HMS Ganges was a shore establishment at Shotley near Ipswich (although even closer to Harwich if you can swim) for training new ratings. It began in 1904 and consisted of buildings onshore and several training ships – the name was originally used for one of the training ships adjacent but then got transferred to the onshore station in 1927. It was bombed by a zeppelin in WW1 and temporarily moved during WW2, finally being closed in 1976. It then was used as a police training centre till the 1990’s. Plans are underway at present to demolish most of the buildings on site and build lots of houses there (hang about there are already buildings there – why not convert them 
).
The training mast seemed to have a few people around it so I didn’t get the chance to climb the rigging and mizzen the for’ard mast while splicing the royals. Instead I looked for dark places to hide in and there are one or two quite good ones (aka air raid shelters) and a gun battery. The buildings are quite dramatic externally but the ones I got into were completely stripped out. There are also two pretty interesting and accessible Martello towers, which predate the shore establishment by about a century. These both have metal water storage towers on top.
More information here
HMS Ganges Museum
http://www.myshotley.com/ganges-tour.html (site photos today)
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=41114&highlight=ganges
Martello 1
Martello 2
One of the air raid shelters
Internal street view
Gun Battery entrance
One of the casemates - what happens if you don't sweep a flue
).The training mast seemed to have a few people around it so I didn’t get the chance to climb the rigging and mizzen the for’ard mast while splicing the royals. Instead I looked for dark places to hide in and there are one or two quite good ones (aka air raid shelters) and a gun battery. The buildings are quite dramatic externally but the ones I got into were completely stripped out. There are also two pretty interesting and accessible Martello towers, which predate the shore establishment by about a century. These both have metal water storage towers on top.
More information here
HMS Ganges Museum
http://www.myshotley.com/ganges-tour.html (site photos today)
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=41114&highlight=ganges
Martello 1
Martello 2
One of the air raid shelters
Internal street view
Gun Battery entrance
One of the casemates - what happens if you don't sweep a flue
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