RX407195
ORFORD NESS, Suffolk, UK.
Lots of military and scientific development work was carried out here from 1917 onwards, including early Radar (RDF), bomb sight testing, aircraft armament testing, long range communications...
.
.. and latterly, Nuclear Weapon Tests. No really.
In the 1950s the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) took up residence on Orford Ness. Atomic bombs were tested here.
Not the actual nuclear stuff, but the everything else involved in an atomic bomb explosion. Vibration, temperature extremes and G forces were measured here. They even dropped bombs here with warheads (but without the fissile material).
There are many derelict buildings still (just about) standing involved with the nuclear testing.
Pictured here is the Black Beacon, looking like just another abandoned East Anglian windmill but it was a never a windmill. It was built to house a rotating loop navigation beacon, this was part of homing beacon experiments.
At the top of the image are the remains of the Bomb Ballistics building, originally used to monitor ordnance drops. The concrete circle adjacent to the building is curious and may have been part of a British long range "over the horizon" radar test installation.
The site was closed in 1971 and is now a nature reserve, administered by The National Trust. Nevertheless, many of the curious buildings remain, (and are now scheduled monuments) hinting at the secret and sometimes mysterious work that went on here.
RX407195
ORFORD NESS, Suffolk, UK.
Lots of military and scientific development work was carried out here from 1917 onwards, including early Radar (RDF), bomb sight testing, aircraft armament testing, long range communications...
.
.. and latterly, Nuclear Weapon Tests. No really.
In the 1950s the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) took up residence on Orford Ness. Atomic bombs were tested here.
Not the actual nuclear stuff, but the everything else involved in an atomic bomb explosion. Vibration, temperature extremes and G forces were measured here. They even dropped bombs here with warheads (but without the fissile material).
There are many derelict buildings still (just about) standing involved with the nuclear testing.
Pictured here is the Black Beacon, looking like just another abandoned East Anglian windmill but it was a never a windmill. It was built to house a rotating loop navigation beacon, this was part of homing beacon experiments.
At the top of the image are the remains of the Bomb Ballistics building, originally used to monitor ordnance drops. The concrete circle adjacent to the building is curious and may have been part of a British long range "over the horizon" radar test installation.
The site was closed in 1971 and is now a nature reserve, administered by The National Trust. Nevertheless, many of the curious buildings remain, (and are now scheduled monuments) hinting at the secret and sometimes mysterious work that went on here.