Mary Ann Site Mary Ann site was named after a local wood called ‘Mary Ann Wood’…. today called ‘Mary Ann Meadows’. The wood was named after a local lady ‘Mary Ann Perks’ who lived in Rose Cottage, what is now Burtonwood Road in the late 1800’s. The site was sited to the East close to Burtonwood Road near gate number 13.

Mary Ann Site was developed as part of B.R.D Site and was linked by taxi way to B.R.D. Site by crossing Burtonwood Road at Gate 12 into B.R.D. Sites Norther Entrance at Gate 11.

Mary Ann Site was occupied by 32 maintenance unit RAF between 1940 & 1942. On the 11th of June 1942 the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) arrived on the site. The 3 ‘C’ type hangars were numbered AD4, AD5 & AD6 (AD meaning ‘Aircraft Dock’).

These hangars were manned by over 300 men in each hangar working day & night shifts 7 days a week. Over 1,500 aircraft were modified, repaired and overhauled in each hangar each year in over 2 and a half years. The personnel that worked in these hangars and workshops were very proud of their work.

Each hangar worked to produce more aircraft than its neighbours hangar in a given time period. Books, similar to college year books were prepared by the personnel of some of the hangars and possibly ‘all’ of them. On the 9th of June 1946 the USAAF returned control back to the RAF and number 276MU then occupied the site, its role being for long term aircraft storage, Inspection Repairs and Modification of Aircraft issued to the RAF.

Also in 1946 the Ministry of Supply (MOS) took over control of Mary Ann Site for covered storage. In September 1948 the Americans were back, this time the Unites States Air Force (USAF). The airfield was now being extensively used by Military Air Transport Services (MATS) as their UK base & for aircraft maintenance & servicing. 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron with their Boeing WB29 & later WB50 Super Fortress used Mary Ann Site as their dispersal & maintenance facilities.

Armed Forces public open days were held on Mary Ann Site on the 15th of May 1954, the 21st of May 1955, the 19th of May 1956, the 18th of May 1957 and the 17th of May 1958 displaying both USAF & RAF aircraft of the period. The USAF left in 1959 & the US Army arrived on the 2nd of January 1967. They focused all their operations on the supply depot on Site 8 but had no use for Mary Ann Site.

Mary Ann Site was demolished in 1986. Mary Ann Site Aerial Photo Below is an aerial photo of the 3 ‘C’ type hangars on Mary Ann site. The top hangar on the photo is hangar AD6 The middle hangar on the photo is hangar AD5 The bottom hangar is AD4 A memory book of hangar AD4 1943 – 1945 Hangar AD4 was located at Mary Ann site, being one of the three C-type hangars constructed there.

Each of these Hangars measured 150 feet wide x 300 feet long with an open working area of 5,000 square feet. Mary Ann site was also part of BRD-site. P47 Thunderbolts lined up outside hangar AD4.

After the culvert, this discharge pipe system remains. The discharge pipe system is along the drainage ditch in front of demolished building 2 and along the side of demolished buildings 40, 42, 37 and 39. The system consists of 3 pipe ranges constructed of 1 inch and 1/2″ & 2″ steel pipe with threaded pipe fittings.

The ranges are supported across the ditch with the discharge outlets directed into the centre of the ditch. The 1st pipe range has become detached on 1 side of the banking. The 2nd pipe range has rusted and become detached and lays in the bottom of the ditch.

The 3rd pipe range (Photo Below) is supported lower than the other 2 and is connected to a 2″ steel pipe main The vertical section (going downwards) of the 1″ 1/2 pipe is the the discharge pipe. (1st Photo Below is an Overall View of the Pipe Ranges)

‘C’ Type Hangars The air ministry built 3 hangars on Mary Ann site called Type ‘C’ (protected Austerity design) to air ministry drawing numbers 8180/38 & 5533/39 1938 Type. This type of hangar was built to be more economical in materials & enabled it to be built much quicker than the previous 1934 gable type. This was achieved with a reduction of 5ft in clear height to 30ft & also another saving was the omission of the parapet wall hiding the roof trusses over the door bays.

The layout & planning of the hangars line were built in arc’s as apposed to straight lines. This was intended to make it more difficult for an enemy bomber to hit all 3 hangars with a single stick of bombs. Also large windows ran full length of both sides of the hangars for natural light & to disperse the blast from a bomb if the hangar were to be hit.

Also blast walls run down both sides of each of the hangar annexes. The 3 hangars were sited between the ends of runways 04 and runway 33 & they shared 1 large apron. The basic design structure of the ‘C’ type hangars is a steel shell.

