Alan Turnbull's
Secret Bases
PART
4 OF 5
An entertaining guide to using
Internet-based research tools
OS maps, aerial photos, Google Earth
to reveal the UK's "hidden"
MoD facilities and military sites
Featuring covert spy bases,
underground bunkers and more
The website that causedbut with a Twist in the Tale
Page last updated:
4th March 2024
COPYRIGHT © 2024, Alan Turnbull
All Rights Reserved
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"Secret Base" locations revealed – Part 4 of 5

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Wales

Most of the MoD related facilities in Wales are concerned with army training and testing of live ordnance as the road sign (further below) at Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire, controlled from nearby Merrion Camp, makes clear.

However, some bases are worthy of special mention. DERA/QinetiQ have operated two key facilities: at Aberporth, close to the small but popular surfing beach at Llangranog in Cardigan Bay and at Llanbedr, in Snowdonia national park country.

The Aberporth site sits in a stunning cliff top location, show below in another exclusive bird's eye view from my contributor with a pilot's licence. It was once called DTEO Aberporth – the Defence Test and Evaluation Organisation, a forerunner of DERA. On some maps, DTEO Aberporth is labelled "T & EE" – Test and Evaluation Establishment. It is known to be involved in research and development of Doppler effect pulse radar.

The Llanbedr site was an operational airfield, formerly designated the Royal Aerospace Establishment, from which target drones were launched. QinetiQ suspended operations at Llanbedr in late 2004 and formally handed the base over to Defence Estates for disposal in early 2005, with the loss of almost 150 jobs.

Newer target drones, not requiring a runway for take-off, will now be launched from the existing facilities at Aberporth. Whilst the future of Llanbedr's airfield is currently uncertain, such a valuable asset will surely not remain idle for too long.

The Isle of Anglesey is world famous for the village name that at 58 letters, is as long as the trains stopping at its station. It is usually abbreviated by tourists to "Llanfair PG" and the Royal Mail manages "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll".

Perhaps less well known is that the MoD maintains the HQ of the Joint Services Mountain Training School (JSMTC) here at Plas Llanfair, under the shadow of the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait. The facility is also referred to as "Defatigable". Not surprisingly, small outposts of the JSMTC (called Wings – JSMTW) can be found in the Scottish Highlands at Ballachulish near Glencoe, at Dundonnell near Ullapool and next to Tulloch Station near Spean Bridge and Fort William, but also at Deverell Barracks in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

In North Wales, in the centre of the village of Llanrwst near Betws-y-Coed, you'll find the Joint School of Adventurous Training Instructors (JSATI). On a connected theme, the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) is down near Portsmouth Naval Base at Haslar Marina.

Looking west across the QinetiQ Aberporth Range Control
Pilot's Eye view: Looking west across the QinetiQ Aberporth Range Control
Click for more Pilot's Eye Views of Secret Bases

FIBUA – Fighting In Built-Up Areas

Permalink Another major facility worthy of mention in Wales is the famous Army Training Area (ATE) north of Sennybridge. However, for such a remote mountainous location high up on Mynydd Epynt, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, it's a surprise to spot what looks like a small town in the middle of nowhere. Take a look at Gorse-Fach Farm and there seems to be a lively community. All is not what it seems though.

The buildings are merely empty houses with no residents and no outside visitors. What's going on? Is it perhaps an exterior film set for another reality TV show? No, the numerous houses are for use by the Army's FIBUA teams – Fighting In Built-Up Areas. A rather more politically correct term is OBUA – Operations in Built-up Areas – although army wags have been known to refer to it all as FISH & CHIPS – Fighting in Someone's House and Causing Havoc in People's Streets. Special villages like this are used by soldiers undergoing vital Operational Training and Advisory Group (OPTAG) courses, before being deployed to war zones. The equivalent US military terms for FIBUA / OBUA are UO (Urban Operations) and MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain).

In Sennybridge, in traditional SAS country, special training in CQB – Close Quarters Battle – takes place. Zoom into the 1:10000 map from the MAGIC website and the mysterious village around the farm is helpfully labelled "Mock Township (Army Training Area)".

Si Longworth
In Northern Ireland, at the British Army's Abercorn Barracks at Ballykinler in County Down, you can see a FIBUA village over on the west side of the vast military facility. Official British Army photographer, former Royal Military Police (RMP) officer and former Lynx helicopter pilot Si Longworth has blogged about his exploits at the close quarters battle training camp. He even included a photo of himself (right and below) in fatigues posing with a weapon outside one of the mock buildings. His Twitter feed now details his return back to Army aviation flying Gazelles.

In Scotland, a FIBUA / OBUA centre can be found near Faslane nuclear submarine base, at Strone Camp at the southern end of the Garelochhead training area. The "depot" at Strone within the forest clearing is actually the old Admiralty Hydroballistics Research Establishment. The main Garelochhead training area's military camp is 2km to the west. It is in the middle of several fuel storage depots and is visible through the trees from the adjacent train line.

In England, other FIBUA / OBUA facilities can be found on Salisbury Plain at Copehill Down near Shrewton in Wiltshire and at the urban warfare mock-up village at Eastmere, adjoining West Tofts Camp near Thetford, Norfolk within the Stanford Training Area (STANTA). More can be revealed at the Army's major training camps at Whinny Hill (sometimes spelt Whinney) at Catterick, in North Yorkshire and at Lydd Ranges near Dungeness Nuclear Power Station in Kent. Just a little east along the Dungeness coastline at Hythe Ranges you can spot yet another FIBUA village. The posters of Saddam Hussain and a fake shop sign reading "Abdul's Cafe", reveal that training for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan has occurred here.

There are additional FIBUA / OBUA facilities at the south end of Longmoor Camp near Bordon in Hampshire (which use the old married quarters) and at the disused Sherfield Farm deep within the Bramley Training Area near Basingstoke, which is clearer on MAGIC's 1:10000 scale map. The Copehill Down aerial photo, plus ground photos of the Longmoor Urban Training Complex (UTC) and Bramley Training Area, can be found on the MoD Film and TV locations website:-In August 2008, special council planning permission was granted for an £18 million transformation of the West Tofts / STANTA facilities. The Eastmere FIBUA village was extended and radically redesigned as a Middle East urban town including a factory. Meanwhile, a brand new Middle Eastern rural village, including a mosque and market stalls, has been constructed over near Stanford village itself at Bridge Carr within Buckenham Tofts Park. In particular, mock-ups of Afghan village houses incorporating Taliban "murder holes" and quick escape routes have been built. It was officially opened in May 2009.

Merry Men Films
Robin Hood fake castle
Take a look at forestry just south east of the Army town of Aldershot, Surrey. Consider woodland between the villages of Seale and Puttenham near Farnham, on the North Downs Way. Comparing imagery on Google Earth from 2004 and 2009, you'll see what looks very much like a huge new military base comprising numerous hangar type structures, hidden in several clearings. To the south of the "hangars" there is an apparent rural village but not like any one found in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is it another FIBUA training camp?

Adding to the intrigue is the presence of an access gate on Puttenham Road to the north, complete with a manned security lodge. Along the road there are curious signposts (right, top) with the cryptic abbreviation "MMF", pointing towards the mysterious secret facility in the woods.

Oh, wait a minute. Take a much closer look and rather than a FIBUA camp, the mock village really is a film set. The military base hangars are in fact various film production buildings. The cryptic signs reading "MMF"? Try Merry Men Films. Yes, it's the production base for the new 2010 Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe, built on the Hampton Estate. Another Robin Hood film set featuring a fake castle (right, bottom) can be found hidden away in Bourne Wood within the Alice Holt Forest park.

