24 June2004: The operator of this UK-based site has removed it today due to public and press furor. The operator asked Cryptome to remove the link to the site from this file and another long-standing link to it from Cryptome's Eyeball series index.

The site operator was told several times in recent days by the UK D-Notice Committee that nothing on the site was illegal but today the Committee agreed that it was best to close the site. To assure continuing access to the withdrawn information Cryptome has mirrored the site without approval of the site originator.

See related: http://cryptome.org/terror-click.htm

Alan Turnbull’s
"Secret Base" Page
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan-turnbull/secret.htm

Website created: August 2003
Page last updated: 21st June 2004

Introduction

What makes a "Secret Base" secret? By "base", I mean those Government installations or military sites you've seen surrounded by razor wire fences and guarded by Ministry of Defence (MoD) police. How on earth can these sites be secret? The UK Government hasn't (yet) developed stealth technology in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. So they can't very well make, say, Faslane nuclear submarine base suddenly disappear as you come around the corner!

No, it's actually much simpler than that. A Government laboratory or military base can be made to "disappear" by just deleting it from Ordnance Survey (OS) maps! But how? Well, you need to appreciate that OS is essentially a Government agency within the MoD. Just look-up the derivation of the word "ordnance" and all will become clear.

All inclusions on OS maps were once vetted by the UK Government's D-notice committee. You may have heard of this before. When the Government wanted to "gag" newspaper editors to stop them revealing embarrassing details about MoD-related stories, it was called "slapping a D-notice" on them. Any sensitive sites were mysteriously removed from maps by men in cigar smoke filled rooms in Whitehall and just ended up appearing as farmers' fields!

In February 2004, the Secretary of the D-notice committee, Rear Admiral Nick Wilkinson, contacted me to assure me that things have changed for the better and that the system has been overhauled in recent years. With the introduction of Internet-based mapping and aerial photography data, he insists that the Committee is now an independent and purely advisory body.

Alerted to the issues highlighted in this web page, Mr. Wilkinson told me that Ordnance Survey's removal of MoD-related sites from their maps is no longer appropriate in today's Internet climate. He assures me that the fact that they still show sensitive sites as empty fields is because of their own organisation's inertia, rather than any sinister Government involvement.

Indeed, the high resolution aerial photography of the UK's "Secret Bases", offered for sale on the Internet by Getmapping plc, was cleared by Mr. Wilkinson. Even so, various defence analysts raised concerns, as detailed in a BBC News article. Getmapping's co-founder and MD, Tristram Cary, is a former Royal Navy officer and software project director in the defence industry.

In this web page I revisit themes explored on my Emmerdale Page and make further use of the Internet research tools outlined there - Getmapping, Multimap, Streetmap, Old Maps and Ordnance Survey's own Get-a-map.

Follow my links by clicking on the bold references in blue like the ones above. First, though, please refer to my IMPORTANT notes further below!

As you hover over each link, it will be highlighted (assuming that your browser supports "Style Sheets"). When you click on a link, a new window will open. You may have to maximise the size of this window by dragging its edges so that it fills the screen. When you've finished browsing the links, close the newly-opened window to return to this page. If you've done your own further exploration within each link, you may need to do this several times. You may also need to close some pop-up advertisement windows when exploring these links.

If you discover any broken links, please report these to me using the email button at the bottom of this page. However, please bear in mind that if you find any links behaving in an unexpected manner, the particular website's server may be experiencing temporary problems.

Perhaps you would also like to try my other web pages by visiting my home page at:-

www.alan-turnbull.co.uk

Internet research tools and notes

To read my important notes and learn all about the research tools I used for my "Secret Base" Page, just click on the button below.

Map link source:   Multimap Streetmap Get-a-map (1:50000) Get-a-map (1:25000) Multimap GIF image Streetmap GIF image Getmapping photo (close) Getmapping photo (wider)

Further map link options (for Multimap / Streetmap only)

Map size:  Normal Large    Printer friendly:  No Yes    Map type:  Street atlas OS Landranger Overview atlas

"Secret base" locations revealed!

There are some classic signs to look for on OS maps, when trying to find MoD related sites. You might see buildings which are geometrically shaped, like the MoD Procurement Executive and Warship Support Agency at

Abbey Wood in Bristol. Some are made easy by actually labelling them "Government Offices" like the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) near Bath, on the site of an old country estate at Ensleigh. The DLO's other site in Bath can be spotted at Fox Hill.

The two GCHQ spy centre sites in Cheltenham at Benhall and Oakley don't at first stick out when viewed at 1:50000 scale. But go to the Get-a-map site and view GCHQ Benhall and GCHQ Oakley at 1:25000. They suddenly emerge as geometrically shaped buildings and get labelled "Government Offices". Furthermore, view Multimap's aerial photograph of GCHQ Benhall (below) and notice the field just to the west of the main buildings. This is where the brand new GCHQ Doughnut complex (further below) has been built.

