"Secret Base" locations revealed - Part 1 of 5!

Thank you for visiting Part 1 of www.secret-bases.co.uk

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Introduction

What makes a "Secret Base" secret? By "base", I mean those British Government installations or military sites you've seen surrounded by razor wire fences and guarded by Ministry of Defence (MoD) police. How on earth can these sites be secret? The UK Government hasn't (yet) developed stealth technology in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. So they can't very well make, say, Faslane nuclear submarine base (pictured below) suddenly disappear as you come around the corner!

Having said that, in October 2007, the Sun newspaper revealed in an exclusive story that boffins at the Government's research wing QinetiQ had got together with Professor John Pendry's theoretical physics team at Imperial College, London to develop Harry Potter style "invisibility cloaks" for military equipment such as tanks.

As revealed back in May 2006, in scientific journals New Scientist and Physics World, the technology involves the development of special composite "metamaterials". They have very unusual refractive properties that alter the propagation of light beams. It is thought that the latest top secret research is being carried out on behalf of the MoD at QinetiQ's Nanomaterials Division at Farnborough, Hampshire!

No, it's actually much simpler than all that! A Government laboratory or military base can be made to "disappear" by just deleting it from Ordnance Survey (OS) maps! But how? Well, you need to appreciate that OS is essentially a Government agency within the MoD. Just look-up the derivation of the word "ordnance" and all will become clear.

Apart from straightforward deletion, another classic sign of "tampering" to look for on OS maps is the use of the rather uninformative labels "Works" or "Depot". This is sometimes an indication that a site has important Government and/or military activities. But why? Throughout the 1960s, Sir Martin Furnival-Jones, Director General of MI5 (the Security Service) during the Cold War, insisted that all sensitive sites be labelled on maps in this way, so their true strategic role would be concealed from potential enemy agents.

All inclusions on OS maps were once vetted by the UK Government's D-Notice Committee. You may have heard of this before. When the Government wanted to "gag" newspaper editors to stop them revealing embarrassing details about MoD-related stories, it was called "slapping a D-Notice" on them. Any locations on the "Sensitive Sites Register" were mysteriously removed from public maps by men in cigar smoke filled rooms in Whitehall and just ended up appearing as farmers' fields!

In February 2004, the Secretary of the D-Notice Committee, Rear Admiral Nick Wilkinson, contacted me to assure me that things have changed for the better and that the system has been overhauled in recent years. With the introduction of Internet-based mapping and aerial photography data, he insisted that the Committee is now an independent and purely advisory body. It is now known as the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (DPBAC) and the D-Notices are now more correctly referred to as Defence Advisory (DA-Notices), as described in Nick Wilkinson's history book Secrecy and the Media published in 2009.

On my "Secret Bases" Page, www.secret-bases.co.uk, I make use of these Internet research tools to take you on a fascinating tour of Secret Britain:-

• Getmapping
• Bing Maps (previously Multimap)
• Streetmap
• Ordnance Survey's own Get-a-map
• The Government's own MAGIC

Follow my links by clicking on the bold references which are highlighted when hovered over. When you click on a link, a new window will open. You may have to maximise the size of this window by dragging its edges so that it fills the screen. When you've finished browsing the links, close the newly-opened window to return to this page. If you've done your own further exploration within each link, you may need to do this several times. You may also need to close some pop-up advertisement windows when exploring these links.

If you discover any broken links, please report these to me using the email button at the bottom of this page. However, please bear in mind that if you find any links behaving in an unexpected manner, the particular website's server may be experiencing temporary problems.

Perhaps you would also like to try my other web pages by visiting my home page at:-

• www.alan-turnbull.co.uk

Media coverage and contact details

I have provided a resumé of my media appearances and press coverage of my "Secret Bases" website in my Media Centre. You will also find full details on how to contact me for contributions, research assistance requests and media enquiries.

Map link options

Upon hitting the GO! button below, this page will be refreshed with the new map link options you have chosen (or the default ones, if you first use the RESET button). PRIVACY: If you have enabled "cookies" on your browser, the new settings will also be saved on your computer and will be retrieved when you access this page again. Furthermore, as you navigate between the five parts of the "Secret Bases" Page, your map link option settings will be preserved. The "cookie" only contains your map preferences - nothing else. It is just a temporary "current session" cookie and is deleted automatically when you close your browser. For full documentation on the map link options available just click on my Research Tools Page button also below.