Wall stanchions consisted of a pair of 15inches x 6inches as RSJ’s joined together by riveted lattice bars. These have a total length of 41ft 3inches which gives a clear height of 30ft 4inches with 3ft 8inches allocated for foundations & the remainder connects with the roof girders. The roof was a steel structural frame, comprising of a series of primary trusses at 25′ centres, each with a clear span of 150′.

The primary trusses in turn support secondary trusses at 15′ centres. This structure forms the multi pitched roof arrangement with a primary truss aligned on each ridge. The secondary trusses span 25′ between the supporting trusses.

The truss depth varies along its span having a depth of 16′ 8″ at the supports and 4′ at mid span thus forming valley gutters. The hangar is 11 bays long plus 2 half bays at each end. Each end of the hangar provide a pitched cantilever roof above doors.

Two Lateral Wind girders were fitted and spanned horizontally across the width of the hangar and are located in the last structural bay at each end of the hangar. The roof was supported directly on the secondary trusses by roof timber sarking and purlins. The roof covering being of either asbestos, cement, slates or sheeting.

The hangar walls were built of concrete or brick but only to the top of the windows, with asbestos cement cladding above windows to roof level. Windows were fitted across 2 or 3 structural bays. Runway Beams For ‘C’ Type Hangar Lifting Tackle 2 number 10″ x 4 1/2″ x 25 lb/ft RSJ runway beams traverse the width of the hangar.

They span between the secondary trusses and support a safe working load of 1 and 1/2 tons. Similarly 2 number 10″ x 6″ x 40lb/ft RSJ with an additional top flange plate provides for runway beams capable of supporting a safe working load of 6 tons. Hangar Doors There are 6 sliding and overlapping doors at each end of the hangar.

Each door measures approximately 10.7 metres high x 8 metres wide and weighs in the order of 12.5 tons. They comprise of a series of 10′ x 3″ channels and 10′ x 4 and a 1/2″ RSJ’s which are externally sheeted in steel plate of varying thickness …. as follows: 1/4″ plate up to 6 metres high with an 1/8″ plate above it. The steel sheeting on both the front and rear faces of the door frames, are an integral part of the door structure.

The steel plates provide strength and stability to the door frame members, and in the case of the lower diagonal bracing members, act as the gusset connection plates. The doors run on cast iron wheels in tracks set into a reinforced concrete footing. The tops of the doors run between guide rails which also provide lateral restraint.

The doors were filled with sand or gravel for protection against enemy air attack. The doors opened in 6 overlapping leaves, 3 each side out onto outrigger lattice frame gantries giving a full width opening of 150′ into the hangar. The length of the hangar is 300 feet and clear height of 30 feet with an open working area of 45,000 square feet.

Single Story Annexes Single story annexes surrounded by a blast wall were built down the length of both sides of the hangars. These provided accommodation for offices storage and workshops. The 3 hangars were numbered 4, 5 & 6 during World War 2 the USAAF added the initial AD before the hangar numbers meaning ‘Aircraft Dock’ thus being AD4, AD5 & AD6.

Also on Mary Ann Site 2 large buildings were built as warehouses and workshops, numbered 225 & 226 and were built behind the 3 ‘C’ type hangars. The workshops were 700′ long x 300′ wide and were completed in May 1944. This gave the site 408,000 sq feet of workshop area.

Also at this time 24, 450 sq yards of concrete was laid for additional aircraft parking. Note: The Air Ministry Record Site Plan of 1955 shows these buildings numbered as 10, 20 & 27 for the ‘C’ type hangars & 1 and 2 for the warehouse workshops. They were numbered this way for the ‘legend’ on the plan, but the proper numbers were: Building number on Legend on Plan Correct Building number Hangar 10 AD4 (‘C’ Type Hangar) Hangar 20 AD5 (‘C’ Type Hangar) Hangar 27 AD6 (‘C’ Type Hangar) Building 1 226 (Warehouse Workshop) Building 2 225 (Warehouse Workshop) Workshop Warehouses During WW2 in 1943 work began on the construction of 2 large warehouse workshops & each one had 210,000 square feet of floor space, was 300 feet wide, 700 feet long & was built to Air Ministry drawing number 7073/43 Also, building 2A was a smaller storage warehouse with a width of 50 feet & was 90 feet long & covered 4,500 Square feet of flooring area & was built to Air Ministry drawing number 1376A/43 A memory book of hangar AD4 1943 – 1945 Hangar AD4 was located at Mary Ann site, being one of the three C-type hangars constructed there.

Each of these Hangars measured 150 feet wide x 300 feet long with an open working area of 5,000 square feet. Mary Ann site was also part of BRD-site. B17 Outside one of the ‘C’ Type Hangars on Mary Ann Site WW2