The existing GCHQ buildings at Benhall, Cheltenham
Photo courtesy of www.eyespymag.com

The GCHQ Doughnut building site at Benhall, Cheltenham
Photo courtesy of www.globalsecurity.org

The new GCHQ Doughnut building at Benhall, Cheltenham
Photo courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk

Getmapping, the company providing the aerial photography for many Internet mapping web sites, has announced improved resolution data - the flights for which were performed in 2002. This new data is currently only available for a few selected towns and cities. As luck would have it, Cheltenham is one of those places!

Compare the latest image (below left, taken in 2002) with the old image (below right, taken in 1999). Note the clear difference in image quality and how some of the old GCHQ Benhall buildings were demolished to make way for the Doughnut.

The 2002 and 1999 versions of Getmapping's image of GCHQ Benhall
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc
Sometimes you can stumble upon interesting sites by accident. Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire looks like one of those stately homes you would pass on a Sunday drive out with the kids. It is designated "The Foreign and Commonwealth Office". However, a further look using the Get-a-map site reveals rather more than your usual country pile.

Hanslope Park was originally acquired by the Foreign Office at a time when the Secret Service was in its infancy and GCHQ-type work was done at nearby Bletchley Park, in the days of Alan Turing. Hanslope has been massively expanded in more recent decades. It now houses annexes full of the latest supercomputers and communications equipment - and we're not talking "Intel Pentium 5"! The Hanslope Park estate (below) is home to MI6 operatives who process and analyse data sent from GCHQ in Cheltenham and Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire.



Aerial view of MI6's computer annexes at Hanslope Park
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc

Another classic sign to look for is the label "Works" or "Depot". This is usually an indication that a site has Government and/or military activities. Take a look at this one at West Moors near Wimborne, Dorset. It is actually a fuel storage and distribution centre for the Army and is designated the Defence Petroleum Centre.

Any site which has many buildings and roads laid out in a regular pattern can usually indicate a storage depot of some kind. For instance, DSDA Longtown near Carlisle is a massive munitions and equipment store for the Army. DSDA is the Government's Defence Storage and Distribution Agency. On the Streetmap and Multimap sites, their old OS data apparently shows nothing to get excited about. However, go to the Get-a-map site and try again. DSDA Longtown suddenly comes to life! Note the system of rail lines serving the site, too.

When considering DSDA, take a look also at the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) whose HQ is at Andover in Hampshire. Consider too, the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) whose HQ can be found at St. Athan, near Barry in South Wales. ABRO and DARA provide engineering maintenance expertise to the Army and RAF, respectively.

DARA has key sites dotted around the UK at Fleetlands in Gosport, Hampshire, at Sealand in Deeside, Flintshire and at Almondbank near Perth in Scotland. However, DARA Almondbank's other depot is hidden a little further north, on the banks of the River Almond, as the name suggests. DARA Fleetlands is right next door to the Royal Naval Armaments Depots - RNAD Gosport and RNAD Frater.

Both RNAD Gosport and RNAD Frater are mysteriously absent from the older Multimap and Streetmap 1:50000 scale maps, but hop over to Ordnance Survey's own Get-a-map service and their newer 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps of the whole area tell the true story!

Another RNAD site can be spotted just north of the Tamar Bridge at Ernesettle in Plymouth, Devon. Note the handy train line going right past the depot. Now take another look, this time at the south side of the Tamar Bridge and you'll find the Royal Navy's brand new Remote Ammunitioning Facility - Tamar (RAFT), at Bull Point. This base allows nuclear-powered submarines to be loaded with their weapons in a high security and controlled environment, but is the neighbouring RNAD Ernesettle involved?

Back to buildings in a regular pattern with a train line system: another example can be found at Bramley in Hampshire, near Basingstoke. This is a former Defence Munitions (DM) storage depot and is now just used as an Army training area - allegedly! The aerial photo shows the sort of fascinating detail which is not apparent on the ground.

Sometimes, you can stumble upon the downright bizarre! Consider the Pontrilas Army Training Area (often known by its acronym PATA), which is fairly self-explanatory. The area, north of the village of Pontrilas in Herefordshire, close to the Welsh border, seems to be a former munitions depot, judging by the (dismantled) train line system, just west of the training area's main gate, near the village of Ewyas Harold.

The old disused munitions train line system once connected into the nearby main line at a branch junction in the village of Pontrilas itself, a little further south.

But wait, hold on! What on earth is THIS? What is a jet aircraft doing hidden in a clearing in Gilbert's Hill Wood? Perhaps the clue is the county location: Herefordshire. Yes, the PATA is now used exclusively by the UK's Special Forces, the SAS. The plane (shown in close-up further below) is rumoured to be used for counter-terrorism training.