Map link source:

Bing Maps (OS 1:50K)Streetmap (OS 1:50K)Streetmap (OS 1:25K)Streetmap (OS 1:2500)Get-a-map (navigable)Get-a-map (OS 1:50K)Get-a-map (OS 1:25K)MAGIC map (OS 1:10K) (close-up)MAGIC map (OS 1:10K) (wide)Getmapping aerial photo (close-up)Getmapping aerial photo (wide)Google Maps aerial photoBing Maps aerial photoGoogle Earth KML placemark

There are some classic signs to look for on OS maps, when trying to find MoD related sites. You might see buildings which are geometrically shaped, like the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and Warship Support Agency (WSA) at Abbey Wood in Bristol.

Some are made easy by actually labelling them "Government Offices" like the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) near Bath, on the site of an old country estate at Ensleigh and also at Fox Hill . Of course, not all "Government Buildings" are "Secret Bases"! Many buildings labelled in this way are merely administration offices. Since a major restructuring in April 2007, DPA, WSA and DLO have been known as Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S).

The two Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spy centre sites in Cheltenham at Benhall and Oakley don't at first stick out when viewed at 1:50000 scale. View Multimap's aerial photograph of GCHQ Benhall and notice the field just to the west of the main buildings. This is where the brand new GCHQ Doughnut complex has been built.

Following the Doughnut construction at the Benhall site, most of the Oakley site has been demolished and the land has been handed over to a supermarket chain and housing development company. The old parts of the Benhall location have also been cleared and given over to the provision of additional car parking for the Doughnut and for housing development. The remaining GCHQ buildings at Oakley have since been officially known as the GCHQ Harp Hill site, after a nearby road.

Until Summer 2006, if you went to the Get-a-map site and viewed GCHQ Benhall and GCHQ Oakley at 1:25000, the old facilities suddenly emerged as geometrically shaped buildings and were labelled "Government Offices". These more detailed 1:25000 OS maps have now finally been updated to reflect all of the demolition work and the new GCHQ Doughnut now makes an appearance! In March 2007, the GCHQ Doughnut finally made it to hi-res on Google Earth too!

GCHQ's new research facility hidden in a forest!

UK Census 2011 – Lockheed Martin's secret data processing centre

News Exclusive

Back in early 2010, Lockheed Martin – the prime contractor for the UK Census programme starting on 27th March 2011 – acquired a "secret" building on a 30-month lease for use as the data processing centre. They set up a special purpose company called UK Data Capture and launched a massive recruitment campaign for the people who would be entrusted to read all your personal details (anonymised) on the census return forms and upload them onto the database. A total of around 1300 jobs were created on fixed term contracts until November 2011.

Wikileaks exposes two UK secret facilities critical to US Government

Cablegate leaked memo identifies Internet undersea cable stations

In December 2010, the infamous Wikileaks Cablegate operation to publish secret memos sent between US Embassies revealed a list of worldwide facilities "critical to US Homeland Security". Two such facilities in the UK are Internet submarine cable amplifier stations close to their landing points on the West Coast of Britain in popular seaside towns. They are hidden away inside anonymous buildings on unassuming industrial estates, partially masked by helpfully placed foliage!

UKMFTS – the UK Military Flying Training System

New secret HQ under armed guard!

In January 2009, I heard stories of a hive of activity surrounding an apparent anonymous building on an equally anonymous office park in Bristol, with reports of MoD armed guards protecting and patrolling the site. I just had to investigate!

Revealed – the secrets hidden inside GCHQ's Room C3301!

GCHQ heads south west but reveals too much!

In October 2005, GCHQ went into collaboration with Bristol University to set up a research facility known as the Heilbronn Institute. The 1970s inventor of the Public Key Encryption RSA algorithm – GCHQ expert Clifford Cocks – was awarded an honorary degree at the Institute in February 2008.

The team of around 30 researchers spend half of their time on personal projects and the rest is spent on secondment to GCHQ's Doughnut in Cheltenham. The Institute Director is world famous mathematician Professor Elmer Rees, based in Bristol University's Maths Faculty in the Royal Fort House Annexe . The hi-tech hardware in the Computer Science department's new Merchant Venturers Building obviously comes in handy.

RAF Boddington closed? Far from it!

Perhaps one of the most secretive signals analysis bases in the UK is known as RAF Boddington , but it's no use you trawling Getmapping's aerial photos of the area looking for deserted runways - grassed over or otherwise! Until very recently, the RAF's No. 9 Signals Unit was tucked away in the tiny hamlet of Barrow near Boddington in Gloucestershire, in a field next door to a farm. At least the guys didn't have far to go for their milk and eggs in the morning!

HMGCC Hanslope Park – new imagery reveals £30M building!

BBC Radio 4 – MI6 Century in the Shadows: Secret Vault!

Sometimes you can stumble upon interesting sites by accident. Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire looks like one of those stately homes you would pass on a Sunday drive out with the kids. It is designated "The Foreign and Commonwealth Office" (FCO) and that's the sign on the gatehouse to Park House, the original mansion. However, a further look using the Get-a-map site reveals rather more than your usual country pile.