FIBUA close quarters battle training camp at Abercorn Barracks, Ballykinler, County Down, Northern Ireland
FIBUA close quarters battle training camp. Abercorn Barracks, Ballykinler, County Down, Northern Ireland
Bing aerial photo
Si Longworth at FIBUA close quarters battle training camp, Abercorn Barracks, Ballykinler, County Down, Northern Ireland
Si Longworth – Army photographer, former Royal Military Police officer and former Lynx helicopter pilot. FIBUA close quarters battle training camp, Abercorn Barracks, Ballykinler, County Down, Northern Ireland
Picture source: Si Longworth's official British Army blog
© Mike Harvey
Robin Hood film set at Farnham
Robin Hood film set at Farnham
Comparing Google Earth imagery – a new FIBUA camp near Farnham, Surrey?
Mock-up rural Middle Eastern village at STANTA
Mock-up rural Middle Eastern village at Bridge Carr, Stanford Training Area (STANTA) Norfolk
Bing aerial photo
Gun fire warning sign at Castlemartin Range, Pembrokeshire
Spelling it out – Gun fire warning sign at Castlemartin Range, Pembrokeshire
Looking south west across the FIBUA village at Copehill Down, Salisbury Plain
Looking south west across the FIBUA village at Copehill Down, Salisbury Plain
© Crown Copyright – Photo www.films.mod.uk
Mock church at FIBUA village, Mynydd Epynt, Sennybridge, Wales
Mock church at the FIBUA village at Mynydd Epynt, Sennybridge, Wales
Photo: www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk
© COPYRIGHT Stephen Fisk
FIBUA Strone Camp
Street View of FIBUA Strone Camp – but who's watching the Google car?
Google Street View
FIBUA Strone Camp
Street View of FIBUA Strone Camp – THAT'S who's watching the Google car
Google Street View

RAF Welford and RAF Fairford – its new B-2 Stealth Bomber role

Permalink

USAF moves $145m worth – 450,000 pounds in weight – of ammunition in readiness for Iran War

B-52 bomber makes emergency landing at RAF Mildenhall on secret mission – coincidence?

In May 2019, Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University suggested in an article that the United States Air Force (USAF) were preparing for an Iran War by transporting 450,000 pounds in weight, worth around $145m, of ammunition to RAF Welford by shipping it into an unnamed UK sea port.

Key clues given in a gallery of official US DoD pictures in a specialist defence publication reveal that the entry point was Newport Docks in South Wales and the explosives were transported on the US Ocean ship "Ocean Globe" (IMO 9419008) in 121 containers then loaded onto 71 trucks driving along the M4 motorway under cover of darkness into the "Secret Junction" at RAF Welford near Newbury, Berkshire.

Amazingly, rather than MoD vehicles a family-run haulage company KC Transport was used. They are experts in large and heavy loads and are specially licensed for explosives, based at Holton Heath Business Park, Poole, Dorset. Ironically, the business park is the site of the former Holton Heath Royal Naval munitions factory.

On Monday 17th June 2019, a B-52 Stratofortress bomber – usually associated with its UK forward operating base at RAF Fairford – made an emergency landing at RAF Mildenhall, after two out of its eight engines cut-out while on undisclosed "European theatre exercises" by US forces. Just a coincidence? It had been returning home, along with another unaffected B-52, heading west over the Netherlands when an engine fire alarm sounded.

USAF ammunition for RAF Welford
$145m ammunition consignment is loaded onto KC Transport trucks at Newport Docks and transported to RAF Welford in May 2019
© US DoD / 501st Combat Support Wing
Consider RAF Welford, an old WWII airfield near Newbury, Berkshire. The official entrance is north of Welford village, at Poughley Farm near Chaddleworth, which itself is on the site of a 12th century priory. Welford ceased being an RAF base when it was converted into the largest munitions storage facility in Europe. Its primary use is to provide the USAF airbase at Fairford, Gloucestershire with its weapons.

B-2 Stealth Bomber
© www.globalsecurity.org
B-2 Stealth Bomber LO Dock
© www.asfi.net
Available at hi-res on Google Earth
Diego Garcia AFB
Four B-2 LO Docks
[ 07 18 49S, 72 25 11E ]

Whiteman AFB
B-2 Bomber mural in
swimming pool – GONE!
[ 38 43 40N, 93 34 09W ]

Whiteman AFB
B-2 Bomber
on runways – GONE!
[ 38 43 53N, 93 33 19W ]
Until April 2006, you could spot a U2 spy plane (further below) parked on the ramps at Fairford, until the Google Earth imagery was updated and it disappeared. In Summer 2007, further Google Earth imagery quality enhancements (but still using data from around 2004/2005) revealed some key developments at RAF Fairford. Whilst the U2 spy plane had flown off on its missions, some very important construction projects had obviously been going on since it had visited. Check everything out by using my special Google Maps implementation further below.

On the north east side of the base, a new underground fuel bowser depot has been built, in addition to several existing ones – which have been heavily upgraded – around the southern perimeter of the base.

Meanwhile, over on the south east side, a special mobile climate controlled shelter has been erected (above right). This is the new Low Observable (LO) Maintenance Dock for the in-service repair of the top secret anti-radar coating used on the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber. It was designed by American Spaceframe Fabricators International (ASFI) of Florida. The special conditions inside the shelter are provided by state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. They allow the coating to "cure" correctly according to specification.

Flightline Security Enhancement Project (FSEP)

In 2006, a major planning application was made to RAF Fairford's local Cotswold District Council for the erection of five 21m high steel towers around the airbase. They formed Phase I of the Flightline Security Enhancement Project (FSEP) to provide 24 hour CCTV surveillance and thermal imaging. Phase II of the programme of works will integrate the Phase I equipment with sophisticated intruder alarm systems.

The amazingly detailed planning documents include the precise map coordinates of the tower positions, complete with architect's drawings. Full details of the extended building containing the new electrical control equipment is also provided.

Three previous planning applications describe other improvements to the base in readiness for the elevated status of Fairford following deployment of the B-2. These include new accommodation for an increased number of US Security Force (SF) and Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) personnel and enhanced perimeter lighting for the secure weapons areas.
RAF Fairford plan
Plans reveal RAF Fairford's Flightline Security Enhancement Project (FSEP)
© Cotswold District Council
RAF Fairford plan
Plans reveal RAF Fairford's Flightline Security Enhancement Project (FSEP). Five new 21m tall lattice towers for CCTV surveillance and thermal imaging
© Cotswold District Council

Google Earth censorship and a top secret UK B-2 bombing raid

PermalinkIn a move almost certain to fuel "Google Earth censorship" conspiracy theories, yet another imagery update was made at the beginning of August 2007, but only along the south side of RAF Fairford. Unfortunately, the newly supplied imagery (featured further below) was actually from an earlier date, before the B-2 upgrade project at Fairford had started.

This resulted in those fuel depot expansions around the southern perimeter being reversed and the B-2 LO Dock disappearing completely, almost as soon as it had made its debut. Now that's what I call stealth technology. It is hoped that the LO shelter at Fairford will return to Google Earth again soon.

Whilst the B-2's home base (since December 1993) is Whiteman AFB in Johnson, Missouri, US, these important developments at RAF Fairford since 2004 will provide the opportunity of forward deployment of the B-2 Bomber within the UK.

Other established locations are at Andersen AFB on Guam in the Pacific Ocean and at Diego Garcia AFB in the Indian Ocean (where four LO Docks are already situated).

Furthermore, two replicas of the Whiteman AFB B-2 Bomber permanent hangars have been constructed next to the new fuel depot at RAF Fairford's north east side, where some old buildings have been demolished.

All of these improvements to Fairford were put to the test in August 2008 when a top secret training mission was conducted. Excited plane spotters were feverishly typing "B-2 Stealth in skies over UK" into Google for many days, but the truth was only released after the radar avoiding plane was safely back home.

Squadron Leader John "Killer" Killerby flew his B-2 all the way to the UK from its base at Whiteman AFB. He had joined the elite B-2 team from his original posting flying Tornados with 14 Sqn at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. He dropped a payload of ordnance over Lincolnshire – but it was the famous military test range at Wainfleet, not the historic cathedral city. After the successful sortie, the stealth bomber then landed at Fairford to have its secret coating "tweaked" before returning to base.

RAF Fairford
The top secret training mission of pilot John "Killer" Killerby in the B-2 Spirit of Nebraska Stealth Bomber at RAF Fairford in August 2008
Reproduced by special arrangement with the photographer
© Michael Buckle
During 2007, Google Earth watchers noticed a mural of a B-2 Bomber painted on the bottom of a swimming pool at Whiteman AFB (further below), but by June 2007 it had mysteriously disappeared. The explanation? Another imagery update had been performed and this time, the pool was filled with water thereby making the mural impossible to see.

A real B-2 Bomber can be spotted manoeuvring around Whiteman AFB (also further below) on a black and white snapshot taken on 8th March 1997 by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as part of their National Aerial Photography Programme (1987 – present). In early 2008, Yahoo Maps was featuring differently sourced aerial photography showing another B-2 in a similar position near its hangar.