In the aerial photograph, note that just north of the aircraft, the SAS have erected a barrier (indicated below) joining the two copses to the west and east, to hide their activities from the neighbouring farm and road.

Aerial view of the SAS counter-terrorism trainer unit at Pontrilas
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc

A site which shows a large number of aerial symbols like this one at Chelveston in Northamptonshire, might mean just a group of TV and/or radio masts. But in this instance, it's actually RAF Chelveston, former home to a USAF bomber squadron. Take another look at the site by using Multimap's aerial photo with map overlay which again shows fascinating detail.

The Chelveston aerial cluster is tantalisingly close to RAF Molesworth, which is comically labelled as a disused airfield on OS maps! Molesworth once stored Cruise missiles and is now one of the UK's most important and sensitive military intelligence bases. Indeed, the former Cruise missile bunkers are marked on the 1:25000 map and are clearly visible on Multimap's aerial photo. Note that the area is ringed by triple high security fencing.

To the east of RAF Molesworth's camp, in the "disused airfield" area, two main entrances to networks of underground bunkers can be spotted here and here, on Multimap's aerial photos.

Other similar military intelligence bases can be found at Chicksands (near Shefford) and Henlow, both in Bedfordshire and at Ashby-de-la-Launde near Digby in Lincolnshire.

DISC Chicksands is the tri-service Defence Intelligence & Security Centre. It is the place to where, in May 2003, journalists suggested that an alleged British Government spy within the IRA, known as "Stakeknife", was to be brought for "debriefing" by MI5 and the Army.

RAF Henlow is another of those "disused airfields". Granted, the runways are completely grassed over, as shown on the aerial photo, but Henlow is home to another signals analysis centre, of the utmost importance.

The village of Ashby-de-la-Launde in Lincolnshire sounds like the location for one of those Sunday night Midsomer Murder dramas on TV. It is actually the location for RAF Digby, which on Multimap is yet another of those "disused airfields".

A further inspection using Ordnance Survey's latest 1:50000 map from Get-a-map, now suspiciously just shows a completely empty field. But wait, try again with Get-a-map's 1:25000 map and that empty field is suddenly a mass of aerial symbols!

RAF Digby is yet another very important signals analysis centre and, among many things, is even rumoured to be involved in covert interception of mobile telephone signals! You can just make out RAF Digby's cluster of mast assemblies on the close-up aerial photo.

RAF Croughton near Brackley in Northamptonshire is an old USAF airbase, but no runways have been apparent for many years. On Multimap, the base appears as a significant cluster of aerial symbols. That's because RAF Croughton is the focal point for the US military's communications within Europe.

Curiously, the number of aerials indicated reduces noticeably when viewing RAF Croughton on Get-a-map's latest 1:50000 map. On Get-a-map's 1:25000 map, they use that favourite epithet, "Wireless Station".

The tiny village of Oakhanger, near the Army camps of Bordon in Hampshire, at first sight looks like a typical cross between rural farming landscape and wealthy stockbroker belt. However, the village has not one but two surprises beyond its leafy hedged lanes.

Take a look at the map of the village centre and hidden among the cottages and farms is the old RAF Oakhanger 1001 Signals Unit (now staffed by Paradigm Services, a private commercial technology company). It is now home to military communications experts, working on the Government's new "Skynet 5" satellite project.

To the east of the village, within the Army training area known as The Warren, is an enclosure which on the 1:25000 OS map is suspiciously empty.

The map data sources do not indicate any MoD activity with tell-tale aerial symbols. It is left to Getmapping's aerial photography data (below) to finally reveal all. It is the location for a key NATO Ground Terminal for military communications satellites!

Note that an additional ground terminal (pictured further below) is set away from this main site in an annexe, just a little further south west, but connected via a track through the woodland!



Aerial view of NATO's main Satellite Ground Terminal at Oakhanger
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc



Aerial view of NATO's Ground Terminal annexe at Oakhanger
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc

Another satellite ground terminal can be found at the highly sensitive military communications base at Defford in Worcestershire, alongside the M5 motorway. This site provides a home to the RAF's 1001 Signals Unit and also QinetiQ (pronounced "kinetic"). This organisation represents the commercial sector wing of the Government's defence related research activities and was formed in July 2001 out of the old Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). At the same time, the Government's top secret laboratories, retained under strict MoD control, were brought together to form the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) network.

QinetiQ's Defford base features a high security enclave (pictured below), which is built on top of the deserted runways, where all the really sensitive signals intelligence (SIGINT) work is carried out.

Aerial view of QinetiQ Defford's high security SIGINT enclave
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc

On the other side of the nearby town of Pershore, you'll find Throckmorton Airfield. Yes, you guessed it, both of the Defford and Throckmorton sites are yet more "Disused Airfields" on OS maps, which of course can only mean they're of great MoD significance!

