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Bizarre buildings: Seeking out the
quirky, unusual and downright weird
King Henry VIII’s wine cellar underneath MOD main building, London © Crown
Hidden across the Ministry of Defence
(MOD) estate are some wonderful and
often quirky buildings, each with a
story of its own to tell. Presently, the
MOD has in its care 824 listed buildings
and 768 scheduled monuments; each
one is an important part of the UK’s
heritage, and some are unique.
Some of these buildings were
designed as ground-breaking solutions
to specific Defence requirements.
During the Second World War, airfields,
particularly those in the south and east
of England, were provided with a suite
of defences to repel attacking enemy
aircraft and to prevent airfield capture.
Pickett-Hamilton Forts were an
ingenious invention, unique to airfields,
designed to be lowered to ground
level to allow movement of aircraf t and
raised in the event of an attack. The
most common two-man design was
raised by a hand-operated hydraulic
jack . Our listed example at Wor thy
Down is the rarer four-man counterbalance
t ype and one of only t welve
installed nationally. The installation
of these pillboxes was given top
priorit y, with Churchill himself
interested in the work .
Older examples of defensive structures
can be found on Otterburn training
estate. Bastle houses (from the
French bastille, meaning castle),
built between 1550 and 1650, were
fortified farmhouses. They are found
along the Anglo-Scottish border, in
areas formerly plagued by border
reivers (raiders). Bastle houses were
characterised by security features
to resist raids; with thick stone
walls, reinforced doors and minimal
windows on the first floor. The ground
floor was reserved for valuable animals,
and the living quarters on the first floor
were only reachable by ladder, which
could be pulled up from the inside.
Other listed buildings celebrate
the bravery of the armed forces,
some in unusual circumstances. A
listed memorial drinking fountain in
Aldershot commemorates the heroic
final action of Captain Beresford and is
located close to where he died, which
was, at that time, opposite the offcers’
stables at Albuhera Barracks. The
dedication reads: ‘Near this spot on the
30th May 1910 Captain Charles Claudius
De La Poer Beresford Royal Engineers
was killed in a brave attempt to stop
a runaway horse’. The listed robber’s
stone on Salisbury Plain memorialises
Listed memorial drinking fountain in Aldershot © Crown
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Sanctuary 44 • 2015