This was quite the extraordinary place to explore. A whole day is required to get round this place!
The base is located on an isolated spit of land on the Suffolk coast, so narrow that in places you can cast a stone from one side to the other, seems an unlikely place to find the remnants of nearly a century of advanced scientific military research.
Orford Ness has been in military use ever since 1913. For the greater part of the 20th century it was one of the most secret experimental military sites in the country and was used for a vast range of things, from testing the integrity of aircraft by relentlessly shooting at them and searching for vulnerabilities, to testing bombs, early radar systems technology and even testing atomic weapons and their components...
The first part we encountered on our explore was the Orfordness transmitting station.
Building started mid-1967 and completed 10th July 1971. This experimental Anglo-American military over-the-horizon scatter radar known as Cobra Mist was built on the peninsula with the intention of detecting craft over the horizon. Through the early part of 1972 testing found a considerable amount of unexpected noise, which appeared as frequency shifting of the signal. A lengthy series of investigations into the source of the noise followed and, in desperation, the USAF eventually turned over the testing to a panel headed by SRI. The new team continued testing from January to May 1973, but no convincing explanation was ever found. The USAF simply gave up and on 30 June 1973 the system was shut down, never having been used operationally. It is estimated to have cost between $100 and $150 million and was the largest radar facility in the world.
Orfordness transmitting station became the new home of BBC medium wave transmissions to the continent in 1978 after the November wavelength changes. With increasing reliance on other delivery methods for their overseas programmes, the BBC took the decision in 2010 to cease all UK-based medium wave transmissions for the external services, and the transmitters fell silent in March 2011. However, later that year 648 kHz returned to service for several months following the catastrophic collapse of a major transmitting mast in Holland, providing a replacement medium wave service for the lost Dutch FM transmissions.
In November 2017 Radio Caroline started using the reserve 648 kHz mast, which I believe is still in use.
As we approached, we were greeted by the huge antenna masts and this rather unattractive building:
Water channel around the site makes it feel like it's protected by moat as well as the fences:
Could do with a good jet wash
The six 1296 kHz masts (beam bearing 96°) used for years to carry BBC Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovene, Slovak and German vernacular transmissions.
The masts visible at the site today date from the BBC's later use of the site as a radio transmitting station for the Foreign Office and the BBC World Service.
Another layer of fence protection as you get close
Getting good signal on Sky Sports was never an issue
My dog Ananda has decided it's time to move onto the military stuff!
Looking back at the transmitting station before heading over the bridge to the military area
Quite a bit of wildlife here.
Before getting to the exciting stuff, we were greeted by some pretty standard buildings and offices
Designated dying area
Time to head over to the interesting stuff!
The Bomb Ballistics Building, looking seawards.
The Bomb Ballistics Building was built in 1933 as the centrepiece for a new bombing range – the rapidly increasing performance and carrying capacity of aircraft making bombing now more a science than an art.
Housing what was at the time state-of-the-art camera equipment, scientists in the blockhouse would record the flight of bombs dropped out to sea and analyse the results with a view to making design improvements.
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment
1953, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) moved in and appears to have had exclusive control of the site from 1959.
Orford Ness is one of the few places known where purpose built facilities were created for testing atomic weapons and their components. Blue Danube, Britain’s first atomic bomb, was lowered by crane into a specially-constructed pit to be tested. Tests were designed to imitate the extreme conditions such weapons would be subjected to prior to detonation – vibration, high temperatures, shocks, G-forces.
The outside of the AWRE Lab 1. Note the shingle piled up to contain explosions
Looking inside
Roof has seen better days!
Large pieces of rusty metal scattered about
We had a right blast exploring in here...
This place is off the rails...
Although officially no nuclear material was involved, a test failure of the initiator could have resulted in a major explosion. This is why the huge test labs were designed with pillar-supported concrete roofs and shingle revetments – to absorb and contain an accidental explosion.
Pagodas
Perhaps the most distinctive buildings from this period are the two "pagoda" test labs – or AWRE Vibration Test Buildings – at the far end of the site. Their unique construction was designed to withstand the accidental detonation of 400lbs (181.4kg) of high explosives.
The buildings were designed as compression tanks – in the event of an accident concerning high explosives, the roofs would collapse, enclosing the building as with a great concrete tomb.
Looking over at the lighthouse
Looking down inside the pagoda
This building is near the pagodas
Floor tiles still like new
This building had these odd large white tiles with holes in on the walls. Any ideas what these were??
Thanks for looking
Last part of the explore coming in another post.
