Bury Internalz

Carrying on with the Mil Derp Cold War vibe from earlier posts…..enjoy

Bulk Fuel Storage (WW2)
Transmitter Building
Briefing Room (Badly lightpainted…)
Flora & Fauna 🙂

Building 25 – Decontamination Area

More rush lightpainting (soz about passing headtorches…)

Better this time…(shot in total darkness)

Building 25 Hard Area

Parachute Store (Building 51)

 

Photographic Processing and Interpretation Facility (Building 69)

 

Watford ROC Group HQ No.5

Finally and as promised some Cold War content for you…Watford ROC Group HQ opened on 18th November 1961, finished operationally in 1968 and closed in 1973 before being sold in 1974. These days the site is owned by the Park Veterinary Centrewho’s surgery and offices are sited in theWW2 ROC buildings on the main road and use the bunker at the rear of the site for storage.Many original items have been stripped over the years but a vast amount of original features are still intact so it was well worth a visit.

RAF Wymeswold 28OTU & 44 Group Transport Command – Part 2

Final set of photos from last year’s visit to RAF Wymeswold 28OTU. Part One of these photos (including history) can be found HERE.
Building No.27. Drawing no. 147/41 25 Yard Machine Gun Range

Building No.24. Drawing no. 7828/41 Motor Transport, Offices, Bays & Ramps
Building No.21. Drawing no. 7821/41 Gas Clothing Store
Building No.21. Drawing no. 7821/41 Gas Clothing Store
Building No.5. Drawing no. 7829/41 Guard House
Building No.5. Drawing no. 7829/41 Guard House
Building No.25. Drawing no. 18648/40 Electrical Sub Station
Revo T2 Mk.II Taxiway Light
Picket Post – Bulk Fuel Site

Maidstone – 1 Group ROC HQ – Part Two

Here is the rest of the pictures from Maidstone – 1 Group ROC HQ, as mentioned in the previous blog post time was very very tight so the pictures were rushed, apologies for this.

These remaining shots are of the Plant Room, escape hatches and rooftop.

Maidstone – 1 Group ROC HQ – Part One

Maidstone – 1 Group ROC HQ was built in 1959 and opened on the 25th June 1960 on an existing site for 1 Group Royal Observer Corps that had been operational since 1939.

Maidstone was part of the Metropolitan Sector, along with Horsham, Oxford, Colchester and Winchester. Each Group HQ controlled between 20 and 30 ROC Posts and collated data from all of these sites at five minute intervals. The information was then logged and plotted at the HQ where they would produce fallout predictions based on current weather conditions, log the detonation type (burst height) and location/yield before disseminating this information out to other locations such as UKWMO HQ, Regional Government Headquarters and other military sites.

Since closure in 1992 1 Group ROC HQ has been owned by a local Solicitors who until recently used the structure for archive storage.

It is of the same design as all of the ROC Group HQ’s in that its construction is of  a semi sunken type, containing a totally sealed environment for ROC staff to operate in during operations. This particular Group HQ is in very good condition with all of the plant, filtration and ventilation systems intact and most likely operational. Recently the HQ has had a new roof fitted in order to try and combat the obvious damp issues the structure has.

Time was extremely limited at this location so the photo’s were very rushed, apologies for any poor shots!! (I’ve already dumped 70+…)

Type 22 Pillboxes – Norfolk

Came across these whilst on a recent Road Trip, a couple of rather sorry looking Type 22 Pillboxes on the North Norfolk Coast. One had been built into the Sea Defences and the other had fallen upside down off a clifftop…The reason for this is the rather pathetic looking Sea Defences that were installed in the 1950’s, the cliffs lose 2 meters a year in erosion from the North Sea.

Next to fall in are several houses and then a lifeboat station…

Ravensden ROC Post – Bedfordshire Group

Opened – Unknown
Closed – October 1968


There isn’t too much that can be said about this post as you can see from the pictures. I’m not entirely sure when it was capped with concrete and steel bar but its at least 15 years ago, also I’m not sure if it is just a cap or in fact they poured rubble down the shaft and topped it with concrete. If I run out of things to do before I die I might go back with a large can of PlusGas and ‘FSM Cam’ it just out of idle curiosity.