Fairford's weapons facility at RAF Welford only returned to OS maps very recently, following decades of the "airbrushing" treatment. You can make out the original paths of the runways on the aerial photo, which also clearly shows the racks of munitions.

Note the nearby presence of a disused railway line. This was the method of munitions transportation in the 1960s and before. The site (pictured further below in exclusive Pilot's Eye views shot in 2007) is so important that it has its own slip roads connected to the east-bound carriageway of the nearby M4 motorway. Commuters travelling into London every day from the west, will drive past an exit marked "Works Unit Only". It's between Junctions 13 and 14. I suppose Harry Potter would call it Junction 13½.

The fact that the "Works Access Only" sign is in red gives the game away really. All UK military establishments are signposted this way. The two slip roads were constructed in the mid 1980s and were financed by the USAF to the tune of £377,000.

There seems to be another "secret" junction on the M4 further west. To find out more, read on.

'Secret' junction on the M4 at RAF Welford
Works Unit Only — "Secret Exit" Junction 13½ on the M4 Eastbound at RAF Welford. Before the major M4 roadworks project in 2015, the signs were in military red colouring scheme
Google Street View
'Secret' junction on the M4 at RAF Welford
Works Unit Only — "Secret Exit" Junction 13½ on the M4 Eastbound at RAF Welford. After the major M4 roadworks project in 2015, the signs are now in regulation motorway blue
Google Street View
'Secret' junction on the M4 at RAF Welford
RAF Welford's Secret Junction – end of the road. The naughty Google Street View car illegally ventures up the M4 Works Access Only slip road
Google Street View
U2 Spy Plane at RAF Fairford
U2 spy plane spotting at RAF Fairford – until the Google Earth data was revised
U2 Spy Plane at RAF Fairford
U2 spy plane 80-1083 ready to take off at RAF Fairford in March 2021
© www.bigjet.tv
View on Youtube
U2 Spy Plane over Kuwait - old imagery
U2 Spy Plane over Kuwait - Jan 2006 imagery
Google Earth reveals U2 spy plane flying over Kuwait's oil refineries in January 2006
New underground fuel bowser depot under construction at RAF Fairford
Space for RAF Fairford's new underground fuel bowser depot
New underground fuel bowser depot under construction at RAF Fairford
RAF Fairford fuel bowser depot under construction in April 2005
New underground fuel bowser depot at RAF Fairford
Fuel bowser depot at RAF Fairford – completed
B-2 Stealth Bomber deployment hangars at RAF Fairford
B-2 Stealth Bomber deployment hangars at Whiteman AFB
B-2 Stealth Bomber Low Observable Coating Maintenance Dock at RAF Fairford
© Google Earth / Bluesky
B-2 Stealth Bomber Low Observable Coating Maintenance Docks at Diego Garcia AFB
© www.globalsecurity.org / © www.asfi.net
B-2 Stealth Bomber Deployment Hangars at RAF Fairford and at Whiteman AFB
Whiteman AFB photo www.globalsecurity.org
Low Observable (LO) Coating Maintenance Docks at RAF Fairford and at Diego Garcia AFB
Diego Garcia AFB photo www.asfi.net
B-2 LO Dock (top) and fuel depot (bottom) at RAF Fairford's south side - August 2007 imagery
B-2 LO Dock (top) and fuel depot (bottom) at RAF Fairford's south side - July 2007 imagery
Google Earth Stealth Technology! RAF Fairford's south side upgrades suddenly disappear in an August 2007 imagery update. B-2 Low Observable (LO) Coating Maintenance Dock (top) and fuel depot expansion (bottom) August 2007 and July 2007
Whiteman AFB swimming pool - November 2007 imagery
Whiteman AFB swimming pool - June 2007 imagery
Whiteman AFB swimming pool - April 2007 imagery
Google Earth Stealth Technology! A mural of a B-2 Bomber painted on the bottom of a swimming pool at Whiteman Air Force Base disappears and reappears when the pool is filled with water and emptied and several Google Earth imagery updates are done! November 2007, June 2007 and April 2007
Whiteman AFB B-2 Stealth Bomber - USGS imagery March 1997
Whiteman AFB - Google Earth imagery April 2007
Google Earth Stealth Technology! A real B-2 Bomber makes a brief public appearance at Whiteman Air Force Base. US Geological Survey (USGS) imagery March 1997 and Google Earth imagery April 2007
RAF Fairford
Pilot's Eye view: Looking west over RAF Fairford in September 2007
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RAF Fairford
Pilot's Eye close-up view: Looking west over RAF Fairford's B-2 Stealth Bomber upgrades in September 2007
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RAF Fairford
Pilot's Eye view: Looking east over RAF Fairford's B-2 Stealth Bomber upgrades in September 2007. Forward Deployment Shelters (upper left) and Stealth Coating Dock (upper right)
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RAF Fairford
Pilot's Eye close-up view: Looking east over RAF Fairford's B-2 Stealth Bomber upgrades in September 2007. Stealth Coating Dock
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RAF Fairford
Pilot's Eye close-up view: Looking east over RAF Fairford's B-2 Stealth Bomber upgrades in September 2007. Forward Deployment Shelters (upper left) and Stealth Coating Dock (lower right), New Fuel Depot (top centre)
Click for more Pilot's Eye Views of Secret Bases
B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber
B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber in flight
Photo: US Air Force
RAF Welford
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north east over RAF Welford's northern section
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RAF Welford
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north east over RAF Welford's western section
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RAF Welford
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north west over RAF Welford's eastern section
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DM Caerwent
Pilot's Eye view: Looking south east over DM Caerwent's northern side
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Another large munitions base, similar to Welford, is situated just north of the M48 motorway in South Wales at Defence Munitions (DM) Caerwent in Gwent (above), although this site is now supposedly just used as an Army "training area".

The last remaining UK Royal Ordnance Factory still in operation was actually missing from all maps until the 1990s. It is also in South Wales but just over the county border in Monmouthshire. Now part of BAE Systems, ROF Glascoed between Usk and Pontypool can be found on all OS mapping data.

Yet another munitions depot, DM Dean Hill, near the village of West Dean in Wiltshire – only recently decommissioned – didn't feature on any maps, until November 2004. Suddenly, Get-a-map's 1:25000 OS map was revised to show the depot, but it remained invisible at 1:50000 scale. Then in 2005, the 1:50000 data was suddenly updated to show the full detail too.

Before those revisions, in order to finally get at the truth, you needed to go to Multimap's aerial photo. Most of the DM Dean Hill site is, in fact, underground. The DM Dean Hill site at West Dean is pictured below in a special bird's eye view, my contributor with a private pilot's licence. Check out his other amazing photos in the other parts of Secret Bases.

After the delights of Dean Hill, it's "chocks away" again and we're off down to the south west tip of Wales for another Pilot's Eye trip to the old wartime Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD) at Trecwn near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.

This old WWII Navy munitions storage base, dating from the late 1930s, is laid out along the full length of a valley floor and was served by a main train line into a marshalling yard, then into transfer sheds and onto a narrow gauge track system. It was taken over in 2003 by The Valley (Pembrokeshire) Limited, a company which is transforming the whole site into a business park and devoting many bunkers to the storage of high value property and data for clients.

Take a look at my exclusive aerial surveys taken in April 2007 further below, from my regular specialist contributor. Starting at Trecwn village in the west, you'll see the main depot, together with transfer sheds, then an eastern curve which suddenly takes us north to some bunkers hidden in the valley's wooded slopes and finally, almost three miles from the start, the northern end.

DM Dean Hill
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north west over DM Dean Hill, West Dean, Wiltshire
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RNAD Trecwn
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north west over RNAD Trecwn, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
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RNAD Trecwn
Pilot's Eye view: Looking east over RNAD Trecwn's main depot transfer sheds
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RNAD Trecwn
Pilot's Eye view: Looking south west over RNAD Trecwn's eastern curve
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RNAD Trecwn
Pilot's Eye view: Looking south west over RNAD Trecwn's bunkers at the north end
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RNAD Trecwn
Pilot's Eye view: Looking south along RNAD Trecwn from its north end
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RAF Fairford's new developments. B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber Forward Deployment Hangars, Low Observable (LO) Coating Climate Controlled Maintenance Dock, Underground Fuel Bowser Depots and Flightline Security Enhancement Project (FSEP) CCTV Towers
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Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Street View

"Camp Secret" – UK Centre for Homeland Security, RAF Chilmark

PermalinkStill in Wiltshire, most "Secret Base" hunters will be familiar with the legendary RAF Chilmark, which utilised huge quarry workings (which supplied the stone for Salisbury Cathedral) for a massive underground munitions store for WWII.

