Yet again my Zero Alpha (wife) declared that we must have a holiday; I do find this irksome, interfering as it does with my day to day role of stalling on projects and otherwise procrastinating on half-built kits.
Oh well; this time it was to Norfolk, or rather the NE bit – although not far from the famous Norfolk Broads, which I had hoped was perhaps a user-friendly female species, but it was not to be. Sorry, dreadful joke.
However, all was not lost I thought; Norfolk is home to several former Thor missile sites, and therefore I dug out an atlas and some highlighters and set to. Just in case the casual reader is wondering what the hell I’m blathering on about, back in 1957 (amazingly so soon after the Suez bust-up) the UK and US agreed on the positioning of some 60 Thor IRBMs on Brit soil. This was all within the code name of Project Emily – so take it from there chaps and get Googling. You might find it fascinating – I clearly do. One Saturday morning in Oct 1962, 59 missiles were all brought to launch readiness. Ring any bells? The Cuban Missile crisis! The V Bomber force was also on alert. Anyway, I digress. Not much is left of the sites but that’s the fun I find with military archaeology. When we visited Lincolnshire some years ago, in addition to clambering over fences and concrete rubble trying to imagine gleaming white missiles with RAF roundels, I was chased out of some farmland whilst studying the former ACE High site at Stenigot (have another Google – gripping stuff – the deployment and set up that is, not me running hell for leather to my wife who ended up as getaway car driver.)
Thinking that she may have at last warmed to the theme despite the Lincolnshire experience I plotted the former sites of Feltwell, Mepal, North Pickenham, Shepherd’s Grove and Tuddenham; I had no idea what, if anything was left, but as I say, that was the fun.
Sadly, as she delicately and sympathetically explained, “If you think I’m clomping around wet farmland looking at bits of old concrete, barbed wire and brick you must be out of your tiny mind”.
Hmmm.
I’d have to think again. As it happened, the weather at the beginning of last week wasn’t brilliant, so the nearby beach was off the agenda; ever mindful of the quirks of the female brain (let alone my wife’s scathing wit), I suggested that we go for a “general drive” and perhaps a “pub lunch”. My Plan B had cunningly factored in the AD and Radar Museum at Neatishead, which just happened to be along the route I’d suggested (off the A 1062 near Horning if you’re interested).
Unfortunately, dogs were not permitted in the museum so she waited outside in the pouring rain commiserating with Wren, our Working Cocker, whilst I spent a hasty 35 minutes or so inside a very well organised museum, giving the history of the site, WW2 activities and more interestingly to me, the Cold War period; I ended up missing part of a brief on Ex Able Archer 83 (Google that folks and you’ll think the Cuban Missile crisis was a minor disagreement).
As you can hopefully see from the photos, in addition to the museum buildings, some serious concrete adjacent to the site, which whilst not on the scale of the efforts produced by Organisation Todt, were and are, still quite imposing. Exhibits included some impressive scale models too, although aware as I was of my sodden wife, I didn’t get as many details as I perhaps should have:
No, I haven’t much idea either.
Plotting room.
Tornado.
Tornado cockpit.
Nice models of the Chain Home set-up.
In fact, scale models abounded.
And models of the various RAF radars - I had no idea how large some of these were.
Massive structures!
Now we’re talking - fully masked up.
The bunker next door ie still in some form of use by the RAF.
I found that my wife had taken refuge in the Bloodhound missile shelter, which was very impressive, being completely refurbished - not my wife’s decision-making or overall physical status, but the artefact itself. I just had time for a brief chat with the manager who proudly opened up a shed to show me a Leyland Hippo truck-mounted radar - due restoration - apparently the only surviving Hippo around (I’m not quite sure that’s true, but certainly one bearing a radar is).
The Hippo and unidentified radar (I’ve forgotten I’m afraid).
A more distant shot of the complex; as I say, not anything like approaching say, the Diogenes bunker at Deelen but still quite impressive.
I attempted to reconcile with my wife and apologised for taking so long, whereupon she airily replied, “Oh that’s alright, you could have taken much longer”.
Note: Inevitably I didn’t have time to take in as much as I wished, and I haven’t set much of this in context; the museum’s site is well worth a visit for more info:
Home | RAF Air Defence Radar Museum
Just for the record, the aforementioned ACE High site at Stenigot, taken during our Lincolnshire holiday in 2017:
The abandoned radar dishes from what had been a hugely impressive structure; my visit turned to farce in that as technically trespassing, I was chased out of the fields by a farmer in his 4x4. Luckily, field-craft and fitness won the day!
