Today we had a group trip to Orford Ness where we had a guided tour.
This was the invite from Joyce.
"Thursday 1th April. Dear all, 22 people have shown interest in this organised trip by the National Trust. It is pay on the day. Of course you can park locally in Orford, but please note there is a large ‘pay and display’ car park opposite The Jolly Sailor pub IP12 2NU. It costs £4 for 8 hours and accepts cash or card.
There are public toilets at Bakers Lane (open from 6am). The Pump Street Bakery is open 9am – 2.30pm if you wish for drinks and treats.
We have to be on Orford Quay at 9.45amand ready to take the 10am ferry across to the Ness. Andrew, Area Ranger/Shepherd, will be leading our walk on Orford Ness and he is happy to walk out to AWRE site and back via the Green Route. This will make the walk longer for you all and hopefully interesting. (7-8 miles). Please let me know if you would prefer transport one way.
Please bring a packed lunch + drink as we will be on the Ness for a few hours. If the weather isn’t great then we will be able to eat under cover. Our ferry back will be about 2-2.30pm.
I will probably lead a very short walk around Orford visiting the interesting church, castle and primary school that was used in ‘The Detectorists’. I looked at eating at The Jolly Sailor after our visit but it isn’t serving food so we may try the Wilford Bridge at Melton…..TBD on the day.
Joyce"
We met at the quayside in Orford and were ferried to the Ness in two crossings. Here we were met by our guide Andrew, who is also the shepherd of the sheep on the ness. He took us on a route that combined the Green and Red routes from this map.
This was our actual route.
Here are a few of my photos.
We assembled at the National Trust office on the quayside
The first boatful on their way.
Here they are waiting for us as the rest of us cross.
Looking back at the castle.
Andrew, our guide. How much of what he told us today was fabricated, we wondered?
We set off on the green walk There is plenty of birdlife on the King's Marshes. This is an egret.
We could see Sizewell Power station to the north.
There are several varieties of sheep on the ness.... and several lambs. This is a white-faced Woodland sheep with her lamb.
This is the Plate Store. Connected with the 'lethality and vulnerability' firing trials, the
Plate Store was home to a number of extraordinary experiments during the
1940s. The plates in question were sheets of experimental armour plate
or paper targets. Initially built to house the plate armour, the end
wall was later removed, and various types of projectiles were fired from
smooth bore field guns into plates mounted inside the building to test
their effectiveness.
We passed near
Cobra Mist, originally the site of an experimental Anglo-American military over-the-horizon radar, then more recently a broadcasting station for the BBC World Service. Those are not the original masts.
We saw several caterpillars on our route. This is, I think, of a
Drinker moth.
There were lots of brown hares about. This one trotted along the path towards... stopped... then trotted away again.
There are avocets here, although they are a bit far from the path to see.
Another view of the Cobra Mist building, now an almost empty shell.
Looking back towards Orford Church and Castle.
Andrew stopped to show us this pool, in which some old film from the research into high-speed cinematography had been dumped. It was developed to allow slow-motion replays of bombs hitting targets.
We crossed the Stony Ditch via the Bailey Bridge onto the shingle of Orford beach.
Here is a bit of the narrow-gauge railway track that crossed the ness.
We climbed to the roof of the Bomb Ballistics building. Built in 1933 to house advanced technical equipment, this was the centre of operations for the bombing range.
The shingle beach goes on for miles. Just seaward from the Bomb Ballistics Building is one of the things that makes Orford Ness so fascinating. The entire site is littered with debris, the original use of which can now only be speculated. One such mystery is the 10-metre diameter concrete ring in the foreground here. The lighthouse used to be straight ahead but it was demolished before it fell into the sea.
From the roof we could see as far as Aldeburgh to the north..
...and Felixstowe docks to the south.
This is the Black Beacon. Built to house an experimental radio apparatus, this enigmatic building
housed a secret – a marine navigation beacon to the outside world, but
in reality a homing beacon for military aircraft. This area was later
the site of the AWRE technical HQ and telemetry station, which have been
demolished.
In the distance we could see the ruins of a coastguard station and, further along to the left, I think, a police lookout tower.
We visited Laboratory 1. Completed in 1956, this was the first of six atomic weapons test cells
constructed by AWRE from Aldermaston. It was used for both mechanical
and vibration testing and drop tests. It is a massive reinforced concrete
structure with a large central bay measuring 30.69m (100ft) by 9.13m
(30ft) and was designed to mitigate against the effects of an accidental
explosion. Its concrete walls were given extra mass by the shingle
traverse placed around them, which would tend to force blast vertically
rather than laterally. The roof was also relatively weak structure
comprising nine steel W-shaped trusses and clad in aluminium sheeting,
insulated with cork and covered in felt sheeting. The interior
comprises a main bay separated into two unequal portions by a concrete
dividing wall, and running along its northern side is a pit 3.18m (5ft
5in) wide and 2.74m (9ft) deep. On the dividing wall are traces of a
screen mechanism to ensure that activities either side of the divide
remained confidential. The larger Vibration Laboratory to the south
east measures 17.32m (57ft) and the smaller Drop Test Laboratory to the
north west 12.15m (40ft).
We had our lunch stop here.
We were amused while we munched by a number of hares running about. This one ran over the laboratory as we sat out the front.
Andrew found some rocket fuel. He broke a bit off and it was green inside.
We couldn't visit them, but we came to the pagodas. This was an advance on the original design that provided a better dispersion of the blast from the test explosions. They are quite extraordinary looking structures. Built in 1960, they provided further Vibration Test facilities, The specification included the ability to withstand the
accidental detonation of 400lbs (181.4kg) of high explosives.
They comprise a large
reinforced concrete central cell covered
by a massive reinforced concrete roof supported on sixteen reinforced
concrete columns.
We returned via the armoury building, which was used to store the weapons prior to testing.
We were told the smell in the building was of explosives. We were told it was used for theatre productions, but I'm not sure I believe that.
Then it was back the way we came/
We saw some more of the sheep.
A last look at the pagodas across the marsh.
Time to thank Andrew and get the ferry back.
Karen was our expert pilot this time.
...and the outside of the recently reclad castle - read about the conservation work
here.
There is a good view of the ness from the grounds. We didn't go in to climb to the top and see the view from there.
Back through the town, we parted here...
..while some of us took Crown Lane back towards the car park, passing this building with lovely chimneys.
Thanks-you Joyce for arranging a lovely day out, Andrew for leading us round and Nicola and Karen for ferrying us.
You can see more details of our 7 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPF file here), and more of my photos here on Flickr. Read more about the structures and buildings on the ness here and its history here. The Historic England full listing of the site (here) gives further interesting detail.
Other related posts you can find on my blog include:
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