The 1:10000 scale maps from MAGIC reveal the old RAF Chilmark HQ site to the east of the public road, the munitions area to the west and the Ham's Cross railhead at the branch line further south. Also at 1:10000 scale, the former Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) bunker, with huge communications tower, can be spotted in a special compound just to the east of the old railhead buildings at Ham's Cross.

Meanwhile, both 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps are sufficient to reveal another remote ordnance depot for the former RAF Chilmark, alongside the main line rail sidings at nearby Dinton, within Fovant Wood. Similarly, on the other side of the train line alongside more sidings, the WWII RAF Baverstock military supply depot can be seen.

RAF Chilmark was decommissioned in 1996, long before this website was even thought of, but in August 2005 the International School for Security and Explosives Education (ISSEE – pronounced "I See") moved into part of the main Chilmark site – what is now the UK Centre for Homeland Security. The ISSEE relocated from its original base within Tidworth College, appropriately at the end of Ordnance Road, in amongst the numerous military camps over on the other side of Salisbury.

At the new "centre of excellence" at Chilmark, specialist anti-terrorism training and advice will be given to both UK and international government, defence and police departments, etc., using equipment such as aircraft fuselages, train carriages and trucks – presumably similar to the SAS counter-terrorism trainer unit at Pontrilas, discussed elsewhere in Secret Bases.

In fact, the Chilmark facilities sound remarkably like the so-called "Camp Secret" referred to in the Daily Mirror's exclusive story [PDF, 40KB] published on 14th September 2006, the location of which they didn't actually reveal. The story kicked off with, "Hidden deep in the heart of the English countryside, is a top secret training camp, which is the nerve centre of the international war on terror."

A company based at the Chilmark camp called Air Robot UK (formerly Rotorcams) develops Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which carry high quality video surveillance cameras on board. The Air Robot company is now part of the Nordic Unmanned Group.

Northwood PJHQ and RAF Strike Command Bunkers

PermalinkThe main tri-service command and control centre for the UK's MoD and NATO operations, denoted variously as the Joint Services (or Support) Unit (JSU) and the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), is based in Sandy Lane in the leafy London suburb of Northwood.

It is sometimes referred to by its Royal Navy nickname HMS Warrior, which is the label used on the 1:25000 map. The massive command bunker, going down many levels underground, can now be seen very clearly on Google Earth in the middle of the base. In July 2007, it also became available as a stunning Bird's Eye view from Windows Live Local (below).

The RAF have their Strike Command main HQ at the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe. Note the command bunker in the suspicious clearing in Park Wood, carved out of the Chiltern Hills. Incidentally, the RAF Personnel and Training Command at RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire is due to be relocated here in the next few years. It's the place to go to when you're searching for wartime RAF records.

Another command bunker can be found at RAF Daws Hill on the other side of High Wycombe. This installation is a former US Cold War HQ for operations in Europe. Staff in the bunker would have launched Cruise Missiles. In the 1980s, walkers reported that the ground underneath Daws Hill would actually hum and buzz with activity. More recently the base has acted as a storage depot for the US Navy.

Northwood PJHQ command bunker
Bird's Eye view of MoD and NATO JSU Northwood PJHQ Command and Control Bunker
Bing Bird's Eye
RAF High Wycombe Strike Command bunker
Bird's Eye view of RAF High Wycombe Strike Command Bunker
Bing Bird's Eye

Corsham Computer Centre (CCC) – the truth finally revealed

Permalink Still on the subject of underground bases, the whole of the area around Corsham in Wiltshire is a network of underground tunnels and quarry workings. Many of them were used as secret underground WWII factories and munitions stores. At the time of the war, many collections of national art treasures were evacuated to the Corsham and Bath area, to protect them from the threat of Nazi German invasion. The Corsham area is therefore a veritable Mecca for urban subterranean explorers.

Nowadays, the Copenacre site at Corsham (an old Royal Navy stores depot) is home to the Defence Communications Services Agency (DCSA). At Monk's Park Quarry, to the south of Corsham, you can find a former Royal Navy underground depot used for the storage of munitions and equipment. This site is actually still used for subterranean storage by the Leafield Group, a major Ministry of Defence contractor based on the Leafield Industrial Estate in Corsham.

One famous underground bunker site at the south end of Peel Circus, off Park Lane in Corsham is referred to simply as the Corsham Computer Centre (or "CCC"). It is on highly secure ring-fenced land bounded by old tracks (St. Barbara's Road and Paddock Lane) but is now also adjacent to two brand new housing developments to the north and east, around Pockeredge Farm. It is a "black project" – it has never been approved by or even discussed in Parliament ... until March 2007, that is.

It has been suggested as the Government's new backup seat of control in the event of a national emergency. Such as nuclear war. The official line (and possible cover story) is that the CCC is merely a Royal Navy administration centre. The truth was always likely to be somewhere in the middle and pointed towards the CCC being a major military command, control, communications and monitoring facility for all the UK armed services – maybe even NATO.

In March 2007, I discovered that some fascinating written evidence from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Scottish CND, SCND), submitted to the Select Committee on Defence, had been published on the UK Parliament's official website. It formed part of the Select Committee's Ninth Report of the House of Commons 2006/2007 Session, "The Future of the UK's Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: the White Paper".

In the SCND evidence, submitted in January 2007, the CCC was described as the place where work on the computer software for Trident submarines is carried out by a major defence contractor called MASS Consultants Limited.

The acronym MASS was derived from "Mathematical and Associated Scientific Services" and the company was formed in 1983 by former BAE Systems staff. It was bought by the Cohort group in July 2006 for £12.5 million. In Cohort's press release at that time, announcing the acquisition, it boasted that MASS Consultants had secured a £43 million ten-year contract in 2000, "to support a highly secure Ministry of Defence Computer Centre". It continued, "The scope of work includes systems modelling, IT maintenance and support, operational analysis, software development and team management". In 2010, MASS acquired Abacus Electronic Warfare Consultancy and now trades that under the name MASS-Abacus from within Wellingore Hall .

Cohort plc is based at The Court House in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, where their other major defence contractor SCS (Systems Consultants Services) Limited also has its main offices. Yet another Cohort company based there – a division of SCS – operated as Advanced Geospatial Solutions Limited (AGS) and specialised in 3D visualisation software, until it ceased trading in August 2009. It had close connections with Lockheed Martin. Another 3D software specialist Cunning Running has now taken on the AGS product range.

MASS Consultants have their headquarters at Enterprise House in the village of Little Paxton just north of St. Neots in Cambridgeshire. Their technical base for Electronic Warfare (EW) and Information Technology (IT) software development is in a brand new industrial unit next to the Renault car dealership on Tritton Road, to the south west of Lincoln. It is no accident that the Lincoln MASS base is so close to RAF Waddington's new Defence Electronic Warfare Centre (DEWC) – their other major project client. Both are shown in Bird's Eye aerial photos from Windows Live Local further below.

The Parliamentary document states that MASS Consultants manage the IT system within the underground computer centre in Corsham, on behalf of the MoD's Strategic Systems Integrated Project Team (StratSys IPT). It goes on to state that analysts who assess the performance and effectiveness of Trident use the IT facilities in the centre.

Furthermore, it reveals that the trajectories of Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) are analysed by a company called INSYS (formerly Hunting Engineering), which has now been acquired by Lockheed Martin UK. The Lockheed Martin INSYS site can be found within Reddings Wood at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, marked on OS maps with that favourite label "Works".

The document offers an alternative, official, but rather dull name for the CCC – the Corsham Software Facility – and it is widely known that it appears on suppliers' invoices as simply "Corsham Computers".

On the website of the MoD's Acquisition Management System (AMS), I found a non-classified document buried away in an annexe to the Defence Supply Chain Manual ("JSP 336", 3rd Edition, September 2006). It is a list of Trident customers and their Unit Identification Numbers (UIN). The final entry on that list reads "Corsham Computer Centre", alongside a UIN of "P0550H".

