SUSTAINABILITY

AROUND THE REGIONS
Wiltshire
Boscombe Down
18
All intrusive work at MOD Boscombe Down is now carried out under archaeological supervision © QinetiQ
MOD Boscombe Down is located on
the southern edge of Salisbury Plain,
Wiltshire. The site is managed by
QinetiQ under the Long Term
Partnering Agreement. The station has
an aviation history spanning almost a
century, although the landscape in
which it sits is substantially earlier.
Boscombe Down has an active
conservation group of nearly 30 years
standing, comprising a number of
specialisms in the management of
biodiverse landscapes, as well as a
resident archaeologist who works with
both the MOD and outside offcial
external bodies.
Throughout 2013-2015 the station has
been the focus of a number of
infrastructure upgrades; including
new heav y duty electrical cabling
traversing the site, communications
and power upgrades to a number of
facilities and various other intrusive
works. In all an estimated 4.5km of
trenching work has been carried out
under archaeological supervision.
Discoveries during this work have
allowed us to re-evaluate the extent
of a large prehistoric and Roman
settlement in the eastern sector of
the station.
Currently it is our policy to supervise
all work that requires intrusive
groundwork; since 2013 this has
included historic building survey and
condition work. The intention is to
catalogue and identify the
chronological development of
Boscombe Down with reference to
the stations unique place in both the
United Kingdom’s industrial heritage
and the development of aviation
technologies over the last century.
The task is a large one, with over 400
structures on the station the
possibility of recording all buildings
appears daunting. The immediate
problem is the level of diversity
currently encountered on the site. As
an example building 24 is one of the
few remaining buildings on site that
dates from the World War I, built in
1917 this structure was the first
medical centre on the station and
remains substantially unaltered.
Building 934, on the other hand, is one
of a number of Hardened Aircraf t
Shelters built c.1980-81. B934 has
recently undergone substantial
modification and whilst still an
important reminder of the Cold War,
now displays alterations covering both
a new role and current health and
safety concerns.
The challenge is how to record these
changes in such a way to demonstrate
the continued value of structures and
recognising their place in the stations
aviation history. Subsequently a
methodology is in development with
the QinetiQ Facilities Management
Team allowing pre-modification and
removal surveys to be carried out,
capturing something of a buildings
former use before it moves on to the
next phase of its life-cycle.
Bob Clarke
Boscombe Down
Conservation Archaeologist
Sanctuary 44 • 2015 91