Throckmorton is home to the old DERA Pershore base (which itself grew out of the Royal Radar Establishment). The site is now under the control of QinetiQ, who have their small base hidden amongst the poultry farms and industrial units at the northern tip of the airfield's runway.

Rather than a "Secret Base", Throckmorton's village residents are all too familiar with the site. One end of the old airfield was used as a mass burial ground for animal carcasses during the UK's Foot and Mouth Disease disaster. The other end of the airfield was considered by the Government as a possible location for a new "processing centre" for asylum seekers, until villagers waged a very successful campaign against it.

Over on the other side of the M5 motorway, QinetiQ have significant presence in the Worcestershire town of Great Malvern. One site at the south of the town is at the old Royal Radar Establishment (RRE). Research work here involves everything from stealth and radar jamming to computer hacking. Another QinetiQ base can be found to the north of the town next to an old DERA location, referred to by locals as MoD North Site, which is due for redevelopment by the council.

By checking the aerial photos on Multimap or Getmapping for yourself, note how the tell-tale geometric building layouts for both of the Malvern sites are identical to not only the GCHQ bases in Benhall and Oakley in Cheltenham, but also the DLO sites at Ensleigh and Fox Hill in Bath (pictured below)!

Aerial view of building layouts of DLO Ensleigh and DLO Fox Hill, Bath
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc
Now, let's consider two classic examples of top secret sites which just don't feature on maps!

The UK Government's key atomic weapons sites are located at Burghfield and Aldermaston, both in Berkshire. But by studying the OS maps, you'd think they might be hidden underground! The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Burghfield was last included on an OS map way back in 1974 and has never been seen since. Rather comically, AWE Aldermaston (which is actually the size of a small town) keeps appearing and disappearing, depending on which issue of the OS map you are looking at and which scale. It reminds me of the legend of Brigadoon!

Both the Streetmap and Multimap sites have older versions of the OS map data which just show AWE Aldermaston (pictured below) as plain woodland and AWE Burghfield (pictured further below) as a completely empty field!

Ordnance Survey's Get-a-map site, which obviously has all the latest definitive data, correctly shows the Aldermaston site (innocently labelled "Depot") at 1:50000. But when you view the same area at 1:25000, the site suddenly reverts to Burnham's Copse!

Even on Get-a-map, AWE Burghfield is still conspicuous by its absence at both 1:50000 and 1:25000 scales. It is actually situated in the blank space between Burghfield Place, Burnthouse Bridge and Grazeley Green.




Aerial view of AWE Aldermaston
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc



Aerial view of AWE Burghfield
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc

Just to the north east of Burnthouse Bridge, you can make out the remains of a disused train branch line. This line once connected into the nearby main line which, further south, goes right past the former munitions depot at Bramley (see above). The maps and photos of the Bramley munitions depot show that it, too, was once connected into the same main line. During WWII, the AWE Burghfield site was a conventional munitions factory.

For the residents living next to these sites, they are all too real. Especially when they have been forced to use bottled water because of suspicions that the local supply had been contaminated by toxic chemicals.

The AWE sites and all other sensitive UK military and Government sites, such as Faslane nuclear submarine base, are patrolled by Ministry of Defence Police (MDP). Their main training centre and MDP HQ is contained within a deserted WWII USAF airbase at RAF Wethersfield, a few miles north west of Braintree in Essex.

Consider AWE Burghfield again but this time, view the aerial photograph on Multimap's site and overlay the map. It really is a case of "now you see it - now you don't"! Try the same with AWE Aldermaston's aerial photo and the map overlay.

AWE have another small site at AWE Blacknest at Brimpton Common, just a couple of miles to the west of AWE Aldermaston. This site, within an old country house, contains large computer systems and is staffed by scientists researching seismological activity, in order to verify nuclear test bans.

Incidentally, all of the UK's non-nuclear Royal Ordnance factories were acquired by BAe Systems (formerly British Aerospace) some time ago. One of these can be spotted near Kidderminster in the West Midlands, at Summerfield. This old ordnance factory is now used by BAe Systems to research and develop motors and fuels for rocket propulsion. The fuels are stored in huge underground silos and the Summerfield site is patrolled by armed guards - hopefully non-smokers!

Presumably the fuels are also transported for use by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE), again run by BAe Systems, at Westcott in Buckinghamshire. This site is quite close to the MoD's massive Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) depots at Upper Arncott and Ambrosden near Bicester in Oxfordshire, both of which are served by extensive train line systems.

Once all the AWE's nuclear warheads have been developed and assembled at Aldermaston and Burghfield, some of them are transported up to Scotland's Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD), for Faslane's Trident submarine fleet, at Coulport. Here, the hills of the beautiful west coast of Scotland hide massive bunkers in which the nuclear weapons are kept in specially controlled conditions, ready for loading onto Faslane's submarines at a special jetty, just north of the main Coulport base, which is only revealed in detail on the 1:25000 map.

