Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey:

Archaeological Monitoring

Data Structure Report

23rd May 2003

Rathmell
Archaeology Ltd
 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Overview
This Data Structure Report (DSR) presents the findings of a programme of archaeological
monitoring undertaken in support of the inspection of Crail Airfield, Fife (NGR ref: N0 626
088) for contaminated land, as defined in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The main
potential contaminants were assessed to be from the use of the site for ordnance and fuel
storage.
The military airfield at Crail was first built in 1918, although closed in 1919 as part of the
demilitarisation after the Great War. The airfield was rebuilt as a Royal Naval Air Station in
September 1939 and remained active as HMS Jackdaw until 1947. The base continued as
HMS Bruce, a foreign language school, until 1958.
The majority of Crail Airfield is a Scheduled Ancient Monument under the terms of the
Ancient Monuments & Archaeological Areas Act 1979. All works were undertaken under the
terms of issued Scheduled Monument Consent (AMH/6642/1/1) condition 3 of which required
archaeological monitoring to the satisfaction of Mr Douglas Speirs, Fife Council.
The main objective of the archaeological monitoring was to record the location, extent,
nature, condition and significance of any archaeological features disturbed during the
programme of ground testing.
Rathmell Archaeology Ltd was appointed to act on behalf of Enviro Centre with regard to the
archaeological aspects of the Scheduled Monument Consent. The terms of these works were
agreed in advance with the Mr Douglas Speirs, Fife Council.
The monitoring failed to identify any significant archaeological features within the areas
exposed by the ground testing. Some defunct services probably associated with the 1939-47
use of the base were located as was portion of buried concrete slab.

Project Works
The programme of works agreed with the Fife Council included a brief archaeological desk-
based assessment and the monitoring of the test-pits and bore holes. These works were
undertaken on-site from 12th May 2003 to 14th May 2003 inclusive.
The test pits were all excavated by a JCB using a toothed bucket under direct archaeological
supervision. Mr Chris Doonan of Fellowes International Ltd undertook remote ground testing,
by magnetometer, for services and ordnance prior to excavation and also supervised the
excavations.
In keeping with SMC no test pit was located over existing hard surfaces. At maximum
dimension the test pits were to be 1m by 3m in plan and up to 3m in depth. In practice the
test pits rarely approached these dimensions, with a more common size being in the order of
0.5m by 2m in plan.
The test pits were opened from a number of ground conditions:
i. Managed grass – public space TP 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 & 15
ii. Managed grass – pasture TP 16, 19, 20, 21, 22 & 23
iii. Arable field margin or waste ground TP 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 17 & 27
iv. Arable field - spring barley TP 12*, 14*, 24, 25, 26 & 28 (*rolled)
There were extensive and large volumes of litter across the rolled crop areas and the public
spaces. The material on the airfield probably derives from a festival held at the airfield on the
11th May 2003, although the litter and debris around TP 9, 11 & 13 probably derives from the
normal use of these car parks.

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

The boreholes, after the locations were cleared by remote sensing for ordnance and
services, were driven from current ground surface. Consequently Mr Douglas Speirs, Fife
Council, agreed that monitoring would not provide any significant benefit.
All works were conducted in accordance with the Institute of Field Archaeology’s Standards
and Policy Statements and Code of Conduct and Historic Scotland Policy Statements.