Annex A to SCMI 2.32
Dated 20 September 2006
UINCUSTOMER
N0134ALOGISTICS OFFICER, HMS VANGUARD, HMNB CLYDE FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0134BSUPPLY OFFICER, PORT CREW, HMS VANGUARD, HMNB CLYDE FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0134CSUPPLY OFFICER, STARBOARD CREW, HMS VANGUARD, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0134DBRT, HMS VANGUARD, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0134ESENIOR INSPECTION OFFICER, HMS VANGUARD, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0135ASENIOR INSPECTION OFFICER, HMS VICTORIOUS, BLDG M044, HMNB DEVONPORT, PLYMOUTH
N0135BSUPPLY OFFICER, PORT CREW, HMS VICTORIOUS, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0135CSUPPLY OFFICER, STARBOARD CREW, HMS VICTORIOUS, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0135DBRT, HMS VICTORIOUS, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0135ESENIOR INSPECTING OFFICER, HMS VICTORIOUS, (MAINT) BLDG M044,
HMNB DEVONPORT, PLYMOUTH
N0136ASUPPLY OFFICER, HMS VIGILANT, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0136BSUPPLY OFFICER, PORT CREW, HMS VIGILANT, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0136DBRT, HMS VIGILANT, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0136ELOGISTICS SUPPORT TEAM, RAMP TEAM MANAGER, C/O VICTUALLING STORE,
HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0137ASUPPLY OFFICER, HMS VENGEANCE, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N0137DBRT CAGE, HMS VENGEANCE, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N5066ADIRECTOR OF LOGISTICS, DEPT OF LOGISTICS, GPSS, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N5368AOFFICER-IN-CHARGE, TRIDENT TRAINING FACILITY, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
N5345HOFFICER-IN-CHARGE, STRATEGIC WEAPONS SUPPORT BUILDING,
NAVAL TECHNICAL DEPT, HMNB CLYDE, FASLANE, HELENSBURGH
P0550HCORSHAM COMPUTER CENTRE
Listing of Trident customers and UINs in the Defence Supply Chain manual names the Corsham Computer Centre
Original document
Corsham Computer Centre URN 10023764
Corsham Computer Centre listed in an official Government supplier list with URN (Unique Reference Number) of 10023764
Furthermore, in September 2007 a press release by Babcock Infrastructure Services made specific reference to the Corsham Computer Centre. Babcock was cock-a-hoop at winning a £45 million three-year contract from December 2007 (with options to extend to six years). It covers the provision of facilities management services for the CCC, plus various other defence sites around Bath and Bristol involving over 10,000 MoD personnel. The contract was awarded to Debut Services Limited – a Babcock company in joint venture partnership with Bovis Lend Lease.

It is interesting to note that the name "CCC" is also widely used in military circles to refer to "Command, Control and Communications", which is nowadays formed into the snappier acronym "C3". Then there's "C3I" with "Intelligence" appended and even "C4I", with the added ingredient "Computers". It is hardly surprising that MASS, SCS and Cohort all specialise in these key project areas.

The CCC was built within Hudswell Quarry (just north of Tunnel Quarry), next door to Basil Hill Barracks and has been persistently rumoured to be powered by a nuclear generator and contain vast American number-crunching mainframe supercomputers. Even more astonishingly, it has been alleged that the Royal Family and the Government's top brass can be evacuated from London by train direct to the CCC by a secret link inside Box Tunnel.

The "secret link" story simply originated from the wartime ammunition supply rail line down into Tunnel Quarry complete with dedicated loading platforms. The external door into the abandoned underground ordnance depot can still be seen at Box Tunnel's eastern approach, adjacent to the main train line.

Amazingly, the CCC is even fully listed on Royal Mail's address database with a unique postcode, not shared with any other street or building. The entry helpfully reads,

Corsham Computer Centre,
Peel Circus,
Corsham,
Wiltshire,
SN13 9LB.

Experiment for yourself and try typing that postcode into Get-a-map, Multimap and Streetmap. Using the postcode on the Getmapping site shows an aerial photo centred perfectly on the bunker blast door entrance. Since Summer 2007, Corsham has been available at hi-res on Google Earth too!
Corsham Computer Centre
Corsham Computer Centre
Google Earth
MASS Consultants technical base (centre) at Lincoln
Bird's Eye view of MASS Consultants technical base (centre) at Lincoln
Bing Bird's Eye
RAF Waddington's Defence Electronic Warfare Centre (DEWC)
Bird's Eye view of RAF Waddington's Defence Electronic Warfare Centre (DEWC)
Bing Bird's Eye

Corsham's underground city – the Burlington Bunker

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RAF Rudloe Manor into the 21st Century

Also note RAF Rudloe Manor near to the Corsham Computer Centre, spread over two key sites – north and south - which is linked to the DCSA and in the past has been responsible for logging and investigating UFO incidents, under the title "Provost and Security Services" or P&SS. It seems that this function has now been moved to RAF Henlow (mentioned earlier) and is now referred to as the RAF's Headquarters Provost Marshal (HQPM). Of course, by "UFO incidents", I simply mean any unexplained, unauthorised incursions into UK Ministry of Defence controlled airspace, which for obvious reasons of national security, have to be thoroughly investigated.

RAF Rudloe Manor (south site) contains all the key entrances to the much talked about "Burlington" bunker from the 1950s – a once "top secret" underground city, spread out underneath Corsham and maintained as an emergency Cold War command centre for use in the event of a nuclear strike. Since the original construction, successive Governments have tried to throw inquisitors off the scent by regularly changing its code name – "Subterfuge", "Stockwell", "Burlington", "Turnstile", "Chanticleer", "Peripheral", "Eyeglass" and then just plain old "Site 3".

In December 2005, the Government finally officially decommissioned Burlington and the BBC were given full (wellalmost full!) access with their cameras. Visit a fascinating interactive tour of the labyrinths beneath Corsham on the BBC Wiltshire website.

Then take a look at the tell-tale surface features within RAF Rudloe Manor, on either side of Corsham's Westwells Road and Old Shaft Road, Live Local's close-up view of Getmapping's aerial photography. Use my special graphic overlays to reveal all those Burlington Bunker clues at ground level: two escalator shafts, two passenger lifts and a goods lift. One of the Burlington passenger lifts is visible, as a huge grass covered mound, from the Rudloe Manor perimeter fence on Westwells Road. Look out for various circular mounds too – they are the all important air intakes and exhaust vents for the plant machinery, kitchens and bakery down below.

Check the interactive map on the BBC website and see if you can match all the surface features to the internal bunker layout. Better still, consult the formerly top secret plans (further below), now officially declassified, obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

After ten years of planning and negotiations, in 2009 the southern part of RAF Rudloe Manor above ground was developed by Ark Data Centres (previously known as Ark Continuity) into the first phase of their Spring Park Data Centre campus, named after the Spring Quarry beneath, which houses the Burlington Bunker. The first data centre building known as SQ17 is actually built over a Burlington air vent and next to a quarry surface entrance and a service lift shaft. The next phase due to be completed in 2011/2012 will see three more data centres and a plant machinery house – plus underground facilities utilising part of the Spring Quarry tunnels not still owned by the MoD.

Another Ark Data Centres campus can be found at Cody Technology Park in Farnborough, Hampshire. The latest Ark development is the transformation of the former Neal's furniture distribution warehouse at Ardra Road, between Enfield and Edmonton, North London, into the Meridian Park Data Centre – due to go live in 2019. Crucially, it is right next door to London Energy's huge site which will be feeding it with cheap(er) electricity.

Back in Corsham, also notice the presence nearby of RAF Colerne, just north of Corsham, again sometimes referred to as a "disused airfield", but which is actually a key signals analysis unit, formerly 1001 Signals Unit.

Again, Paradigm Services (now known as Airbus Defence and Space), the company running Oakhanger, also has a Skynet 5 satellite ground terminal presence at Colerne. It is situated within the Azimghur Barracks, adjoining the airfield. Colerne is surely linked to RAF Rudloe Manor, if not also the Corsham Computer Centre. It is also rumoured that the airfield at Colerne may be used to shuttle VIPs in and out of the CCC. Another former Royal Navy Stores Depot can be spotted at a remote corner of the Colerne site.