MI6

Numbers Stations, Fort Monckton and IONEC

MI6 operatives are sent to the seaside for their induction training. Take a look at the SIS Training Centre at Fort Monckton at Gosport, Hampshire, near the Portsmouth Naval Base. It is where MI6's IONEC (Intelligence Officers' New Entry Course) is conducted.

MI6 has used various sites for the transmission, interception and analysis of signals intelligence (SIGINT) over the decades since WWII, some of which were still in operation in the late 1990s. Consider Poundon (south west of the county town of Buckingham but on the border with Oxfordshire near Bicester), Creslow (north east of Whitchurch, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire) and Gawcott (just south of Buckingham). The Gawcott and Creslow sites are said to have been used as Numbers Stations allowing MI6 agents around the world to keep in touch with HQ at home.

Loughside – new Northern Ireland MI5 Headquarters revealed!

It's even on Google Street View now!

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) / MI6 Headquarters at Vauxhall Cross , on Albert Embankment in London, is now very well known due to being featured as a backdrop to a River Thames chase sequence in the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough". The Royal Mail address database reveals that MI6 HQ is listed discreetly as "Government Communications Bureau, 85 Albert Embankment".

NBTC – National Border Targeting Centre, UK Borders Agency

PR blunder gives vital clues to new location in Manchester

In early 2009, the newspapers were full of indignation concerning a planned project called e-Borders (also known as Joint Borders) run by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) to track passengers entering and leaving UK airports (but also other transport hubs). Under a crucial test phase codenamed Project Semaphore, an anonymous looking office block near Heathrow Airport was staffed by profilers known as Match Analysts, scanning passenger lists and itineraries checking against MI5 watchlists. As I revealed in exclusive forensic research for Jason Lewis of the Mail on Sunday in March 2009, the secret location was Status Park 4 on Nobel Drive just off the main A4 Bath Road north of Heathrow Airport.

Spooks Spooked – Hacking attempt on MI5's official website!

In October 2007, the famous US secrecy-busting website Cryptome featured a fascinating new powerful web tool called the Robtex Swiss Army Knife. It was used by Cryptome to discover which blocks of Internet addresses are used by Government departments like the National Security Agency (NSA). Naturally, I played around with the new toy myself and to my horror I stumbled upon a worrying discovery!

New Spymaster reveals rather too much on the Internet!

In November 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the appointment of senior Whitehall civil servant Alex Allan (below right) as new head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which oversees the anti-terrorism activities of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

Mr. Allan's own well-documented enthusiasm for the Internet caused a major embarrassment and potential security blunder. The Daily Telegraph first revealed that he had published highly sensitive personal contact information on his own website, which also features pictures of him in his youth. He was forced to urgently delete the material, but it is still available through a well-known web archive and he even registered the domain name at his home address!

MI5, "Michelle my Belle" – Mistress to the Max

So the Formula One motor racing governing body's chief Max Mosley got caught with his pants down and the person responsible was the wife of an MI5 Surveillance Officer and famous on the BDSM "scene" working as a Dominatrix in the Milton Keynes area. A tabloid editor's dream – the unholy trinity of sex, spies and money in suburbia.

Google Earth causes Secret Bases frenzy!

Any site which has many buildings and roads laid out in a regular pattern can usually indicate a storage depot of some kind. For instance, DSDA Longtown near Carlisle is a massive munitions and equipment store for the Army. DSDA is the Government's Defence Storage and Distribution Agency. On Multimap, their older OS data apparently showed nothing to get excited about, until the data was suddenly revised in November 2004! Before that, you had to go to the Get-a-map site and try again. DSDA Longtown then suddenly came to life! Note the system of rail lines serving the site, too.

Secret Bases revealed in flight!

In September 2006, a dedicated "Secret Bases" fan sent me some stunning pictures taken on a flight in a private jet over the Hoo peninsula, along the River Medway near the towns of Rochester, Gillingham and Chatham in Kent. You don't need Getmapping and Google Earth when you've got your own pilot's licence and a camera assistant!

Google Earth censorship? The truth revealed!

In 2006, more excited Google Earth fans contacted me again, all hot and bothered over a very suspicious and mysterious "black hole". The blacked-out rectangle was apparently censoring the hi-res aerial photography alongside the M4 motorway at Osterley, between Ealing and Hounslow in West London, not far from Heathrow Airport. My correspondents wondered if it was concealing a Secret Base. Some wags even quipped that the Google Earth "black hole" resembled the enigmatic monolith in the classic 1960s sci-fi film "2001 - A Space Odyssey"!