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Summary

Houses built to accommodate Royal Ordnance Factory workers from 1940s onwards, west of the perimeter fence of AWE Burghfield; most demolished by the early 21st century

Monument Type(s):

• MILITARY SUPPORT BUILDING? (Second World War to Mid 20th century - 1940 AD? to 1960 AD?)
• WORKERS COTTAGE (Second World War to Mid 20th century - 1940 AD? to 1960 AD?)

Full Description

A linear development of dwellings on the west side of the perimeter fence of Atomic Weapons Establishment Burghfield was identified by the 2007 AWE Historic Characterisation and Management Strategy <1> as accommodation built for workers at the Royal Ordnance Factory from the 1940s onwards. There were nine individual dwellings. Some were single storey houses, which were built of concrete with flat roofs, and further along the lane named The Mearings were two similar double storey houses.

The 5th Epoch 1:2500 Ordnance Survey mapping <2> shows three clusters of houses along The Mearings. To the north is a small detached house and three pairs of semi-detached houses arranged in a curving line (Nos 1-7); further south is a straight row of five pairs of semi-detached houses (Nos 8-17); south of the bend in the road round Burghfield Place are four detached homes arranged in pairs (Nos 24 and 25, and Nos 27 and 28). The map does not indicate where buildings were for the missing numbers.

Several of the houses (Nos 4-7, 8-9, 14-15, 27) were demolished by the early 21st century as they do not appear in a air photograph of 2003 <3> Others (Nos 16-17, 28) had disappeared by 2010 <4>.

An application was made in 2014 to demolish Nos. 2, 3 and 24 the Mearings, a semi-detached pair of
dwellings and a detached dwelling owned by Defence Estates on the perimeter of AWE Burghfield, as the buildings were unoccupied and considered to be at risk of vandalism or illegal occupation. Some photographs were taken of No 24 by the West Berkshire Archaeological Officer in 2014.

Cocroft in his analysis of workers' housing for filling factories <5> describes bungalows of 'HM Office of Works C type' for warrant officers or chief instructors, each measuring 6.5m x 11.3m and brick-built with a flat concrete roof. This type was found at Elstow in Bedfordshire but also adjacent to the factory at ROF Burghfield, Featherstone in Staffordshire and Thorpe Arch in Yorkshire .

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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