A large NATO underground conventional munitions store is carved out of the side of nearby Doune Hill at Glen Douglas, just north of the Faslane and Coulport depots. The massive base, which is only finally revealed in true detail on the OS 1:25000 scale map, extends south east from its connection into the world famous Glasgow to Oban/Mallaig scenic railway via Crianlarich. A little further south west on the banks of Loch Long, you can find its associated munitions and explosives loading jetty at Glen Mallan (sometimes also referred to as "Glenmallan" - all one word), which was built in 1996. Note also, the NATO Oil Storage Depot down the coast, just north of Garelochhead.

A large Defence Munitions (DM) centre can be found south west of Glasgow at Beith in Ayrshire. This site was originally developed in 1943 as a conventional munitions store for the Royal Navy. Nowadays, it processes and stores Spearfish, Storm Shadow, Tomahawk and Brimstone missiles.

On the Firth of Forth near Dunfermline, the large RNAD Crombie can be found, just along the coast from Her Majesty's Naval Base at Rosyth. The Crombie base stores, processes and maintains missiles used on Tornado and Sea Harrier jets. Crombie's jetty, built in 1989 for both NATO and UK use, sticks out 700 metres into the Firth.

If you travel up to the far northern highlands of Scotland, you'll stumble across a NATO submarine base at Loch Ewe, just south of the tiny village of Aultbea. Loch Ewe, being a deep sea loch, enables submarines to approach the jetty without breaking the water surface too soon.

The jetty at Aultbea is designated a "Z-berth" and these are dotted all around the coast of the UK, to allow Britain's nuclear submarines to return home temporarily for servicing. There's even a Z-berth situated in the middle of Loch Ewe itself, marked by a buoy but not marked on any OS maps! Presumably, one hopes, it is marked on Royal Navy charts!

Another nuclear submarine Z-berth buoy is located off the Isle of Skye, in the middle of Broadford Bay, causing much anxiety to Broadford's residents who are rightly concerned about possible nuclear accidents.

The NATO Loch Ewe site at Aultbea and the neighbouring Naval Boom Defence Depot at Mellon Charles, have military significance dating back to WWII. The location of the Boom Defence Depot marks the start of the original protective netting which guarded the entrance to the loch. Nowadays, the Mellon Charles site is rumoured to be involved in the disposal of waste nuclear material from submarines returning from their tour of duty.

Whilst still in the north west of Scotland, consider hopping over to the Outer Hebrides (or more correctly, the "Western Isles") and check out the old Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) bases on the Isle of South Uist. Here, in this stunningly beautiful location, you'll find test ranges where missiles are fired over the Atlantic Ocean.

The main test range location, referred to as the DERA Range Head, is to be found just beyond the crofting township of Geirinis on South Uist's west coast. Meanwhile, the DERA Range Control unit is further inland to the south east, on top of the hill of Ruabhal. The hill is known to islanders as "Space City" due to the aerials and "golf ball" radome structures and all these sit rather incongruently just above a Roman Catholic iconic figure of Our Lady of the Isles.

Further tracking of the missile tests is carried out at the UK's most remote QinetiQ base on the island of St. Kilda (or Hirta), which is 50 miles north west of the Hebridean island of South Uist.

A little further north of the DERA ranges on South Uist, QinetiQ have a base within RAF Benbecula - a beautiful Atlantic beach location which I can confirm is one of the most highly desirable RAF locations in the UK!

QinetiQ also have a small base next door to Kyle of Lochalsh's train station on the west coast of Scotland - the gateway to the Isle of Skye. This site is designated BUTEC - the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre. This old DERA base carries out sonar electronics and torpedo weapons testing for the UK's submarine fleet. However, the main test range depot, from where all the sea trials are performed, can be found off the coast of the Applecross peninsula, overlooking the Isle of Rona.

The Spearfish missiles, which are processed and stored at DM Beith in Ayrshire, are tested not only on the BUTEC range but also on a similar range in the Bahamas!

Controversy has surrounded the BUTEC test range, as it has been alleged that a powerful Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) system has been trialled there on behalf of the Royal Navy. The system was banned in the US, as it had been shown to cause disorientation and mass strandings of whales and dolphins.

The award for the RAF's most remote outpost must go to No. 91 Signals Unit whose members cling to the sheer cliffs of Shetland's northernmost island Unst at RAF Saxa Vord. This is a relic of the Cold War years, north of the village of Haroldswick, where you'll find the RAF's camp, housing the staff facilities for the radar site further north. The base is within sight of the UK's most northerly point - Muckle Flugga lighthouse.

Another remote Cold War radar site, in a stunning Scottish island location, can be found on the Atlantic west coast of the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, at Aird Uig on the northern tip of Gallan Head, which is completely fenced off. This former home to the RAF's No. 81 Signals Unit is still in use today, although it is now a NATO communications facility. The old RAF Aird Uig camp is a shambolic deserted ruin, privately owned by various individuals since 1973. The current owners have converted one of the camp buildings into the Bonaventure French Restaurant, boasting London journalists and British Government Members of Parliament as dining guests!

