Were there standard army hut types and sizes? and if so where can I get details and pictures? Also wanted a picture of a standard cast-iron stove.
There were spider blocks of all sizes, and during the winter they were bloody cold. There used to be a spider block in Gun Hill Aldershot were I spent an uncomfortable few weeks.
The morning hack - when the room woke to a chorus of spluttering hacking coughs as the mix of fumes.smoke and damp air needed clearing from the throat, before lighting the first weed of the day, which led to a much better, rounded cough. Leaning out of the door and expectorating a ball of coke which I am sure on occasion bounced. But all of this come to nowt in comparison to Cavalry barracks, as a young army cadet early 1960s we spent a camp in Aldershot, Beaumont Barracks, sleeping in rooms with a grill along the centre of the room.Looking down through this would have been the stables, where the aromatic wiff of horse would have been the first thought of the day!
As any old soldier will tell you many things are indeed 'standard' in the forces, accommodation was not one of them, camps and barracks evolved yet some of the older ones were still in use.
As the thread title is not too specific, it seems the best place to put this: Wartime Huts: The Development, Typology and Identification of Temporary Military Buildings in Britain 1914-1945 by K L Draper https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/146463385.pdf
Army Huts >>> Beach Huts From my dad's notes:- For Christmas 1939 I was on the beach at Langard Point Felixstowe {Landguard Point is now a nature reserve and there are still WW2 concrete bunkers there}. Two men to a bathing hut! Heavy snow fall, we use to fill the iron wash bowl and stand it on a Valor oil stove. On looking back now, it was the only thing that saved us from being asphyxiated!
