Jan 9, 2023 10:39 PM
(This post was last modified: Jan 9, 2023 10:41 PM by C C.)
Orford Ness is now one of Britain's most protected natural landscapes. For decades, however, it was the hidden nerve centre of secret military research.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230...ns-area-51
INTRO: Orford Ness is Britain's answer to Area 51. It may now be abandoned, some of its research still secret, and much of its land too dangerous to walk over, but its past continues to ripple through the country's present and future.
The former top-secret site of Orford Ness is situated on a spit of land about 100 miles (160km) north-east of London on the Suffolk coast. The twisting country roads that take you there make it seem much further, however. When I arrive after a long car journey, it is impossible to tear my eyes away from the triangular rooftops of the disused nuclear weapon laboratories lining the horizon. The need to funnel any explosion upwards gave two of the laboratories their unique pagoda-like shape. All but their roofs are hidden behind a huge earthen wall, which blocks the view of curious onlookers as well as protecting the site from the sea.
The laboratories are separated from the mainland by the river Orford, and for over 100 years visitors have taken the ferry across. Now it's my turn and I join the 150 or so other ticket holders who troop past the easily overlooked, and rather vague, memorial stone to those men and women who crossed the river to "serve their country".
When I clamber off the boat, I quickly lose my sense of space and time. Apart from the wind, it is silent. There are no cars, tea shops or trees. There is little shelter from the sun.
I don't see the ruins of laboratories as I expect, but big sky country: an epic landscape seemingly impossible to fit into this narrow shingle peninsula.
In one direction, marshland stretches to a huge shingle bank where nuclear weapons casings were whirled round in a huge laboratory centrifuge to test their safety. In another, it stretches to a vast bunker-like building with 12 tall transmission masts towering over it. This is all that's left of the huge £500m-£600m ($604m-$725m) – in 2022 money – Cobra Mist over-the-horizon radar system, and that in turn is lost under the wide blue sky. The white dome of Sizewell nuclear power station is visible in the distance.
As my eyes get used to the landscape, I notice the marshland is criss-crossed by lines of concrete supports for security fences that have been taken down. Gates hanging off their hinges. Petrol pumps spilling wires. Electricity power transformers drowning in vegetation.
Further on, I stumble across the Island of Secrets exhibition in the former WW1 officers mess that tells the story of Orford Ness.
The whole of this coastline is awash with history and mystery; there are stories of a failed German invasion, and even of an infamous UFO "encounter" in the nearby Rendlesham Forest in 1985... (MORE - details)
Orford Ness Secret History ... https://youtu.be/ANTeKoDg2hw
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hg0ZIfM8tJU
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230...ns-area-51
INTRO: Orford Ness is Britain's answer to Area 51. It may now be abandoned, some of its research still secret, and much of its land too dangerous to walk over, but its past continues to ripple through the country's present and future.
The former top-secret site of Orford Ness is situated on a spit of land about 100 miles (160km) north-east of London on the Suffolk coast. The twisting country roads that take you there make it seem much further, however. When I arrive after a long car journey, it is impossible to tear my eyes away from the triangular rooftops of the disused nuclear weapon laboratories lining the horizon. The need to funnel any explosion upwards gave two of the laboratories their unique pagoda-like shape. All but their roofs are hidden behind a huge earthen wall, which blocks the view of curious onlookers as well as protecting the site from the sea.
The laboratories are separated from the mainland by the river Orford, and for over 100 years visitors have taken the ferry across. Now it's my turn and I join the 150 or so other ticket holders who troop past the easily overlooked, and rather vague, memorial stone to those men and women who crossed the river to "serve their country".
When I clamber off the boat, I quickly lose my sense of space and time. Apart from the wind, it is silent. There are no cars, tea shops or trees. There is little shelter from the sun.
I don't see the ruins of laboratories as I expect, but big sky country: an epic landscape seemingly impossible to fit into this narrow shingle peninsula.
In one direction, marshland stretches to a huge shingle bank where nuclear weapons casings were whirled round in a huge laboratory centrifuge to test their safety. In another, it stretches to a vast bunker-like building with 12 tall transmission masts towering over it. This is all that's left of the huge £500m-£600m ($604m-$725m) – in 2022 money – Cobra Mist over-the-horizon radar system, and that in turn is lost under the wide blue sky. The white dome of Sizewell nuclear power station is visible in the distance.
As my eyes get used to the landscape, I notice the marshland is criss-crossed by lines of concrete supports for security fences that have been taken down. Gates hanging off their hinges. Petrol pumps spilling wires. Electricity power transformers drowning in vegetation.
Further on, I stumble across the Island of Secrets exhibition in the former WW1 officers mess that tells the story of Orford Ness.
The whole of this coastline is awash with history and mystery; there are stories of a failed German invasion, and even of an infamous UFO "encounter" in the nearby Rendlesham Forest in 1985... (MORE - details)
Orford Ness Secret History ... https://youtu.be/ANTeKoDg2hw