Great location geographically with great vision all round, or certainly would have been before the odd building and trees that have sprang up since the 1950’s. Bedford is one of those unusual counties with very few ROC Posts, despite the fact that Bedford ROC Group HQ No 7 was the HQ for the UKWMO Midlands Sector, covering many more counties at the time.

Nature has certainly claimed back this post…

Collyweston ESA (RAF Wittering Bomb Store) – Part Two

Here are some more pictures from our recent explore at Collyweston ESA (RAF Wittering Bomb Store), the full write up and history can be found here
Note the Substation that is the size of a small car, someone has even tried to ‘remove’ that from the site…

Collyweston ESA (RAF Wittering Bomb Store) – Part One

Built around 1955 as a Remote Weapons Store for RAFWittering after the airfield changed use over several years from a Fighter Station to a Bomber Command Station, now decommissioned and awaiting ‘Adaptive Reuse’,Collyweston ESA is a fascinating site set deep in the woods with an eerie silence across it, occasionally punctuated by calling Red Kites soaring high above the treetops.A Yarnold Sangar Pillbox with an extra section on it forms part of the gate defences adjacent to a Guard House, Sub Station, Mains Room and Admin buildings, various roadways open up and 10 Bomb Maintenance Buildings are located towards the front of the site, the revetted buildings reportedly for 1000lb High Explosive bombs and Cluster Bomb Units.

Behind this and deep into the compound are rows and rows of explosive storage units: Thirty ‘Dutch Barns’ (some demolished) for storage of BL755 Cluster Bombs (manufactured by Hunting Engineering in Ampthill, Bedfordshire), several more 1000lb HE storage buildings, 68mm SNEB Rocket storage buildings and perhaps the most interesting, nine hardened ‘Igloo’ cells with filtered air supply and totally enclosed electrical supplies. These hardened units were used for storing ‘unspecified’ American explosives from RAF Lakenheath.

Given the size and construction of the Igloo cells compared to the other buildings and the fact they are the farthest away from the RAF Wittering runway, whatever was in these shelters were some serious toys. Contrary to popular theories though, this site was never used for Project E weapons, these type of weapons remained in the Igloos at RAF Wittering SSA as the US Military insisted that such weapons were never dispersed. This caused some conflict with the RAF who would rather have dispersed the V Force at times of high political tension. The SSA at RAF Wittering is still intact, although derelict and the unusual Fissile Core Stores can still be seen. Both the ESA and SSA share common design features and some of the doors are identical at both sites.

The site has also been used for many illegal raves over the years, mainly by the An Watt Sound System on Bank Holiday weekends. The kiddie ravers have left a massive amount of rubbish on site now, it’s down to them that thousands of mini ‘Nangs/Whippits‘ cartridges, NOS balloons and bigger NOS Bottles now carpet most of the site.

I don’t have a problem with illegal raves, been to plenty myself, just clear your shit up when you leave, that’s all…

In recent years ‘travellers’ have helped themselves to miles of 3-phase armoured cable, pipework for the underground fire prevention system and virtually all of the aluminium lamp posts. The Mains Room has been gutted and there’s even been an attempt to remove the Sub Station!

Yarnold Sangar Pillbox

Bomb Maintenance Buildings
BL755 Cluster Bomb Storage

SNEB Rocket Storage
Igloo’s

RAF Kings Cliffe/USAAF Station 367 – Part Two

Here are some more pictures from this visit to RAF Kings Cliffe/USAAF Station 367

Airfield & Technical Site. Fighter Pen (Building 112)
Airfield & Technical Site. Stanton Shelter
 Airfield & Technical Site. Control Tower for Night Fighter Stations (Building 79)
Airfield & Technical Site. Private Branch Exchange (Building 78)
 
Battle Headquarters (Building 90)
Fighter Pen, work area & Stanton Shelter