Burlington Bunker surface features
Aerial view of Burlington Bunker surface features at RAF Rudloe Manor
Hover over the image with your mouse pointer to overlay the photo with annotations!
Click on the image to switch to a map overlay and back again!
Click on the following links to see the original data
Bing aerial photo
Burlington Bunker
Google Street View shows a Burlington Bunker lift shaft at RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Google Street View
Burlington Bunker surface feature plan
Declassified Top Secret Government Document! Plan of Burlington Bunker surface features at RAF Rudloe Manor
© Crown Copyright – released under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act
Click on the image above to view the full high resolution version (220Kb)
Burlington Bunker underground internal layout plan
Declassified Top Secret Government Document! Plan of Burlington Bunker underground internal layout
© Crown Copyright – released under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act
Click on the image above to view the full high resolution version (250Kb)
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Looking west over RAF Rudloe Manor. Ark Data Centres' Masterplan for Spring Park Data Centre Campus with Phase 1 building SQ17 top right
© Ark Data Centres
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre Campus Phase 1: SQ17 building
© Ark Data Centres
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre – proposed Phase 2
© Ark Data Centres
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus showing Burlington Bunker entrance shafts within RAF Rudloe Manor (top)
© Ark Data Centres
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus under construction in September 2010 showing Burlington Bunker escalator within RAF Rudloe Manor (top left, just behind fence) and new electricity sub station (bottom)
Aerial photography courtesy of Matthew Williams
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre Campus Phase 1 building SQ17 (left) and Burlington Bunker escalator within RAF Rudloe Manor (top)
Aerial photography courtesy of Matthew Williams
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus in Corsham
© By special arrangement with the photographer
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus in Corsham
© By special arrangement with the photographer
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus in Corsham
© By special arrangement with the photographer
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Ark Data Centres' Spring Park Data Centre campus in Corsham
© By special arrangement with the photographer
Spring Park Data Centre Campus, RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham
Looking North East across Ark's Spring Park Data Centres
one evening in late August 2021
with MoD Corsham in the background
UAV aerial photography © by special arrangement

Room 801, the Admiralty Citadel and the Pindar Bunker

PermalinkGovernment documents, released to the Public Records Office under the 30 year secrecy rule, revealed that an office in Whitehall, London was a central co-ordination hub for UFO reports coming in from military bases around the UK. In Room 801 of the MoD's Metropole Building (pictured below), an old prestigious hotel near to MoD Main Building, reports of unexplained fast moving radar "blips" were collated from military air traffic controllers at major RAF bases. The Metropole is now a high class hotel once more – the Corinthia London – but can you check into Room 801?

Following the completion of MoD Main Building's major refurbishment in 2004, there was no longer any need for the Metropole building. In October 2004, when I attended the D-Notice Committee Reception (see the Twist in the Tale on my Media Hysteria Page), the Metropole's windows were boarded-up (pictured further below), ready for disposal by Defence Estates. However, quite bizarrely, Room 801 lives on in a song by Dorset Progressive Rockers Galahad who also named their website after the top secret UFO research office in Whitehall.

During 2006, the exterior of the disused Metropole Building, still with its ground floor windows boarded-up, could be seen in several episodes of "Spooks", the BBC's hit series about the exploits of MI5 agents. In one episode, it even posed as the Government's HQ, the Cabinet Office. In reality it is just a little further south west on Whitehall itself, around the corner from 10 Downing Street.

By Spring 2007, the boards had been removed from the windows of the Metropole Building and replaced with warning signs belonging to a private firm of patrolling security guards. In 2010, the Metropole was ready to go full circle and be transformed into the luxury 177,000 sq. ft. Corinthia Hotel, just in time for the anticipated influx of visitors for the 2012 London Olympics. The Corinthia fully opened for business in April 2011. In October 2012, it achieved notoriety courtesy of the wild drunken antics of ITV's X-Factor contestants, who had been installed ahead of the show's live episodes.

At the start of WWII, a major heavily fortified command bunker known as the Admiralty Citadel was built just behind (to the west of) the MoD's Old Admiralty Buildings in Horse Guards Parade. It is still thought to be in use today in some capacity and the ugly ground level entrance building can be seen on the corner of St. James's Park where Horse Guards Road joins The Mall, south west of Admiralty Arch.

On 7th December 1992, a new emergency command bunker code named Pindar was officially opened for business, appropriately underneath the MoD's HQ in Whitehall. It was discussed in detail in Parliament for the first time in April 1994. Just think: I was merrily enjoying the wine and nibbles at that D-Notice Reception in the historic King Henry VIII Wine Cellar, deep in the basement of MoD Main Building.

Little did I realise that just a few hundred yards away was the entrance to the emergency seat of Government in the event of nuclear war. No wonder all the corridors were being patrolled by guards.

Be sure to visit my Media Hysteria Page to read all about my adventure.

MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall
MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall
© Crown Copyright – Photo www.mod.uk
MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall - main entrance
MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall – main entrance
MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall - boarded up
MoD Metropole Building, Whitehall – boarded up. Due to be transformed into the luxury Corinthia Hotel
Metropole Building posing as the Cabinet Office for the BBC's Spooks in 2006
Metropole Building posing as the Cabinet Office for the BBC's Spooks in 2006
© BBC / Kudos Film and TV Productions

Nuclear convoys

Permalink Over on the northern side of the M4 motorway near Corsham you'll find Buckley Barracks – better known as RAF Hullavington. The old airfield runways are regularly used for a major anti-terrorism exercise codenamed Operation Banknote, which tests the UK's defences against a theoretical attack on a nuclear warhead transportation convoy travelling from AWE Aldermaston up to RNAD Coulport in Scotland.

On their regular warhead runs, the convoys use another "disused airfield" for overnight stops. Consider former RAF Ouston at Harlow Hill near Corbridge in Northumberland, alongside Hadrian's Wall and close to the main A69 road. On top of one of the old runways, you can spot the huge secure vehicle compound at what is now referred to as Albemarle Barracks (often misspelt Albermarle).

A different kind of nuclear convoy can be found on Google Street View. As I revealed in a world news exclusive in July 2011, the Google camera cars captured nuclear fuel waste flasks being loaded at a special rail terminal near the Torness nuclear power station on the Dunbar coast, East Lothian, near Edinburgh – complete with a suitably bemused armed policeman.

Nuclear flask convoy
Google Street View camera car spooks an armed policeman ...
Nuclear flask convoy
... guarding a nuclear fuel waste flask transportation at a secure railhead facility near a nuclear power station
Nuclear flask convoy
"Hello, hello, hello – what's that thing on your car roof sir?"
Nuclear warhead convoy
Nuclear warhead convoy on its journey from AWE Aldermaston
© Steve Pearson
Specialist Vehicle Photography
Secure nuclear warhead convoy vehicle compound at RAF Ouston / Albemarle Barracks
Secure nuclear warhead convoy vehicle compound at RAF Ouston / Albemarle Barracks

GOSCC – Global Operations and Security Control Centre

Permalink

Architect's hi-res blueprints – published on the Internet by
North Wiltshire District Council – reveal MoD's top secrets

The military satellite communications company Paradigm Services – discussed earlier – has yet another base, referred to as their Hawthorn Site, in the middle of a field just north west of Basil Hill Barracks in Corsham. As an amusing nod towards Paradigm's key project (Skynet 5) and to the previous incumbents (the RAF's 1001 Signals Unit), the address given by Royal Mail is "1001, Skynet Drive". Is that site the location for the Government's new Global Operations and Security Control Centre (GOSCC)?

No – it is at the Defence Communications Services Agency's Basil Hill HQ site within the Barracks, which conveniently sits on top of Box Tunnel. The interior of the GOSCC control room, with its large video wall, looks as if it's been taken straight from a James Bond sound stage at Pinewood Film Studios. Compare Getmapping's aerial photos from 1999 and June 2006 (below). Note how a new huge white rectangular building has been tucked in between the entrances to a passenger lift and an escalator for the legendary Burlington Bunker at neighbouring RAF Rudloe Manor described earlier.

GOSCC Corsham
GOSCC Corsham
There's also a new access road through the woodland, but within the secure barracks, well away from the public road. So is THAT the GOSCC? Well, I originally thought so. But in October 2007, I stumbled upon some amazing documents on North Wiltshire District Council's (NWDC) fully public website. Planning application number 07/01614/FUL – submitted on 12th June 2007 – revealed the Corsham Masterplan [PDF, 990KB] blueprint (above and in detail further below) for the redevelopment of the Basil Hill Barracks site.

The DCSA is consolidating all its Corsham operations into the Basil Hill site and eventually, their Copenacre site (formerly a Royal Navy depot) will close and be sold off for development.