Findings: Desk based assessment

A number of pre-military airfield sites were noted by the desk-based assessment (see Figure
1 and Appendix 1). These were predominantly farmstead or similar structures (Sites 1, 3 & 4)
dating from at least the mid nineteenth century (Ordnance Survey 1855) that were
presumably demolished during the forming of the 1918 aerodrome.
Of greater note is the discovery at Kilminning Farm of a series of long cists associated with
the foundations of a chapel (Site 2), inferred to be a dark age or early medieval church site.
The full extent of this site is uncertain although the later nineteenth century farmstead to its
immediate west (Site 3) may have removed or damaged the western elements of this site.
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland have identified
a pair of cropmark features (Site 5) that were interpreted as enclosures that had been
truncated and overlain by two of the runways. A recent desk-based assessment in support of
a development proposal for the airfield (Ellis 2000) identified from vertical aerial photography
a number of similar features at the ends of other runways. Such a concordance between
these features and the runways implies that they are features related to the construction of
the military airfield. There are two main options for what these feature are, firstly they could
be related to runway drainage or secondly they may be part of a pipe bomb runway denial
system.
The Military Airfield
The military airfield at Crail was first built in 1918 by the firm Laing, opening in July, with the
aerodrome used by the 27 Training Depot Station for fighter reconnaissance. The aerodrome
closed in 1919 as part of demilitarisation after the Great War and lay dormant until the1939
when the reconstruction of the airfield was begun, creating a Royal Naval Air Station, HMS
Jackdaw (Smith 1983).
HMS Jackdaw came into service from October 1940 and did not close until 1947. The
principal role of the base was for Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance training with practice
torpedo dropping using the Firth of Forth. During its use many first-line squadrons were
stationed at Crail for short periods.
Some conflict is recorded with the airbase being the target for hostile bombing on 18 July
1940 (www.raf.mod.uk), prior to the completion of the base and with the record stating that
no damage of importance was done. Luftwaffe reconnaissance photography of the airfield is
also on record from June 1941. The Luftwaffe image shows the six hangers now removed
from the main concentration of buildings as well as three squadron hangers near Kilminning.
Remarkably there are also RAF aerial reconnaissance images from June 1941 that contrast
with the Luftwaffe images to show differing details of the base (RCAHMS 2000, 33). The
images also illustrate that the final flourit in extent of the base had not been realised by 1941.
The base continued in use after 1947 after transferring to the Royal Navy as HMS Bruce
(Smith 1983), a foreign language school using the domestic accommodation on-site. This
base was also used for the billeting of troops being shipped to Korea before being wound up
in 1958.
St Andrews University Air Squadron used the airfield for a period of five years, between 1953
and1958, to free up space at RAF Leuchars. During this time the base received its first visit
by a reigning monarch on 4th June 1957 when HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited the Air Squadron.

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Figure 2: Test Pit Locations, as excavated, and pre-airfield archaeological sites

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Figure 3a: Test Pit 26 cut through spring barley with Figure 3b: Test Pit 2 with pipe exposed in section against
narrow toothed bucket (Film 1, Neg 31). road (Film 1, Neg 2).

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Figure 4a: Test Pit 4 with edge of slab visible at depth Figure 4b: Test Pit 14 cut through rolled spring barley with
in SW face (Film 1, Neg 4). heavy littering visible (Film 1, Neg 16).

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Some civilian flying carried on until around 1966/67. On at least one occasion since, in March
1999, the military have re-used the base although in this case it was an Army training
exercise that brought in military helicopters.
Test Pit location sensitivity
The Test Pits were located by Enviro Centre to provide a good spatial distribution and to
investigate areas where specific contaminative processes are thought to have been
undertaken. The Test Pits can be summarised as addressing three principal activity areas of
the airfield:
i. Buildings (inc. hangers) TP 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 & 13
ii. Petrol and Ordnance storage TP 7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, & 23
iii. Runways and aprons TP 10, 12, 14, 15, 24, 25, 26, 27 & 28
Of these twenty eight test pits a number are in proximity to some of the pre-military airfield
archaeological sites:
i. Kilminning Farm & Chapel (Nos. 2 & 3) TP 11 & 27
ii. Sauchope Farm (No. 4) TP 21 & 22
iii. Hollowflat Smithy (No. 1) TP 6
iv. Putative Enclosures (No. 5) TP 25 & 28

