and is not locally listed. Alongside the blister hangar application, three further listing applications have been made for the control tower (1445118), the maintenance hangar (1445749) and the storage hangar (1445743) at Fairoaks and these are considered separately.

HISTORY AND DETAILS Fairoaks was founded as a private airstrip in 1931, being commissioned by the Air Ministry in 1937 to meet the growing demand for training centres for new pilots. Construction of the airport buildings commenced in 1937, with the control tower, along with hangars 1 and 2; now the storage and maintenance hangars. The No.18 Elementary & Reserve Flying School was established at the airfield in October 1937 and oversaw the training of pilots prior to and during the war. With the outbreak of war in 1939, the blister hangar was erected at Fairoaks to provide additional capacity. In the early post-war years the airfield was managed by Universal Flying Services, which operated a flying training school and provided aircraft maintenance services. The airfield was sold in 1967 and has been operated privately since then. The blister hangar is situated to the south of the runway at Fairoaks. Blister hangars were standardised types of transportable aircraft hangar patented by Miskins and Sons in 1939. These were designed to hold one aircraft, and were generally positioned in close proximity to the runway to allow planes to take off with minimal delay. Structurally, they were simply designed and did not require any foundations; instead the hangars were anchored by iron stakes. The Fairoaks example, as with many erected across the country after 1939, was an arched structure comprised of a series of steel ribs clad in corrugated steel sheeting. It is approximately 18m in length, with a span of around 15m.

DISCUSSION In assessing this site for listing, the Principles for Selection (DCMS, March 2010) and the Listing Selection Guide for Military Structures (2011) are relevant. As the Listing Selection Guide for Military Structures outlines, Fairoaks was one of around 740 flying stations or aerodromes operating during the Second World War. Although many of these have since been lost or heavily adapted, the Selection Guide makes clear that there is a need for selectivity when assessing such sites and their related structures for listing. As the guide states, it is only examples with ‘strong intrinsic or associational importance, particularly those with key historical episodes of the Second World War, which have been recommended for protection’. Selection principles for military aviation sites include rarity; technical or structural interest; group value with related structures; and operational importance (such as direct involvement in an important campaign such as the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic).

The blister hangar was added in 1939 to the existing collection of structures built in 1937 following the commissioning of the Fairoaks training facility by the Air Ministry. Whilst the hangar has some interest as a surviving structure related to the Second World War, it was a standardised hangar type, mass-produced and erected around the country in great numbers following the outbreak of war. Although the number remaining is relatively small in comparison to the number built, many of these structures still remain. Examples still in use can be noted at Denham Aerodrome, Buckinghamshire, and Lymington Airfield, Hampshire, along with many others which have been re-purposed for agricultural storage. Consequently, whilst it is recognised that the Fairoaks blister hangar is an example of a diminishing number of such structures, it is not considered to have significant rarity value in national terms.

The earliest hangars for aviation pre-date the First World War. Most listed examples are either of an early date or demonstrate some form of structural innovation. Important examples such as the Grade II listed arched hangar of 1929 at the former Heston Air Park in West London (NHLE: 1393114) was the first all concrete hangar in the country, whilst the airship hangars at Cardington in Bedfordshire (both listed Grade II*, NHLE: 1114165 and 1136810) of 1917 and 1927, achieved massive spans of over 50m at very early dates. By comparison, the blister hangar at Fairoaks is of a standard type for its date. Taken as a whole, Fairoaks Airport has some local interest in testifying to the role of the area in the war effort. However, there is no specific connection to any notable military operations or key developments in the history of aviation, which would elevate its historic interest.

Overall, it is considered that the blister hangar at Fairoaks Airport does not have sufficient special architectural and historic interest to meet the criteria for listing. Whilst the airfield and its associated structures have some local historical interest, this is not enough to justify statutory listing.

Judged against the Principles of Selection and the relevant criteria, the blister hangar at Fairoaks Airport, Surrey is not recommended for listing for the following principal reasons:

* Lack of architectural interest: the hangar is of a standard and mass-produced form; * Lack of historic interest: there are no known associations of the site with notable military operations, nor any key developments in the history of aviation.

CONCLUSION It is concluded that the blister hangar at Fairoaks Airport does not meet the criteria for listing from a national perspective, but the wider site has some local interest as an Air Ministry commissioned airfield with original structures remaining from its use as a Second World War training site.