Monument record MNL 641 - RAF Building 538, Mildenhall

2010: A Level 2 building recording survey was carried out on Building 538, a Type 'C' Hangar at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, prior to its demolition. It was almost entirely brick built, based around a metal girder framework. At each end of the building were two sets of three sliding doors to allow access to aircraft. Flanking both long sides of the structure were original annex buildings. The building was constructed in 1934 and was used for aircraft storage before and during World War II, as well as throughout the Cold War, when the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was intermittently kept there from 1974 (a miniature outline of one of the aircraft was impressed into the concrete floor). More generally it has been used as storage, offices and workshops. Much of the internal structure had been altered to suit the changing requirements of its use, although many of the original doorways and larger doorways, (presumably for vehicle or machinery access), were still visible. A memorial to a mascot bulldog (named Bill Prune) for No. 15 Squadron from 1943 was located just south of the building (S1). Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2010 (S2).