In April 2007, the DCSA actually ceased to be an agency and changed its name to the Directorate General – Information Systems and Services (DG ISS), within the newly formed Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) – a merger of the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) and Defence Procurement Agency (DPA).

In the Corsham Development Project (CDP) – the MoD's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme – the Basil Hill HQ and its various underground workings will be extensively refurbished and expanded with a massive building project due to take place between 2008 and 2010.

A consortium called Inteq – involving John Laing and Interserve – is the preferred bidder for the project, which is due to get the final go-ahead in late 2007. Interserve will provide on-site facilities management services worth at least £180 million over a 25-year contract period.

The building I originally thought was the GOSCC turns out to be an intriguing facility called "UKNDA – EUDAC". This is the UK National Distribution Agency / European Distribution and Accounting Agency. It handles the secure storage and distribution of cryptographic equipment and material to the UK Armed Forces throughout the world – perhaps even to embassies and SIS (MI6) facilities via the "Diplomatic Bag" system. The previous UKNDA location was at the old MoD storage depot at Kennet Heath, Thatcham, Berkshire – now demolished and replaced by a new housing development.

The original GOSCC location was actually a little to the north west of the UKNDA – EUDAC, but it is now due to be demolished to make way for a vast car park. A replacement GOSCC – yet to feature on Google Earth – is revealed on the Corsham Masterplan blueprint. Also detailed is the new "SLAM" building – the Single Living Accommodation – and the highly sensitive "600 TROOP" building for the Royal Signals Engineers.

Other key buildings are marked "PNCC", "COMCEN" and "EMS", referring to the Primary Network Control Centre, Communications Centre and Electronic Messaging Service.

A famous relic from WWII is preserved too. A curious feature marked "Incline Shaft" turns out to be the Surface Loading Platform for the underground wartime Central Ammunition Depot (CAD), access to which was by the "secret" rail spur in Box Tunnel's eastern portal (pictured further below). The Surface Loading Platform was disguised by some clever camouflaging in the form of a grass covered overhanging canopy.

Was the North Wiltshire Council document release a rare example of brave new "open government" or an embarrassing slip-up? Study the architect's blueprints and decide for yourself.

Before leaving the Corsham area, look out for HMS Royal Arthur - an old Royal Navy leadership training school, which has been in a sorry derelict and vandalised state for a long time, constantly being eyed-up by property developers. Sure enough, there are now plans to turn the site into a vast luxury retirement village of serviced apartments, including a care home. HMS Royal Arthur was previously based in Skegness on the blustery east coast – it occupied Billy Butlin's first holiday camp during WWII.

The DCSA has its main MoD Information Technology support centre, involving huge computer systems, located just off Junction 16 of the M4 motorway in Minerva House on the Delta Office Park in Welton Road, Swindon. Interestingly, this is also the UK Headquarters of the Security Services Group (SSG) which is part of Defence Estates and according to its own website, is "tasked with the protection of Government, Royal and MoD buildings and sites".

Basil Hill Barracks in 1999
Basil Hill Barracks in 2006
Basil Hill Barracks in 2006 showing old GOSCC
Basil Hill Barracks in 2006 showing new UKNDA
Comparing aerial views (1999, top left; 2006, top right) of Basil Hill Barracks, Corsham. Revealing the old GOSCC and new UKNDA-EUDAC building
Corsham Masterplan blueprint
Corsham Masterplan blueprint for redevelopment of Basil Hill Barracks showing the old AND new locations of GOSCC plus much, much more
Click on the image above or the link below to view the full high resolution version [PDF, 990KB]
© COPYRIGHT Faulkner Brown Architects / North Wiltshire Council / MoD
Corsham's GOSCC at Basil Hill Barracks
Looking south over the new GOSCC (foreground) at Corsham's Basil Hill Barracks in 2010
© COPYRIGHT MoD
Box Tunnel eastern portal - former secret rail spur into WWII Central Ammunition Depot, Corsham
Box Tunnel's eastern portal. Former "secret" rail spur (right) leading down to WWII Central Ammunition Depot (CAD), Corsham
© Derek Hawkins – www.geograph.org.uk
Corsham's Secrets – Global Operations and Security Control Centre (GOSCC), UK National Distribution Agency (UKNDA) / European Distribution and Accounting Agency (EUDAC), Corsham Computer Centre (CCC), RAF Rudloe Manor, Burlington Bunker, DCSA Copenacre, DCSA Basil Hill Barracks and Paradigm's Hawthorn Site
Click for more Secret Bases on
Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Street View

"Secret" motorway junctions

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RAF Welford Works Unit Access Only
Access All Areas? No!
Works Unit Only
M4 Junction 13½
Commuters driving along the M4 motorway in Wiltshire between junctions 17 and 18 have been mystified by strange apparently EXIT ONLY slip roads in both east and westbound directions signposted "Authorised Access Only" or "Except for Authorised Vehicles", pictured below.

Does this ring any bells? If you thought that the "secret", "Works Unit Access Only" junction on the M4 at RAF Welford (discussed earlier) was unique, then think again. Read on.

The suspicious junction is at Fosse Gate near the village of Littleton Drew, just west of Leigh Delamere services and is located where the M4 carriageway is taken over the top of the Roman road – Fosse Way. There's no USAF munitions dump in this area, so what can the exit slip roads be for?

The slip roads don't appear on either 1:50000 or 1:25000 scale OS maps and they don't even get marked on 1:10000 maps from the Government's MAGIC website, which makes them even more suspicious. However, if you have access to Edinburgh University's Edina Digimap system on a higher education campus, you can access Ordnance Survey 1:2500 scale data, giving 10 times the detail of the publicly available 1:25000 series.

As the OS 1:2500 data is obviously commercially sensitive, it cannot be reproduced here for copyright and strict licensing reasons. However, I have produced my own "artist's impression" (further below) to get the message across.

The OS 1:2500 data clearly shows exit slip roads at this point in both east and westbound directions. However, the slip roads are GATED. Moreover, there's a curious "depot" adjacent to the slip roads, on the north side of the eastbound carriageway, which isn't shown on 1:50000, 1:25000 or even 1:10000 scale data.

Note that the path running alongside the south side of the westbound M4 carriageway, shown on 1:50000 maps, is a "red herring". It is an ancient farm track marked on 19th century maps. The new slip roads are hidden in the heavy foliage visible on the aerial photo, hugging the motorway embankments.

'Secret' junction on the M4 Westbound at Fosse Gate
"Secret" Junction on the M4 Westbound at Fosse Gate
Google Street View
'Secret' M4 Westbound slip road on Fosse Way
"Secret" M4 Westbound slip road on Fosse Way
Secret M4 Junction at Fosse Gate
Aerial view of "secret" M4 junction and "depot" at Fosse Gate
All of this understandably got me hot under the collar, so I decided to put the brand new UK Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the test. In February 2005, I made a formal application under the Act to the Highways Agency, requesting full disclosure of the details surrounding this "secret" junction. After all, you could see it and touch it so it wasn't too "secret" and yet the public were forbidden from using it. I waited a few weeks and eventually back came the official response.

A Highways Agency spokeswoman told me that the slip roads were constructed in 2003 at a cost of £117,000 and financed from the Highways Agency's local network management schemes economy budget.

The purpose of the slip roads is apparently an "emergency turnaround point" for the Police and other emergency vehicles. When I queried the locked gates, I was told that this was to prevent unauthorised public use and "fly tipping" and that Wiltshire Police carry the keys in their vehicles. As for the "depot" adjacent to the carriageway, I was told that it seemed to be stables and the buildings were not controlled by the Highways Agency. Further independent investigations confirmed that the "depot" is in fact various farm buildings known locally as "The Paddocks". So that's cleared that up then.

It seems strange for the Police to have an expensive specially constructed "emergency turnaround point" which is locked and has to be opened by officers carrying keys with them. It also seems funny that the slip roads are EXIT ONLY – there are no matching entry slip roads. Only when you take a step back from the junction and look at the "big picture", do you start to get interested in the other possibilities.

Studying the special 1:2500 data more closely and paying particular attention to the hard shoulder layout at each slip road location (indicated below), you realise that it is just about possible that each slip road (one on the eastbound carriageway and one on the westbound) can be used by Police vehicles to exit AND enter the M4. The exit mode is by using the slip roads in the normal manner by just filtering off the main carriageway to the left and dropping down onto Fosse Way. The entry mode is by using the slip roads from Fosse Way and then joining the main M4 carriageway by "doubling back" carefully.

