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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0858.PDF
412 ROYAL AIR FORCE UNITS VISITED FLIGHT. APRIL 18, 1935. The Officers' Mess and Quarters. (Flight photograph.) HALTON No. 1. School of Technical Training (Apprentices) By Major F. A. de V. ROBERTSON. V.D HALTON CAMP is the official description of the tract of hill, woodland and meadow where the aircraft, apprentices of the Royal Air Force are trained and educated. If the idea to be conveyed by the word "camp" is something dumped here and there without apparent rhyme or reason, with everything so contrived that the visitor who tries to find his way from one centre of activity to another is bound to lose his way—-not only the way he is trying to go, but also the way by which he has come—then the word is amply justified. But if " camp " is taken to mean something temporary, something the reverse of pukka—tents, army huts, and such-like— then it is a very ina.4eguate description of No. 1 School of Technical Training (Apprentices), Halton. The heart of the place, namely, the officers' quarters and mess, was once one of the country palaces of the house of Rothschild. As the air photograph in the heading shows, it is an extremely imposing building, surrounded by handsome lawns and gardens, but the whole is concealed from distant view by the woods which surround it. The interior is ornate to a degree, in a style popular among the wealthy during part of the long Victorian era. The ceilings and part of the walls in some rooms are covered thickly with gold leaf. If this could be removed and melted down, as a vandal might suggest, it would perhaps cause a reduc tion in the next Air Estimates, but it has been put on too firmly to admit of easy removal. It never tarnishes and requires no cleaning, from which it may be argued that there is an economy in building a house of pure gold. The other buildings, the barracks, the schools, and the workshops, are also substantial, but are built in a somewhat different style,of architecture. They positively reek of neo- Georgian utilitarianism and of Government construction. It is fortunate that there is?plenty of rrtom in Halton Gamp. and that these specimens of modernism have not been erected cheek by jowl with the Rothschild palace. When one leaves the mess, one has to follow winding paths through woods and to cross roads until, when one read) * the workshops or schools, one would be puzzled to point out the direction of the mess. The great virtue of Halton is that the position is splen didly healthy. It stands on the north-western edge of the Chiltern range, where the hills drop rather steeply down to the wide plain of the southern Midlands. By road it is about forty miles from London, and it lies in the county of Buckingham. No school is ever entirely free from epidemics, but, apart from these nuisances, the boys at Halton live in splendid air and inspiring surroundings which make for growth into strong, healthy men. As an institution, Halton is a standing testimony to th" high standard of. technical skill required of aircraftmen in the principal trades of the R.A.F. For certain trades there is direct enlistment of men, and these men receive their training at the School of Technical Training at Ma"' ston, near Ramsgate. For the principal trades, -however, those of fitter, fitter (armourer), instrument maker, a11"
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