Drawing numbers - what do they mean?

THIS IS THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THIS AUDIT
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Thanks Paul,

I shall, in due course, compare my list of explosive stores to your list and comment as required.

The standard structural drawing number takes the form

n/yy

where n is a number between 1 and 21000 (roughly, based on examples I've seen so far) and yy is the year
rarely the number will have a letter appended for a revision (eg. 16340a 1941 WAAF Bathhouse & Decontamination 400 TB
)

How about these?

18/1180/42 MI & Accident Rec Block Extension TB
20a/70/41 Picket Post TB
6a/22/42 WAAF Ablutions Block TB

The last number still seems to be the year but what about the first two sets of numbers?

Two other number types (from Turnhouse schedule):

EN/15/13/44 WAAF Ablution, Latrine & Drying Room T
EN/15/3/42 Civil Airport Buildings (unfinished) PB
EN/15/37/36a Female Latrine (Fleet Air Arm) TB
EN/15/37/36a Male Latrine (Fleet Air Arm) TB
EN/15/37/36a Officers Huts (Fleet Air Arm) N
EN/15/37/36a Workshop (Fleet Air Arm) N
EN/15/37/8 Parachute Section TB
EN/15/37/86 Station Defence Stores (Seafield Farm) PS

TE392 Pyrotechnic Store
TE392 Sergeants Bathhouse
TE447 Squash Court
TE546 Airmens Ablution & Latrines
TE546 Airmens Bathhouse

Neither type has a year. TE is for Turnhouse. Are the EN/15/ series naval building designs?

How about these? Again, the second part would appear to be the year.
W10/43 Pupils Locker Room 19'6"x60' S
W1016/41 Barbers Shop N
W1032/41 Instructional Centre TB
W104/41 Division Farm
W1139/41 Parachute Store

Three of my local plans didn't fall victim to my dogs recent wrecking spree. One is a partial plan of Padgate (Houghton Green) balloon depot and it describes 'W' series numbers as "deviation drawings" T

WA15/139/41 Air Raid Shelter PC
WA15/19/41 Aviation Petrol Installation (Blast Walls Only) PB
WA15/244/42 SAA Stores TB
WA15/367/43 Armoury N

3WA/CAM/669/42 RAF Church Fenton Camouflage scheme

Works Area number - does this indicate a design only used within a specific Works Area?

Something else I just noticed...
3 1922 Machine Gun Post
3 1923 Machine Gun Post
3 1926 Machine Gun Post

Interesting observation Tigger, there seems to a few examples scattered over different airfields (not just naval) of drawing numbers that don't conform with the standard layout.
I've always assumed these to be of 'local construction', but unsure how numbers get applied to them.

I have found, from RSPs, that many of the military airfields in Scotland have unique Drawing Numbers on the Building Schedule which would seem to indicate that they were drawn locally and not to a standard issued from a central Works Department. Also, airfields assigned and built for Coastal Command regardless of their location in the British Isles have many 'different' Drawings Numbers from 'standard'

Drawing Numbers for Fleet Air Arm (FAA) airfields I have yet to explore. But, where the airfield was built for and solely occupied by the FAA many structures show significant differences to those of the same function found on RAF airfields and, presumably, have Admiralty issued Drawing Numbers.

'Deviation drawings', a term much used by builders including aircraft constructors!

There are times when, during building, errors are made and an in-build repair scheme is issued resulting in a deviation from the basic build drawing.

norwichpaul;98697 wrote:

Not necessarily errors Peter, more like upgrades, brought about by new standards or experience whilst on the job or a change in requirements. WA15 and WA10 etc are Works Area 15 and 10 whereby the the 'local' works area office has intervened on the standard drawing and adapted it to suit local conditions, such as materials available locally or conditions existing at a particular airfield requiring modifications to a standard building due to a change of use, such as a bomber station reverting to Coastal Command.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. Changes forced by modifications and upgrades were also covered by 'deviations' And thanks for explaining the 'WA' prefix.

I am looking (slowly!) at the AMWD Repair Depots of WW2, mainly with a view to establishing the actual locations.

I think Chedworth, Southrop and Down Ampney actually had their own little AMWD offices/buildings for a while.

As for the Works Area, I can't for the life of me recall off the top of my head which one Gloucestershire was (6 or 9 poss.) but the office was in Montpellier. I have the chief architects name/address at home somewhere.