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Report - - Sheriffs Lench - Old Observatory Camp - August 2020 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Sheriffs Lench - Old Observatory Camp - August 2020

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Ya Boy Croy

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Hi there all,

Today me, my girlfriend and her brother came across this old observatory camp using a search of our local areas on 28DL. As soon as we found out where it was located we decided to scout it out for entrances. We was all very surprised that it was still standing as this was quite local and we never saw or heard about it before. We originally only went to see if we could see if there was any previous entries or access points into the place but certainly changed our minds seeing as we all enjoyed the abandoned shack in my previous report as well as after seeing a huge entrance making it very easily accessible, unfortunately we had to keep it a short visit as had to be somewhere else. I think we will definitely go back to explore the rest of the place when we have some more free time!


The abandoned "military hut"
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The small building of the three.
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It looks as if someone has moved a bunch of furniture into the long building..
18.jpg


spooky random scarecrow :D
17.jpg


More pictures of the random storage..
7.jpg



The smallest building had been emptied, however seemed to be floorboards you could of pulled back at some point, however they was rotting and would've snapped if done so, and the other bunch was buried in dirt so was near impossible to lift.
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Inside of the military hut there was this. Was extremely cool to see in person as I believe this hut use to hold a huge piece of equipment in.
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We came across a bunch of family photos, forgot to take pictures though, they was dated 1971 - 1980's

As I previously mentioned we only managed to explore around half of the entire place and I am very excited to visit again, soon hopefully..!


Some history found on a website after a few quick searches briefed up:
Early years of the second world wars.
A small Very High Frequency [VHF] ground wireless station for the RAF station at Pershore was established on that site.
Commucation site needed high ground, Sheriffs Lench was perfect for this.
During 1955/56 the construction of the plinth and housing by the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE) Malvern began for the building of a Ballistic Camera.
During 1957, amid great secrecy, construction of two brick built, single story buildings began.
The smaller of the two buildings housed a diesel electricity generator at its associated water cooling tanks.
The longer building of the two buildings was a Main Transmitter Hall
The original purpose of this project was to track the Blue Streak missile [a British medium range ballistic nuclear deterrent], however, when this project was cancelled in the early 1960’s it was decided that the Hewitt design could be used to track satellites for geodetic analysis.
In 1982, when it was decided to close Sheriffs Lench due to leasing and safety problems, a space was found for it at the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux.

I found the location and information out all thanks to @A man called Martyn 's post!

Any feedback on this report would be appreciated (I apologise some photos are blurry),
Hope you all enjoyed this report, was a fun one, can't wait to go back on a second visit!
 
Last edited:

Airfix

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Very interesting report, had a mooch myself on Google and I think that unusual concrete mounting is for a Hewitt camera or telescope circa 1963 based inside that moveable building on rails.
It also appears the site was up for redevelopment in 2014 into residential but was refused. There is a similar site at Atch Lench as well (I think).
 

Ya Boy Croy

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Very interesting report, had a mooch myself on Google and I think that unusual concrete mounting is for a Hewitt camera or telescope circa 1963 based inside that moveable building on rails.
It also appears the site was up for redevelopment in 2014 into residential but was refused. There is a similar site at Atch Lench as well (I think).
Thanks so much, do you think the site at Atch Lench is the same as this one? If not I will have to have a look around! Thanks for the information! :)
 

Ya Boy Croy

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
His report was definitely more in-detail and this is how I originally found out about the place, I forgot to give him some credit, that's my bad. Will add his link in my report now.

Seems to of changed a lot since his post though, will add the over half of my report to either this one, or a new one entirely. Glad you enjoyed the read though :D
 
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