Ive been to Upper Heyford quite a few times over the years. Every time i see something good but now development of the site is in full swing i look back and realise theres just so much i've missed as well. The place is totally underrated and was criminally under explored, but all's not lost just yet.
Returning this month with Greg we had a comical explore of what was the 'air side' of the base and what is now mostly reused as a business park. It was a good way to kill a sunny afternoon and as ever we saw a lot of stuff. It was this one part that really stood out as something special tho and its something that i can find very little reference to online in the usual places let alone photos.
I think this was known as 'Special Weapons Storage' but for all intents and purposes it's where they kept the nukes! Ive been to a few places like this in the past, Greenham Common and RAF Barnham come to mind.. They were both good but i thought this was better
The compound is a base within a base. Double rows of fencing and many guard towers.
The entrance is heavily fortified and had an interesting gatehouse which was actually more like a pillbox inside.
By the main entrance theres a few ancillary buildings, one is in use for something, another is storage.
Heading down the road we stopped by the main central building which seemed to be a workshop probably for weapon maintenance. The lights worked. Always good!
On the blast wall outside was a cracking mural.. No secrets what was in here then!
I climbed the guard tower. It gave a good view of the storage igloos on both sides of the compound. On the right the original 'row' of stores and on the left a later addition of more individual igloos.
We tried some of the igloos but they were all closed and some had cars outside. Ive heard they are used to store fireworks now.
I was quite pleased with what we had seen but we had a few more buildings to check yet. This white two story example was surrounded by herras and looked older than the others.
After walking over there we saw that all was not as it seemed however! This is not a two story building at all and all the windows are fakes. It's one big concrete box containing just one small vault that contained the 'fuses' for the weapons. The entire top floor is solid concrete from what i could see! All writing inside had been blacked out but still, to think that not so long ago this little room was probably one of the most secure places in the country and you can now just wander in there by telling the guard house you're 'going to see your mate dave who works at the car place' Madness
Returning this month with Greg we had a comical explore of what was the 'air side' of the base and what is now mostly reused as a business park. It was a good way to kill a sunny afternoon and as ever we saw a lot of stuff. It was this one part that really stood out as something special tho and its something that i can find very little reference to online in the usual places let alone photos.
I think this was known as 'Special Weapons Storage' but for all intents and purposes it's where they kept the nukes! Ive been to a few places like this in the past, Greenham Common and RAF Barnham come to mind.. They were both good but i thought this was better
The compound is a base within a base. Double rows of fencing and many guard towers.
The entrance is heavily fortified and had an interesting gatehouse which was actually more like a pillbox inside.
By the main entrance theres a few ancillary buildings, one is in use for something, another is storage.
Heading down the road we stopped by the main central building which seemed to be a workshop probably for weapon maintenance. The lights worked. Always good!
On the blast wall outside was a cracking mural.. No secrets what was in here then!
I climbed the guard tower. It gave a good view of the storage igloos on both sides of the compound. On the right the original 'row' of stores and on the left a later addition of more individual igloos.
We tried some of the igloos but they were all closed and some had cars outside. Ive heard they are used to store fireworks now.
I was quite pleased with what we had seen but we had a few more buildings to check yet. This white two story example was surrounded by herras and looked older than the others.
After walking over there we saw that all was not as it seemed however! This is not a two story building at all and all the windows are fakes. It's one big concrete box containing just one small vault that contained the 'fuses' for the weapons. The entire top floor is solid concrete from what i could see! All writing inside had been blacked out but still, to think that not so long ago this little room was probably one of the most secure places in the country and you can now just wander in there by telling the guard house you're 'going to see your mate dave who works at the car place' Madness
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