# Sennybridge Ranges



## smiffy (Jul 10, 2008)

The FIBUA village on Sennybridge Range Wales.
Visited summer of last year ….
This is one of the British Armies special training areas up in the Welsh Mountains. ..It’s used for practising combat techniques…building infiltration / hostage rescue / urban assaults / house to house fighting etc…. built during the Cold War period to resemble as closely as possible a village such as may be fought in or through somewhere in Germany or Poland etc………………. 
(this isn’t the only one , there are a few other ‘FIBUAs’ around the country )
…Around the ‘village’ are a lot of shot up vehicles and bucket loads of spent ammo lying everywhere on the floor ….. The village includes a church , a cemetery , a sports field , houses and farmyards….there’s even a ‘half finished’ house the builders have ‘legged’ it from cos of the fighting heh heh ! ..
The vehicles (as far as I can work out) include: a few T55 50s/60s era Soviet Main Battle Tanks (also used by many satellite commie countries ) an early model Chieftain Battle Tank , quite a number of FV432 Armoured Infantry Carriers , an old Humber ‘Pig’ Armoured Car , more than a few Bedford Trucks and a brace or so of dead Landrovers , also civilian type cars and pick up trucks are scattered around….
To the back of the village is open country with a few more dead vehicles including a Pucaro (?) Argentine Ground Attack Aircraft of Falklands War era and more tanks and trucks etc……….All the vehicles with the exception of one of the T55 tanks are really shot up and battle knackered…A ‘civilian’ pickup truck (that I somehow didn’t photograph sorry!) looked more like a giant pepper pot where it had been well and truly ‘hosed down’ so many times with automatic fire….
All in all a great mooch and access is ok and ‘sort of semi-legal’ just as long as the Army ain’t there on exercise…If they are , you’ll know about it long before you get anywhere near this place anyways !!!!













































http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h27/smiffy_2006/126_2618.jpg[/IMG
[ATTACH=full]18101[/ATTACH]
The Drovers Arms Inn. Closed by the War Dept when they took over the Sennybridge Range area in approx 1942


----------



## Atomager (Jul 10, 2008)

Nice. Certainly a bit different. Is there anything left in the pub?


----------



## King Al (Jul 11, 2008)

Looks like a cool place, like the Tank in pic 1 + 2


----------



## smiffy (Jul 11, 2008)

Atomager said:


> Nice. Certainly a bit different. Is there anything left in the pub?


Not much..Its used as a sorta 'command post' when exercises are on...the old pub is about 2 ish miles from where the photos were taken..Behind me when I took the photo was a few Landrovers and a unit / platoon or whatever were shooting the shit outta each other with blanks...
Apparently it was rebult a few years ago after being allowed to become derelict...
The pub sign shows a rare dash of MoD humour it says 'The Drovers Arms , Ministry of Defence Brewery'
If you put Drovers Arms Sennybridge into Google or try 
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/page45.html 
you should find a load of interesting info on the ranges and the old pub , when it was taken over and what happened to the folk from the villages up there on the ranges etc.......The range is very big and enclosed dozens of farmhouses , cottages and little hamlets when it was 'built'..alll the folk were told to leave their homes and have never been allowed back..


----------



## borntobemild (Jul 11, 2008)

just had to google fibua as i'm not au fait with military stuff

Dead tanks and the stalwart look fantastic!

those look suspiciously like boxes of ammunition in Pic 9


----------



## smileysal (Jul 11, 2008)

That place looks excellent. Just reading the link you've put up. amazing reading. 

Like the look of the church, at least I think its the church, and the drovers arms, that place looks great. 

Excellent pics,

 Sal


----------



## MD (Jul 11, 2008)

looks a great explore i could spend ages there


----------



## rockhopper (Jul 11, 2008)

FIBUA = Fighting In Built Up Areas


----------



## chelle (Jul 11, 2008)

*Great stuff*

Really loved this report.....many thanxx for sharing
Stu


----------



## Foxylady (Jul 13, 2008)

Really interesting place. It's similar to Tyneham village in Dorset which was evacuated by the MOD for the same reason. Looks completely different in character, though. Love the rusty old tanks.


----------



## Braveheart1984 (Jul 17, 2008)

You also hear them calling it F.I.S.H as well. Fighting In Someone's House.


----------

