Cold War Research etc Site Survey Report 2009 - Summary

COLD WAR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT SITE SURVEY

October 2009

Wayne Cocroft and Magnus Alexander

Summary

Background

Atomic weapons research site between 1956 and 1972.  Simulated conditions that nuclear weapons would experience in service.

Very remote area and prior to 1956 land used for grazing animals on reclaimed marsh

Royal Flying Corps had a flying field and buildings during WW1.  Experimental work  on guns, bombs, navigation through and after WW1 and from 1935 experiments with radar.

Orford Ness is a rare and fragile natural environment, extremely for important bird, plant and insect life.  Protected as an Environmental Sensitive Area, Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Ramsar (www.magic.gov.uk).

In 1993 the National Trust purchased 628 hectares for £292,500. Today, most of the spit, with the exception of the former Cobra Mist wireless station to the north, is managed by the National Trust.

Access on to the spit is by boat and then either by land train or on foot. To protect the nesting birds and plant life, and due to the risks posed by unexploded ordnance, visitors are restricted to set routes. To further increase the biodiversity of the area parts of the former flying field are being allowed to flood.

Other References

Gordon Kinsey published Orford Ness – Secret Site - its 20th century military history.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England - topographic survey of the strip of First World War and later buildings, known as ‘The Street’.

Ground and low level oblique air photographs of the site in the late 1990s and these are deposited in the National Monuments Record, Swindon.

Between 2001 and 2004 English Heritage’s National Mapping Programme ran a project to plot all the pre-1945 archaeological features along Suffolk’s shore, including Orford Ness (Hegarty and Newsome 2007, 32-33, 85-6).

National Trust - research on the range, including a summary of its historic importance, which partly contributed to the site guide book (Musson 1993,National Trust 2003). Taped interviews with a number of former employees. These and other archive material is held on site at Orford Ness and their regional headquarters at Bury St Edmunds.

The National Archives holds a number of files relating to the site.

History

Marshland reclaimed in medieval times.  Cattle & sheep grazing.

Oyster beds on north side of Stony Ditch.

Small group of buildings to the south of Slaughden known as Marsh House, it or a predecessor was depicted on a map dated 1736 and survived into the 1950s

Series of lighthouses from late 17^th century

Martello tower from early 19^th century, now holiday accommodation.

WW1 – flying field, buildings along ‘The Street’ and tramway to the quay.  Seawall constructed (‘Chinese Wall’).

In the early 1930s the Bomb Ballistics Building was built from which to monitor the fall of test bombs.

Around 1930 a hexagonal building known as the Black Beacon was constructed on the spit

Photograph taken during the 1990s of the First World War Royal Flying Corps

buildings that were used during the 1930s for radar research, to the left is C13 and to the right

C8, most of the buildings in the centre have subsequently been demolished

WW2 – airfield covered with concrete blocks to prevent enemy use, small number of buildings, batteries and radar added.

Postwar – trials of dropping bombs from aircraft.  Radar station built – see below.

The jetty area in May 1952, at the centre is the long rectangular radar building with SCR

584 radar trailers to either end and a third trailer to the left.

Model Ballistic Firing Range that was built at the southern end of the former RFC area

 

Model ballistics firing range in about 1958.

Early 1960s - five laboratories built equipped with eight large vibrators, which could be used in association with thermal and altitude simulators, and a radiant thermal heat shock facility.

Vibration Test Buildings E2 and E3, or Pagodas, they were built about 1960

Supposedly no testing of radioactive weapons components but one former employee recalled being present during an overnight test on a system with components made of plutonium

Impact Facility F5/171 was built in late 1963 or early 1964, in which a weapon, minus its fissile core, was propelled by a rocket powered sled against a concrete wall.

1971 construction of experimental radar system on north end of spit, later used by BBC World Service, now managed by VT Merlin Communications.

Last trials in 1971 and base closed.  Munitions clearance till 1986 but many unexploded bombs remain on the beach.

Description

 

Orford Ness is accessed from Orford town quay by boat to a Jetty A1 at the northern tip of the spit (Figure 45). To its south is a concrete ramp that allows vehicles to be driven off a landing craft (Figure 14). Adjacent to the jetty a submarine cable was laid to supply the establishment’s electrical power. At the quay are a small number of buildings.  From the jetty a track follows the south shore of the River Ore from which two arms head south towards the old RFC station. This track in part follows the line of the First World War tramway that ran up to and along The Street.

When the National Trust acquired the site in 1993 many of the buildings were in a derelict and dangerous condition and all but 16 were subsequently demolished.

Orford Beach - The main area of AWRE development was to the south of Stony Ditch, where eventually about 80 hectares of Orford Beach was enclosed. Prior to this date most of this area had been part of the bombing range and air photographs show craters caused by exploding bombs, and many of which remain.  Prior to the 1950s there were few buildings in this area, the most prominent was the 18th century lighthouse and its associated cottages.

The magazine area - on the south side of Stony Ditch are a number of structures pre-dating the Second World War associated with the storage and handling of bombs and other aircraft munitions.

Pre-war range buildings - at the eastern end of the AWRE area were a number of structures associated with the bombing range.

First phase AWRE buildings – many buildings described in great detail – laboratories, test facilities, control rooms etc.

Final AWRE phases – impact facility structure, centrifuge buildings etc.  All described in great detail with photographs in the report.

Infrastructure

Power to the site was supplied along an 11kv overhead power line and stepped down by eight transformers.

Around 1960 the security of the establishment was increased when a wire mesh and barbed wire fence was erected – some now removed.

Conclusions

Aviation heritage

Nuclear weapons research heritage - the only former atomic weapons testing site that may be freely visited.

International connections – USA, Australia

“Orford Ness’ cultural significance lies not only in its recent military heritage and the landscape it has created, but also in its intrinsic remoteness, strange desert-like shingle terrain and its dramatic weather patterns. It is this combination of qualities with the striking 20th century ruins set against an apparently barren natural environment that has formed a source of inspiration for many visual and sound artists, including Denis Creffield, Dan Dubowitz, Matthew Roberts, John Wonnacott, and Louise K Wilson”.

Lengthy list of sources

Detailed list and descriptions of buildings with photographs and maps showing locations