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RAF Barnham
RAF Barnham (also called Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in the English county of Suffolk 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Norfolk town of Thetford. It is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths. The camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington.
During the 1950s and 60s a part of RAF Barnham was set aside as high-security storage facility for nuclear weapons. This area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, Barnham had been used as a chemical weapons store and filling station from 22 August 1939. In 1966, the nuclear weapons storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately owned Gorse Industrial Estate. The chemical weapon store and former chemical weapon filling station are situated at Little Heath, Barnham down the dead-end Station Road.
The present main gate of RAF Barnham can be found directly off Bury Road (A134) between Barnham village and Thetford. The entrance to the former nuclear weapons store (now Gorse Industrial Estate) can be found on Elveden Road between Barnham village and the A11.
Military facilities had existed at Barnham since the First World War, when tanks were tested at Little Heath and mustard gas was produced at Triangle Plantation. During the Second World War, RAF Barnham ran Forward Filling Depot 1, which took bulk deliveries of mustard gas from M. S. Factory, Valley and used it to fill bombs and shells.
During 1953 or 1954, construction began on a high-security RAF bomb store on Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956. Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain free-fall nuclear bombs and Barnham was able to supply the bomber squadrons at Honington, Marham, Watton, Wyton, Upwood and Bassingbourn. Barnham came under the control of No. 94 Maintenance Unit RAF.
The operational life of Barnham was relatively short. By the early 1960s this type of storage facility became obsolete as free-fall nuclear bombs were superseded as the weapon of choice, for the British nuclear deterrent, by the Blue Steel stand-off missile. The storage and maintenance of nuclear weapons moved to the V bomber airfields. The last nuclear weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963. The site was sold in 1966, and since that date it has been used as a light industrial estate.
A Better Defence Estate, published in November 2016, indicates that the Ministry of Defence will dispose of the site by 2020. Domestic accommodation will be relocated to RAF Honington, with access to Barnham Training Area maintained. This was later extended to 2022, and once more to 2027.
The site was built specifically to store and maintain free-fall nuclear bombs, such as Blue Danube. This specific purpose was reflected in the facility's layout: The site was roughly pentagonal in shape. It consisted of three large non-nuclear component stores, surrounded by earthwork banking and a number of smaller storage buildings to hold the fissile cores; the cores were held in stainless steel containers sunk into the ground. The larger buildings stored the bomb casings and the high-explosive elements of the weapons.
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RAF Barnham
RAF Barnham (also called Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in the English county of Suffolk 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Norfolk town of Thetford. It is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths. The camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington.
During the 1950s and 60s a part of RAF Barnham was set aside as high-security storage facility for nuclear weapons. This area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, Barnham had been used as a chemical weapons store and filling station from 22 August 1939. In 1966, the nuclear weapons storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately owned Gorse Industrial Estate. The chemical weapon store and former chemical weapon filling station are situated at Little Heath, Barnham down the dead-end Station Road.
The present main gate of RAF Barnham can be found directly off Bury Road (A134) between Barnham village and Thetford. The entrance to the former nuclear weapons store (now Gorse Industrial Estate) can be found on Elveden Road between Barnham village and the A11.
Military facilities had existed at Barnham since the First World War, when tanks were tested at Little Heath and mustard gas was produced at Triangle Plantation. During the Second World War, RAF Barnham ran Forward Filling Depot 1, which took bulk deliveries of mustard gas from M. S. Factory, Valley and used it to fill bombs and shells.
During 1953 or 1954, construction began on a high-security RAF bomb store on Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956. Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain free-fall nuclear bombs and Barnham was able to supply the bomber squadrons at Honington, Marham, Watton, Wyton, Upwood and Bassingbourn. Barnham came under the control of No. 94 Maintenance Unit RAF.
The operational life of Barnham was relatively short. By the early 1960s this type of storage facility became obsolete as free-fall nuclear bombs were superseded as the weapon of choice, for the British nuclear deterrent, by the Blue Steel stand-off missile. The storage and maintenance of nuclear weapons moved to the V bomber airfields. The last nuclear weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963. The site was sold in 1966, and since that date it has been used as a light industrial estate.
A Better Defence Estate, published in November 2016, indicates that the Ministry of Defence will dispose of the site by 2020. Domestic accommodation will be relocated to RAF Honington, with access to Barnham Training Area maintained. This was later extended to 2022, and once more to 2027.
The site was built specifically to store and maintain free-fall nuclear bombs, such as Blue Danube. This specific purpose was reflected in the facility's layout: The site was roughly pentagonal in shape. It consisted of three large non-nuclear component stores, surrounded by earthwork banking and a number of smaller storage buildings to hold the fissile cores; the cores were held in stainless steel containers sunk into the ground. The larger buildings stored the bomb casings and the high-explosive elements of the weapons.