Findings: Test Pits

Twenty eight test pits were opened across the eastern two-thirds of the military airfield, to the
east of Balcomie Road. These findings are a synthesis of the findings from these test pits.
The majority of the test-pits exhibited an apparently natural sequence of sediments, although
the forming of the airfield presumably involved a significant amount of levelling out.
The topsoil across the site was 250mm to 400mm in depth and, among areas where
buildings stood, there were often fragments of brick and other construction materials. The
natural subsoil varied between a medium orangey sand through a range clay deposits, all of
which usually overlay a shale bedrock.
Services
Apparently defunct drains were encountered by TP 6 and the initial trial location for TP 3 (the
test pit was shuffled to avoid this drain). A pipe was exposed running at depth and parallel to
the internal road in TP 2 (see Figure 3b). A defunct electrical wire within the topsoil was cut
by TP 5, the line of the wire either runs towards the runways of the site of the former
squadron hangers around TP 9, 11 & 13.
A modern plastic pipe was exposed by TP 16, this is probably a spur water pipe running to
the modern farm buildings adjacent to TP 18.
Concrete Slab
The edge of a concrete slab was clipped in the west face of TP4 at a depth of some 1.2m
below current ground surface (see Figure 4a). The thickness of the slab could not be
determined as it resisted the JCB bucket.
Embankments
Three of the test pits were cut into embanked material. The embankment at TP 8 is clearly
modern containing modern cable protection tiles. Two more test pits, TP 9 &13 were
excavated into embanked material on the former site of the squadron hangers at Kilminning.
This area is now a public picnic and car park, while the embanked material is suggestive of
military airfield blast pens. The test pits showed the embankments to be comprised of rubble
including bitumen and other construction debris.

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Steel Mesh
While no steel mesh was exposed by any test pit, there were visible areas of lifted steel
mesh and wire in the vicinity of TP 18, 21 & 22 around the site of Sauchope Farm

Discussion
The test pits only exposed material that appeared to be related to the military use of the site.
The services, although previously unknown on these locations, appear to be defunct and
derelict.
The concrete slab located within Trench 4 is of uncertain origin, certainly the excavation was
too small to allow inference as to function or association. That the concrete was level slab
and was at depth relative to the surrounding 1939-47 surfaces may suggest that it is either
an extensive foundation raft for nearby structures or is a hint of surviving elements of the
1918-19 aerodrome. The latter option is probably the less likely.
The embankments where investigated appear to be mounded material with no consistent
structure. The embankment at TP 8 is clearly modern, perhaps built to screen the recycling
and waste collection point to the immediate east. The embanked features that resemble
merged together blast pens at Kilminning do not appear to match any military airfield
recorded features and are not visible on the 1941 reconnaissance photography. They may
have been constructed from the demolition debris from the hangers, buildings and hard
surfaces that originally covered this area.
The steel mesh noted around the site of Sauchope Farm was probably laid to reinforce the
grass surfaces during the military use of the site. This portion of the airfield was used for fuel
and ordnance storage, and hence loading, so there was presumably a need for areas of firm
standing away from the runways and circulating taxiways.

Conclusion
The archaeological monitoring failed to identify any significant archaeological features or
recover artefacts from the test pits excavated during the ground testing. A number of minor
elements relating to the fabric of the military airfield were noted, but these were substantially
unaffected by these works. Consequently we would suggest that the only appropriate further
stage of work would be the archiving of site records.

References
Ellis, C 2000 Crail Airfield, Desk-Based Assessment
Ordnance Survey 1855-57 Fife
RCAHMS 1999 Catalogue of the Luftwaffe Photographs in the
National Monuments Record of Scotland
RCAHMS 2000 Catalogue of the RAF World War II Photographs in
the National Monuments Record of Scotland
Smith, D 1983 Action Stations 7, Cambridge

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Appendix 1: Archaeological Sites

Pre-Military Airfield Archaeological Sites
No. FSMR No. NMRS No. Description Source
1 ‘- ‘- Hollowflat Smithy – House and enclosed OS 1855
garden dating from at least the 1855.

2 FF8147 NO60NW08 Kilmmining Chapel – Recorded site for the OS 1855; FSMR
recovery of a large number of long cists
and the foundations of a rectangular
structure interpreted as an early church.

3 ‘- ‘- Kilmmining Farm – Nineteenth century OS 1855

steading and farmhouse.

