From the Lab to Outside
Laboratory 1, part of the AWRE phase of Orford Ness.
Day trip to Orford Ness and Orford Castle
Orford Ness is a vegetated shingle spit, approximately 10 miles long; it is separated from the medieval port of Orford by the River Alde.
Prior to the C20 Orford Ness was a rarely visited place; the main economic activity was animal grazing on reclaimed marsh land. In 1915 the Armament and Experimental Flight of the Royal Flying Corps (later known formally as the Aircraft Armament and Gunnery Experimental Establishment) established a flying field on King’s Marshes to the west of the ditch, now known as the Airfield Marshes, serviced by a range of ancillary buildings arranged along a single track known since 1993 as ‘The Street’, on which ran a narrow-gauge light railway which led back to the jetty. Its main areas of investigation were the evaluation and suitability of aircraft, machine guns and gun sights, bomb sights, night flying and navigation, and a huge range of research projects to solve technical difficulties encountered in action. From 1924 the airfield was re-occupied as a satellite station of the Airplane and Armament Experimental Establishment based at Martlesham Heath. During their tenure, a number of structures were constructed on Orford Beach. Due to its remoteness one of the main activities at Orford Ness was the investigation of bomb ballistics; the study of the flight of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity. Other experimental work continued into the inter-war period on Orford Ness. In 1935, a small experimental radar team arrived and conducted experiments that were critical in proving the value of this technology, turning the theory into a practical air defence system. Between 1953 and 1971, the spit was occupied by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Its primary task was environmental testing to simulate the conditions that nuclear weapons and their components might experience during trials and in service use. Here science and high politics merged, with investigations that were crucial to the credibility of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent forces, the cornerstone of Cold War defence policy...
...With the introduction of the WE177 and the Polaris system, there was relatively little new work in prospect and in April 1969 the decision was announced to close Orford Ness and to move many of its functions to Aldermaston. The last trial took place on 9 June 1971and the establishment closed on Friday 1 October 1971. On 24 July 1972 Orford Ness formally passed from AWRE to No.2 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit of the RAF. In the following decades they worked to clear the range of unexploded munitions and brought other munitions on to the spit for destruction. This work ceased about 1986, although many unexploded munitions still remain on Orford Ness, and some limited work may have carried on here until the early 1990s. Following negotiations with the Ministry of Defence, the National Trust acquired Orford Ness in 1993.
[HistoricEngland.org]
From the Lab to Outside
Laboratory 1, part of the AWRE phase of Orford Ness.
Day trip to Orford Ness and Orford Castle
Orford Ness is a vegetated shingle spit, approximately 10 miles long; it is separated from the medieval port of Orford by the River Alde.
Prior to the C20 Orford Ness was a rarely visited place; the main economic activity was animal grazing on reclaimed marsh land. In 1915 the Armament and Experimental Flight of the Royal Flying Corps (later known formally as the Aircraft Armament and Gunnery Experimental Establishment) established a flying field on King’s Marshes to the west of the ditch, now known as the Airfield Marshes, serviced by a range of ancillary buildings arranged along a single track known since 1993 as ‘The Street’, on which ran a narrow-gauge light railway which led back to the jetty. Its main areas of investigation were the evaluation and suitability of aircraft, machine guns and gun sights, bomb sights, night flying and navigation, and a huge range of research projects to solve technical difficulties encountered in action. From 1924 the airfield was re-occupied as a satellite station of the Airplane and Armament Experimental Establishment based at Martlesham Heath. During their tenure, a number of structures were constructed on Orford Beach. Due to its remoteness one of the main activities at Orford Ness was the investigation of bomb ballistics; the study of the flight of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity. Other experimental work continued into the inter-war period on Orford Ness. In 1935, a small experimental radar team arrived and conducted experiments that were critical in proving the value of this technology, turning the theory into a practical air defence system. Between 1953 and 1971, the spit was occupied by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Its primary task was environmental testing to simulate the conditions that nuclear weapons and their components might experience during trials and in service use. Here science and high politics merged, with investigations that were crucial to the credibility of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent forces, the cornerstone of Cold War defence policy...
...With the introduction of the WE177 and the Polaris system, there was relatively little new work in prospect and in April 1969 the decision was announced to close Orford Ness and to move many of its functions to Aldermaston. The last trial took place on 9 June 1971and the establishment closed on Friday 1 October 1971. On 24 July 1972 Orford Ness formally passed from AWRE to No.2 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit of the RAF. In the following decades they worked to clear the range of unexploded munitions and brought other munitions on to the spit for destruction. This work ceased about 1986, although many unexploded munitions still remain on Orford Ness, and some limited work may have carried on here until the early 1990s. Following negotiations with the Ministry of Defence, the National Trust acquired Orford Ness in 1993.
[HistoricEngland.org]