Sources:
What really happened at Orford Ness? - A Bit About Britain
https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/24/geeks_guide_to_orford_ness/https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Orford_Ness
The base is located on an isolated spit of land on the Suffolk coast, so narrow that in places you can cast a stone from one side to the other, seems an unlikely place to find the remnants of nearly a century of advanced scientific military research.
Orford Ness has been in military use ever since 1913. For the greater part of the 20th century it was one of the most secret experimental military sites in the country and was used for a vast range of things, from testing the integrity of aircraft by relentlessly shooting at them and searching for vulnerabilities, to testing bombs, early radar systems technology and even testing atomic weapons and their components...
The first part we encountered on our explore was the Orfordness transmitting station.
Building started mid-1967 and completed 10th July 1971. This experimental Anglo-American military over-the-horizon scatter radar known as Cobra Mist was built on the peninsula with the intention of detecting craft over the horizon. Through the early part of 1972 testing found a considerable amount of unexpected noise, which appeared as frequency shifting of the signal. A lengthy series of investigations into the source of the noise followed and, in desperation, the USAF eventually turned over the testing to a panel headed by SRI. The new team continued testing from January to May 1973, but no convincing explanation was ever found. The USAF simply gave up and on 30 June 1973 the system was shut down, never having been used operationally. It is estimated to have cost between $100 and $150 million and was the largest radar facility in the world.
Orfordness transmitting station became the new home of BBC medium wave transmissions to the continent in 1978 after the November wavelength changes. With increasing reliance on other delivery methods for their overseas programmes, the BBC took the decision in 2010 to cease all UK-based medium wave transmissions for the external services, and the transmitters fell silent in March 2011. However, later that year 648 kHz returned to service for several months following the catastrophic collapse of a major transmitting mast in Holland, providing a replacement medium wave service for the lost Dutch FM transmissions.
In November 2017 Radio Caroline started using the reserve 648 kHz mast, which I believe is still in use.
As we approached, we were greeted by the huge antenna masts and this rather unattractive building:
Water channel around the site makes it feel like it's protected by moat as well as the fences:
Could do with a good jet wash
The six 1296 kHz masts (beam bearing 96°) used for years to carry BBC Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovene, Slovak and German vernacular transmissions.
The masts visible at the site today date from the BBC's later use of the site as a radio transmitting station for the Foreign Office and the BBC World Service.
Another layer of fence protection as you get close
Getting good signal on Sky Sports was never an issue
My dog Ananda has decided it's time to move onto the military stuff!
Looking back at the transmitting station before heading over the bridge to the military area
Quite a bit of wildlife here.
Before getting to the exciting stuff, we were greeted by some pretty standard buildings and offices
Designated dying area
Time to head over to the interesting stuff!
The Bomb Ballistics Building, looking seawards.
The Bomb Ballistics Building was built in 1933 as the centrepiece for a new bombing range – the rapidly increasing performance and carrying capacity of aircraft making bombing now more a science than an art.
Housing what was at the time state-of-the-art camera equipment, scientists in the blockhouse would record the flight of bombs dropped out to sea and analyse the results with a view to making design improvements.
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment
1953, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) moved in and appears to have had exclusive control of the site from 1959.
Orford Ness is one of the few places known where purpose built facilities were created for testing atomic weapons and their components. Blue Danube, Britain’s first atomic bomb, was lowered by crane into a specially-constructed pit to be tested. Tests were designed to imitate the extreme conditions such weapons would be subjected to prior to detonation – vibration, high temperatures, shocks, G-forces.
The outside of the AWRE Lab 1. Note the shingle piled up to contain explosions
Looking inside
Roof has seen better days!
Large pieces of rusty metal scattered about
We had a right blast exploring in here...
This place is off the rails...
Although officially no nuclear material was involved, a test failure of the initiator could have resulted in a major explosion. This is why the huge test labs were designed with pillar-supported concrete roofs and shingle revetments – to absorb and contain an accidental explosion.
Pagodas
Perhaps the most distinctive buildings from this period are the two "pagoda" test labs – or AWRE Vibration Test Buildings – at the far end of the site. Their unique construction was designed to withstand the accidental detonation of 400lbs (181.4kg) of high explosives.
The buildings were designed as compression tanks – in the event of an accident concerning high explosives, the roofs would collapse, enclosing the building as with a great concrete tomb.
Looking over at the lighthouse
Looking down inside the pagoda
This building is near the pagodas
Floor tiles still like new
This building had these odd large white tiles with holes in on the walls. Any ideas what these were??
Thanks for looking
Last part of the explore coming in another post.Sources:
What really happened at Orford Ness? - A Bit About Britain
https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/24/geeks_guide_to_orford_ness/https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Orford_Ness
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