4 ‘- ‘- Sauchope Farm - Nineteenth century OS 1855

steading and farmhouse.

5 FF8452 NO60NW32 Crail Airfield Enclosure - a pair of cropmark NMRS

features interpreted as recti-linear
enclosures that had been truncated and
overlain by two of the runways.

Appendix 2: Record summaries

Drawing Record
No formal drawings were made.
Photographic Record
Film No. Description From Date

1 1 TP 1 general view with staff around WSW 12/5

1 2 TP 2 detail, metal pipe visible in section SE 12/5
1 3 TP 3 general view, with initial attempt visible in S 12/5
background
1 4 TP 4 detail, with slab visible in section NE 12/5
1 5 TP 5 detail, with broken defunct cable visible NE 12/5
1 6 TP 6 detail E 12/5
1 7 TP 7 general view SE 12/5
1 8 TP 8 detail, disposed cable cover tiles visible NW 12/5
1 9 TP 8 general view N 12/5
1 10 TP 9 general view, Chris Doonan monitoring N 12/5
1 11 TP 10 detail S 12/5
1 12 TP 11 detail W 12/5
1 13 TP 12 detail W 12/5
1 14 TP 13 detail W 13/5

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1 15 TP 14 detail SE 13/5
1 16 TP 14 general SE 13/5
1 17 Naval Control Tower S 13/5
1 18 TP 15 general E 13/5
1 19 TP 15 after filling in E 13/5
1 20 TP 16 detail NE 13/5
1 21 TP 17 detail S 13/5
1 22 TP 18 general W 13/5
1 23 TP 19 detail SW 13/5
1 24 TP 20 detail N 13/5
1 25 TP 21 detail N 14/5
1 26 TP 22 detail NW 14/5
1 27 TP 23 general N 14/5
1 28 TP 24 general W 14/5
1 29 TP 25 general NE 14/5
1 30 TP 26 detail NW 14/5
1 31 TP 26 general NW 14/5
1 32 TP 27 detail W 14/5
1 33 TP 28 detail N 14/5

Samples List
No samples were made.
Artefacts List
No artefacts were recovered.

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 Data Structure Report – Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey

Appendix 3: Discovery & Excavation in Scotland

LOCAL AUTHORITY: Fife

PROJECT TITLE/SITE Crail Airfield Contaminated Land Survey
NAME:
PARISH: Crail
NAME OF Thomas Rees
CONTRIBUTOR:
NAME OF Rathmell Archaeology Limited
ORGANISATION:
TYPE(S) OF PROJECT: Watching Brief
NMRS NO(S): NO60NW49; NO60NW32
SITE/MONUMENT Military Airfield; Enclosures
TYPE(S):
SIGNIFICANT FINDS:+ None
NGR (2 letters, 6 figures) NO 626 088
START DATE (this season) 12th May 2003
END DATE (this season) 14th May 2003
PREVIOUS WORK (incl. None
DES ref.)
PROPOSED FUTURE None
WORK:
MAIN (NARRATIVE) A programme of archaeological monitoring undertaken in
DESCRIPTION: (may support of ground testing for ground contaminants at Crail
include information from Airfield, Fife. All works were undertaken under terms of
other fields) SMC, avoiding standing structures and hard surfaces. No
significant artefacts or structures were found during these
works.
PROJECT CODE: 03005
SPONSOR OR FUNDING Enviro Centre
BODY:
ADDRESS OF MAIN 8, Underwood, Kilwinning, Ayrshire KA13 7HR
CONTRIBUTOR:
E MAIL: admin@rathmell-arch.co.uk
ARCHIVE LOCATION Report to Fife Council & Historic Scotland and archive to
(intended/deposited) National Monuments Record of Scotland.

Contact Details
Rathmell Archaeology can be contacted at its Registered Office or through the web:
Rathmell Archaeology Ltd
8, Underwood
Kilwinning
Ayrshire
KA13 7HR

www.rathmell-arch.co.uk

t.: 01294 542848 f.: 01294 542849

m.: 07817 334907 e.: admin@rathmell-arch.co.uk

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