Archaeological monitoring and recording and historic building recording at Dunkeswell Airfield, Dunkeswell, Devon

A programme of archaeological monitoring and recording and historic building recording was carried out by Oakford Archaeology between September 2024 and September 2025 during works on Buildings 165 and 166, Dunkeswell Airfield, Dunkeswell, Devon. The complex surveyed includes seven buildings at the end of a short driveway along the south-eastern edge of Dunkeswell Aerodrome. The buildings were designed and constructed in 1941-2 and formed the centre for US Navy operations in the Bay of Biscay area, co-ordinating aircraft to carry out anti-submarine missions. Buildings A and B, the Crew Briefing Rooms (Building 165) and the Office Annexe (Building 166), are long, narrow single-storey pitched-roofed sheds set closely together at the northern end of the complex. Immediately to the south of these lies the Operations Block - Building C (Building 166), a more substantial, flat-roofed, bunker-like structure. To the west of the Operations Block, buildings D and E are the ruined shells of two blocks of 'Technical Latrines' - lavatories set aside for airmen or women practising a technical trade - and west of this, the footprint alone of a demolished structure, Building F, the Station Offices. Excavations for a new soakaway exposed a simple deposit sequence extending southeast from the building complex and consisting of topsoil above natural subsoil. No archaeological features, deposits or dating material was recovered from the excavations. The complex surveyed includes seven buildings at the end of a short driveway along the south-eastern edge of Dunkeswell Aerodrome. The buildings were designed and constructed in 1941-2 and formed the centre for US Navy operations in the Bay of Biscay area, co-ordinating aircraft to carry out anti-submarine missions. Buildings A and B, the Crew Briefing Rooms (Building 165) and the Office Annexe (Building 166), are long, narrow single-storey pitched-roofed sheds set closely together at the northern end of the complex. Immediately to the south of these lies the Operations Block - Building C (Building 166), a more substantial, flat-roofed, bunker-like structure. To the west of the Operations Block, buildings D and E are the ruined shells of two blocks of 'Technical Latrines' - lavatories set aside for airmen or women practising a technical trade - and west of this, the footprint alone of a demolished structure, Building F, the Station Offices. Excavations for a new soakaway exposed a simple deposit sequence extending southeast from the building complex and consisting of topsoil above natural subsoil. No archaeological features, deposits or dating material was recovered from the excavations.