Another small Scottish NATO communications station can be spotted at the former WWII RAF airfield at Balado Bridge near Kinross in Perthshire. The distinctive white golf ball radome, tucked in amongst the poultry farms, can be seen in the distance over to the left as you drive north on the M90 motorway past Kinross service station. In recent years, the neighbouring disused airfield has hosted the "T in the Park" pop and rock music festival.

Now, back to England! Consider RAF Welford, an old WWII airfield near Newbury, Berkshire. The official entrance is north of Welford village, at Poughley Farm near Chaddleworth, which itself is on the site of a 12th century priory!

Welford ceased being an RAF base when it was converted into the largest munitions storage facility in Europe. Its primary use is to provide the USAF airbase at Fairford, Gloucestershire with its weapons.

It only returned to OS maps very recently, following decades of the "farmer's field" treatment. You can make out the original paths of the runways on the aerial photo, which also clearly shows the racks of munitions. The question is: how much more is there hidden in underground silos? Moreover, is it really just conventional munitions that is stored there? Again, note the nearby presence of a disused railway line. This was the method of munitions transportation in the 1960s and before.

The site (below) is so important that it has its own slip roads connected to the east-bound carriageway of the nearby M4 motorway! Commuters travelling into London every day from the west, will drive past an exit marked "Works Access Only". It's between Junctions 13 and 14. I suppose Harry Potter would call it Junction 13½!

The fact that the "Works Access Only" sign is in red gives the game away really. All UK military establishments are signposted this way. The two slip roads were constructed in the mid 1980s and were financed by the USAF to the tune of £377,000.

A similar large munitions base is situated just north of the M48 motorway in South Wales at Defence Munitions (DM) Caerwent in Gwent (further below), although this site is now supposedly just used as an Army "training area". Go to the Multimap site and overlay the map on top of the aerial photo.



Aerial view from the south west of RAF Welford
Photo courtesy of www.visualflight.co.uk


Aerial view from above of RAF Welford
Aerial photo data courtesy of www.getmapping.com
COPYRIGHT © Getmapping plc


Aerial view from the south west of DM Caerwent
Photo courtesy of www.visualflight.co.uk
Another munitions depot, DM Dean Hill, near the village of West Dean in Wiltshire - only recently decommissioned - just doesn't feature on any maps. Not even on Get-a-map's 1:25000 OS map. In order to finally get at the truth, you need to go to Multimap's aerial photo and overlay the map. Most of the DM Dean Hill site is, in fact, underground.

On the subject of underground bases, the whole of the area around Corsham in Wiltshire is a network of underground tunnels and quarry workings. Many of them were used as secret underground WWII factories and munitions stores. Nowadays, the Copenacre site at Corsham is home to the Defence Communications Services Agency (DCSA).

At Monk's Park Quarry, to the south of Corsham, you can find a former Royal Navy underground depot used for the storage of munitions and equipment. This site is actually still used for subterranean storage by the Leafield Group, a major Ministry of Defence contractor based on the Leafield Industrial Estate in Corsham.

One site at the end of Peel Circus, off Park Lane in Corsham - referred to simply as the Corsham Computer Centre (or "CCC") - is actually a military "black project" and is the Government's new backup seat of control in the event of a national emergency. Such as nuclear war! The official line, however, is that the CCC is merely a Royal Navy administration and communications facility.

The CCC is built within Hudswell Quarry, next door to Basil Hill Barracks and is rumoured to be powered by a nuclear generator. It is even alleged that the Royal Family and the Government's top brass can be evacuated from London by train direct to the CCC by a secret link inside the adjacent Box Tunnel.

Also note RAF Rudloe Manor nearby, spread over two key sites, which is linked to the DCSA and in the past has been responsible for logging and investigating UFO incidents. It seems that this function has now been moved to RAF Henlow, mentioned earlier.

Also notice the presence nearby of RAF Colerne, just north of Corsham, again sometimes referred to as a "disused airfield", but which is actually a key signals analysis unit, formerly 1001 Signals Unit. Again, Paradigm Services, the company running Oakhanger, also has a satellite ground terminal presence at Colerne. It is situated within the Azimghur Barracks, adjoining the airfield. Colerne is surely linked to RAF Rudloe Manor, if not also the Corsham Computer Centre. It is also rumoured that the airfield at Colerne may be used to shuttle VIPs in and out of the CCC. Another former Royal Navy Stores Depot can be spotted at a remote corner of the Colerne site.

