Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
send an email // view profile
Black Tower, Orford Ness
I’ve tried to go to Orford Ness for a few years now. It’s where all the British atomic weapons research was conducted through and beyond the Second World War.
The Ness itself is a spit of land off the Suffolk Coast, and despite the fact it’s still peppered with unexploded bombs lingering just below the surface, it’s now owned by the National Trust. You get there by boat - the grandly named Orford Ness Ferry - which is just a small wooden thing with no roof and benches around the edge for you to sit on. It takes 12 people at a time, and the driver, a man who stands at the back and manoeuvres the steering stick with his bum as he sips coffee, makes sure you’re positioned equally on both sides so it doesn’t tip over.
It takes just a few minutes to get to the other side, where you’re met by a guide who hands out maps and sends you on your way. He tells you which bits you can walk on, where you have to keep clear, and what would happen if you strayed (broken legs and emergency evacuations were promised).
Bomb casing, Orford Ness
The whole place is utterly deserted, but for the slowly decaying military buildings. Natrure is slowly taking over, pushing its way through broken window panes and creeping over the edges of the roads. It seems to be well cared for, but while some of the buildings are set out with small displays - really just laminated papers and photos pinned to the walls - others are falling into disrepair. You can’t go in the old bombing range buildings, but you can climb on top of the bomb balistics building, in which they would measure the stresses on Britain’s first test fleet of nuclear weapons as they were dropped on the land all around. You can’t walk through the centrifuge buildings (although you can look at them through an iron gate), but you can go inside the now stripped-bare control room.
Lighthouse, Orford Ness
It’s a fascinating place to visit, and somewhere you could easily spend a whole day. There is so much military debris - much of it totally unidentifiable - half burried or just sitting out in the open. One end of the spit, which is out of bounds at this time of year, is the site of the ultra-secret Cobra Mist project, where Britain and America worked on a radar system that would enable them to see over the horizon. They set yp an enormous array of masts, and strung aerials between them. About the size of a small housing development, this massive construction was only ever moderately successful, and was eventually abandoned. The BBC now owns it, and uses the masts and aerials to broadcast the World Service to Eastern Europe.
Wire rolls, Orford Ness
I was there for about three hours, having assumed I’d need only an hour, but I could so easily have spent double that time. There is a strange, desolate beauty to the place, and a real feeling that you are somewhere you shouldn’t be. This was one of the most secretive, hidden places in Britain for several decades, and we’ll probably never know about all of the things that were done here. It was a genius location, too. Orford itself is a small village, so it would be easy to monitor everyone who came near and outsiders would be quickly noticed. Beyond the village is a wide belt of forest and scrubland that separates it from the rest of the county, so few people would stumble upon it by chance.
As so I imagine I’ll be heading back. Probably in August, when you can get closer to the Cobra Mist site, and when the radar stations might be open. They very occasionally open up the bomb shelters, too, but if you want to go into them you have to be accompanied, which I think means joining an organised tour.
They do give you a lot of freedom there, though. There is nobody to accompany you, and it would be easy to head off the marked tracks and wander through the more dangerous areas without being seen. You could, conceivably, hide out there for some time, but as they check you onto and off it with a named and numbered ticket system it would be immediately obvious you’d not made it back to the mainland.
Inside a building at Orford Ness
I was back on the mainland by 15h, so drove along the coast to Thorpeness, and then on to Sizewell Beach, a surprisingly pleasant, if pebbly beach backing on to a long narrow heath that seperates it from Sizewell nuclear power station. It’s an immense building, and can be quite noisy at times, perhaps when Corronation Street comes on and everyone switches on the TV.
In all, a fantastic day. Lots of walking, and quite tiring, but very interesting, and fantastic weather - a short shower aside. If it wasn’t so close to London, I think I could quite happily live on the Suffolk coast.
Sizewell Beach
Related posts:
- Orford Ness Redux
Orford Ness Lighthouse There's something quite charming about Orford Ness. There must be: this is the second time I've been in two years. It... - His fate was sealed
For April, the weather is unseasonably warm. The weekend has been wall-to-wall sunshine, and hot with it. The trees are heavy with blossom, the... - Coast to Coast
I looked up some books about the Coast to Coast walk on Amazon. Top hit? 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker. Unless that's...
One Response to “A Nuclear Day”
Leave a Reply
I visited Orford over twenty years ago, and had heard rumours about the “strange goings on” over the small stretch of water, going back decades. Among the stories was the one about Orfordness being the inspiration for the Jack Higgins novel “The Eagle Has Landed”, our experimental radar being the target, not Sir Winston.
• Posted at 2:38 am on August 5th, 2006 by John.“Cobra Mist” was deemed, at the time of closure, to be less than successful, although it was a major bargaining “chip” in an arms limitation treaty signed only a few months before! Maybe it didn’t work, but certain occurrances led the Commies to believe it did, and maybe helped end the Cold War, a little quicker that most could have hoped for.