The private satellite communications company - Paradigm Services - has yet another base, referred to as their Hawthorn Site, within the DCSA's site, next to Basil Hill Barracks. As an amusing nod towards Paradigm's key project (Skynet 5) and to the previous incumbents (the RAF's 1001 Signals Unit), the address given on the Old Maps search facility is "1001, Skynet Drive"! This site is rumoured to be the location for the Government's new Global Operations and Security Control Centre (GOSCC). The interior of the control room, with its large video wall, looks as if it's been taken straight from a James Bond sound stage at Pinewood Film Studios! The site sits very conveniently right on top of Box Tunnel.

Before leaving the Corsham area, look out for HMS Royal Arthur - an old Royal Navy leadership training school, which is now in a sorry derelict and vandalised state, surely being eyed-up by property developers. HMS Royal Arthur was previously based in Skegness on the blustery east coast - it occupied Billy Butlin's first holiday camp during WWII.

The main command and control centre for the UK's MoD operations, denoted the Joint Services (or Support) Unit (JSU), is based in Sandy Lane in the leafy London suburb of Northwood. It is sometimes referred to by its Royal Navy nickname HMS Warrior, which is the label used on the 1:25000 map. The RAF have their Strike Command main HQ at the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe.

The infamous RAF Menwith Hill (below) in North Yorkshire, near Harrogate, has never been an RAF airfield and isn't actually run by the RAF. It used to appear on OS maps as just a cluster of aerial symbols. It is owned and staffed by the NSA, America's National Security Agency and they refer to it as Station F83.



Aerial view from the north west of RAF Menwith Hill
Photo courtesy of www.fas.org
During the Cold War, Menwith Hill was legitimately used as an early warning station - linked to RAF Fylingdales - to track ballistic missiles. RAF Fylingdales is not shown on 1:50000 scale OS maps.

You have to go to the 1:25000 scale OS map to finally reveal RAF Fylingdales and it is actually on top of Snod Hill rather than Fylingdales Moor, but the name "RAF Snod Hill" just wouldn't have worked somehow!

It is curious that, since the end of the Cold War, Menwith's "golf ball" radomes have actually multiplied like rabbits. The old "golf balls" at Fylingdales were dismantled several years ago, to be replaced by state of the art Phased Array Radar (PAR) units. The three-sided concrete plinth, upon which these PAR units are mounted, can clearly be seen on Multimap's aerial photo.

Nowadays, Menwith Hill is actually labelled on the latest OS maps as "Menwith Hill Camp", making it sound like an innocuous barracks full of harmless squaddies. In reality, Menwith Hill is used to intercept communications in conjunction with GCHQ. Because it is illegal for GCHQ to spy on its own UK citizens, this problem is circumvented by having the US owned Menwith Hill do the dirty work for them. Because of this US control, British MPs trying to ask questions in parliament about the base just come up against a brick wall.

On the subject of squaddies, just east of the Menwith camp, on the road into Harrogate, there's the Army Foundation College. It is the centre for junior soldier induction training, split between the sites of the old Uniacke Barracks (south of the road) and Hildebrand Barracks (north) on Penny Pot Lane.

Interestingly, right next door to Menwith Hill, the DCSA have another base which they refer to as HMS Forest Moor. It is responsible for routing communications for the Royal Navy.

It has been widely suggested that both the DCSA and GCHQ have operatives working on covert signals interception projects within Chetwynd Barracks at Chilwell near Beeston, Nottingham. At first sight though, this base would apparently just be part of the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) network. Chetwynd was also used as a major training and mobilisation centre for the war in Iraq.

Other key DCSA communications facilities can be found at Inskip, near Preston in Lancashire, at Anthorn on the Solway Firth coast in Cumbria and at Crimond on Scotland's Aberdeenshire coast between Fraserburgh and Peterhead, next to the St. Fergus North Sea Gas Terminal. Predictably, both of the DCSA Inskip and DCSA Crimond sites are labelled "Disused Airfields" on 1:25000 scale OS maps! Anthorn is not labelled at all, although it is a former Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) and now forms part of the network of communications sites tracking the UK's Trident submarine fleet.

If the US Government wants to perform commercial espionage in Europe, then it's easy - just use Menwith Hill. The scandal surrounding the Airbus contract a few years ago, confirmed Menwith Hill's role in this murky world. The communications involving the bidding process by the various companies vying for the contract were intercepted by the NSA at Menwith Hill. The details were passed directly to the US Government, who then made sure their own US companies were furnished with this "insider knowledge". Thus, the US companies mysteriously landed the contract!

In a court case involving women peace campaigners a few years ago, a blundering British Telecom official accidentally revealed in open court that those nice BT engineers had connected fibre optic cables into Menwith Hill from their own communications site at nearby Hunters Stones. These cables are said to provide the Menwith Hill base with over 100,000 UK telephone lines. Worried? You should be!

British Telecom seems very keen to keep its chums in MI5 and GCHQ happy. BT's massive research laboratory at Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich in Suffolk, routinely takes apart all new communications equipment that is produced so that "spooks" know precisely how to hack into them! At BT's "switching centre" located in the Shropshire town of Oswestry, GCHQ is handed phone tapping opportunities on a plate.

Menwith Hill does perform important work in counter-terrorism. The telephone calls between the terrorists plotting the "9/11" (September 11th 2001) hijackings were picked up by operatives at Menwith Hill. Tragically, by the time the masses of data had been assembled, passed to GCHQ for analysis and decoded by "spooks" at MI5, the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers and all their occupants had been turned to dust.

An amazing revelation can be found by viewing Menwith Hill on the Old Maps web site. The 19th century map shows that the base is built above large quarry workings. Could it be that many of Menwith Hill's activities are buried underground in secret blast-proof bunkers and tunnel networks? Just a thought!

Another very important spy centre can be found at the unassuming location of Irton Moor, near the quaint seaside town of Scarborough. Back bench MPs in successive governments have failed gloriously in trying to find out precisely what goes on at this base, which MI5/6 operatives refer to as simply "Scarborough". The 1:25000 OS map gives the full detail and labels it with the rather romantic title "Wireless Station". It dates back to the very early pre-WWII days of GCHQ, when that was known as the Government Codes and Ciphers School (GC&CS). Irton Moor is sometimes referred to as a Composite Signals Organisation (CSO) station.

The CSO has two other important outposts. One is on the rugged coastline of Cornwall, just south of Morwenstow at Lower Sharpnose Point near Bude. This "Wireless Station" provides extra intercept capability for GCHQ. Go to Multimap's site to view the aerial photo of GCHQ/CSO Morwenstow.

The other CSO site is deep inside English cider country, south of Taunton, Somerset, at the tiny hamlet of Culmhead near Churchstanton and has been supposedly closed down. Again, this "Wireless Station" has provided additional intercept capacity for GCHQ. Go to Multimap's site to view the aerial photo with map overlay of GCHQ/CSO Culmhead. The address search facility on the Old Maps web site discreetly lists the secret base as simply "Cipher House, Culmhead, Taunton"!

All the CSO sites at Irton Moor, Morwenstow and Culmhead are inextricably entwined with the US Government's NSA.

Finally, let's look at two of the UK's most secretive research laboratories at Fort Halstead and Porton Down.

These two bases are part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) network. Certain other research facilities, which have been transferred to the commercial sector, have been collected together under the umbrella organisation QinetiQ - pronounced "kinetic". As mentioned earlier, DSTL and QinetiQ were formed in July 2001 out of the old Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), which controlled all of the UK's MoD test ranges and research establishments.

Many test veterans from the 1950s, seeking compensation from the Government for their illnesses, believe they were stationed at the Germ Warfare research facility at Porton Down, when in fact they were based at the neighbouring Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Centre (DNBCC) at Winterbourne Gunner. It was known formerly as the Joint School of Chemical Warfare and is marked on maps as simply "barracks". The test ranges on the land to the east of these sites are marked on all maps as Danger Zones.

On its official website, the Government announces that, "unfortunately, records at Winterbourne Gunner were routinely destroyed some years ago".

Almost within walking distance of both Porton Down and Winterbourne Gunner, you'll find the UK's miniaturised answer to America's Edwards Air Force Base and Area 51 at Boscombe Down airbase, where all the RAF's new toys are put through their paces and where US "black projects" are also tested and evaluated. Although modest by US standards, it's no accident that it boasts one of the longest military runways in the UK.

Boscombe Down is larger than the neighbouring town of Amesbury and is also close to the Army's massive training ranges on Salisbury Plain. Local UFO clusters were probably explained by regular visits by the top secret F-117 stealth aircraft during its development phase, rather than the excessive consumption of particularly potent Wiltshire ale at Midsummer Solstice parties being held at prehistoric Stonehenge, just a few miles to the north west!

Another contender for longest UK military runway is RAF Machrihanish at Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, which was also rumoured to be used for the testing of the top secret F-117 stealth fighter. Machrihanish's beachside main runway - over 3km long - is unusual in that it runs west-east and allows aircraft to approach from over the Atlantic Ocean without first going over many residential areas.

The Kintyre peninsula was made famous by former resident Paul McCartney's song lamenting the mist rolling in off the sea.

A more sinister form of fame was created on 2nd June 1994 when an RAF Chinook helicopter, carrying the UK's and Northern Ireland's upper echelons of military and secret service staff, crashed in poor weather near Machrihanish airfield whilst on its way from Belfast to a meeting on anti-terrorism at Fort George near Inverness.

An initial RAF Board of Inquiry was quick to conveniently conclude that "pilot error" was the cause. However, rumours have persisted ever since that the helicopter was caught in the jet wake of a hypersonic US "black project" experimental aircraft. An alternative (but less sexy) explanation could be a failure of the engine management software, which the MoD would have obviously wanted to cover-up.

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COPYRIGHT © 2003-2004, Alan Turnbull
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