Just a few miles north of the Fosse Gate "secret" junction, along the route of the Fosse Way, you will find Prince Charles's residence Highgrove House at Doughton near Tetbury, just over the border in Gloucestershire. A similar distance to the south, you'll spot that military airfield at Colerne and the various MoD bases in Corsham. Could the junction be also used by MI5 and Royal Protection Officers, escorting the heir to the throne and other VIPs? Whilst the official response from the Highways Agency through my FOIA application is obviously careful not to confirm this, it doesn't completely rule it out either. A thought I'll just have to leave with you ...

For a very subtle example, consider the M4 again but further east near Swindon. Take a close look at the hard shoulder in both directions near the village of Ballard's Ash, where the B4042 Malmesbury to Wootton Bassett road goes underneath. There are "Police Only" signs again. In the eastbound direction a steep slip road goes backwards down to the B4042 below. In the westbound direction, if you blink you will miss it. An area of grass banking leads to a locked gate, a farm track and eventually the B4042. Interestingly, RAF Lyneham is not far away and this "secret" junction could come in useful during heavy traffic to and from the airbase.
'Secret' M4 Junction at Fosse Gate
'Secret' junction on the M4 at Wootton Bassett near RAF Lyneham
"Secret" Junction on the M4 at Wootton Bassett near RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire
'Secret' junction on the M4 at Wootton Bassett
"Secret" M4 Junction — slip road (eastbound) at Wootton Bassett
Google Street View
'Secret' junction on the M4 at Wootton Bassett
"Secret" M4 Junction — grass bank and gate (westbound) at Wootton Bassett
Google Street View

Yet more "secret" motorway junctions and slip roads

Another amazingly similar junction to the one at Fosse Gate can be spotted, this time on the M6 motorway in Staffordshire, halfway between junctions 14 and 15 and just north of Stafford services. Take a look at the aerial photo of the M6 at Whitemoor Farm, Yarnfield.

The slip roads in this case are clearly visible from the air and this time, they are fully marked on OS maps at all scales. The layout differs from the "secret" junction at Fosse Gate in that the slip roads join the M6 at right angles and come from a minor road crossing over the top of the motorway. The aerial photo perfectly illustrates that each single slip road per carriageway allows authorised vehicles to both exit and enter the motorway.

Police vehicles have been observed using the slip roads regularly and this stretch of the M6 is often blocked by slow moving or standing traffic. It seems reasonable to assume that at times of heavy congestion, the junction is used by police and other emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire appliances.

The intriguing "Training Centre" marked on the map alongside the junction is merely a large conference facility. Part of the site has been used by British Telecom (formerly GPO, the General Post Office) as its Central Training School for Engineers since 1946. Before that, during WWII, the facility's accommodation units had been used as military transit camps for USAF personnel.

However, take a look just a little further west and you'll spot the massive Swynnerton Army Training Area (a former WWII Royal Ordnance munitions factory) at Cold Meece near Stone, Staffordshire.

Take a look a little further south where the M6 passes around the west side of Stafford through the town of Doxey. You'll spot yet another non-public junction that is not officially numbered. This one seems to be a "Works Depot" but with a "Police Station" marked at the south west corner. The site was originally planned as a motorway service station that never materialised. Note the tarmacked bays on the west side of the M6 carriageway that may be used to hold emergency (or military?) vehicles. It actually turns out to be Staffordshire County Council's Motorway Maintenance Unit.

At the northern end of the M6, just before you head into the Lake District, you can discover an emergency turnaround junction just north of Carnforth in Lancashire. It's at Saltermire Bridge, between J35 and J36 and near Burton-in-Kendal services, which is northbound only. The police secret junction utilises two slip roads connected into Cinderbarrow Lane running over the motorway via the bridge.

Also on the M6 north of Preston, at Catterall near Garstang, you can find an emergency vehicle turnaround using a slip road on the northbound carriageway near Stubbins Bridge over the Lancaster Canal and another slip road southbound near Claughton-on-Brock. The two slip roads allow a turnaround using Stubbins Lane to the north, which runs underneath the motorway. On the north side of Stubbins Lane is a Lancashire County Council highways depot, whose gritter lorries will also use the "secret" junction.

If you scrutinise the M25 orbital motorway around London near Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire, you'll spot yet another "secret" junction. It utilises part of an existing track leading to Coldharbour Farm to the west and also a new access road hidden within Nockhill Wood to the east. This junction would seem to be designed to allow emergency vehicles to quickly turnaround and head in the opposite direction by dropping down onto Slade Oak Lane, the minor road running underneath the M25 just to the north.

If you regularly turn off the M25 to head north west on the M40, look out for another secret junction at Fulmer near Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire – again for use by emergency vehicles. If you follow Fulmer Lane from here a little north east towards the A40, you'll spot another secret turnaround junction on the M25 at Tatling End. Stay on the M25 but look near Iver Heath at Palmer's Moor Farm. Yes, another handy secret junction for the police.

Take a look at Brasted near Sundridge in Kent. The route of the M25 carriageway just north of the village follows the path of an old train line. At what was Brasted's station, you'll find another "secret" turnaround junction, which uses two slip roads – one for each carriageway – constructed west and east of the location, connected via the old Station Road which now goes underneath the motorway. This junction would also have made a very handy short-cut to and from Chevening House, which in the past has traditionally been the official residence of the Secretary of State for the Foreign Office.

Further east on the M25 towards Sevenoaks, there's an emergency access point on London Road in Dunton Green, near to where the Pilgrims Way crosses the M25 motorway. Incidentally, just to the north west over the other side of the M25, you'll find a top secret Government research laboratory hidden in the woods near Knockholt.

Even further east but on the M26, yet another secret junction can be found at Otford. It allows emergency access to and from the motorway by utilising the original Sevenoaks to Otford road that existed before the new A225 dual carriageway was built over the top of the M26.

Still in Pilgrims Way country, but further towards the Kent coast, consider the A2 London to Dover trunk route near Canterbury. Pay particular attention to a curious private slip road onto the eastbound carriageway near the village of Nackington. Perhaps all is explained when you realise that the large compound of buildings just north of the A2 at the junction of Nackington Road and Merton Lane, where that slip road leads directly in to, is a police vehicle storage and maintenance depot. The site has a very interesting history – it was once the Nackington outstation (or "detachment") for the main Cranbrook regional depot of the Home Office's Directorate of Telecommunications (DTELS), where police and other emergency vehicles would be fitted with specialist, sometimes covert, radio equipment.

Google Street View cars break the law

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Google Street View camera
In 2006, early reports started to come in that some motorists had been prosecuted for using some of these "secret" junctions, detailed above. It happened simply because their in-car satellite navigation (Sat Nav) systems had instructed the hapless drivers to use them to exit motorways in a hurry.

Check your Sat Nav model and see if it features the "secret" junctions detailed here. Furthermore, see if your Sat Nav can do the special magic illustrated below, by hovering over the image with your mouse pointer.

In Summer 2008, even the Google Street View car drivers were guilty and the evidence is out there on the Internet on Google's own servers. Be naughty and take an illegal trip around the M25 Palmer's Moor Farm junction from the comfort of your home — no fear of 3 points on your licence this way.

'Secret' M25 Junction at Palmer's Moor Farm, Iver Heath shown on Sat Nav systems
"Secret" M25 Junction at Palmer's Moor Farm, Iver Heath. Is it shown on YOUR Sat Nav system?
Hover over the Sat Nav image with your mouse pointer to see some special magic!
Google Street View car uses M25 secret junction at Palmer's Moor Farm
Google Street View car illegally uses the M25 "secret" junction at Palmer's Moor Farm, Iver Heath
Google Street View
Google Street View car uses M25 secret junction at Palmer's Moor Farm
Google Street View car breaks the law, goes over the top of the M25, but who's waiting on the other side?
Google Street View
Google Street View car uses M25 secret junction at Palmer's Moor Farm
Bemused motorway maintenance crew watch the Google Street View car drive past. Lucky that the barrier was up, eh?
Google Street View
Google Street View car uses M25 secret junction at Palmer's Moor Farm
Google Street View car's panorama from the bridge looking south — but it's a Police Only road
Google Street View
Works Unit Only sign on the M6 at Newton-le-Willows
The M6 Works Unit Only exit at Newton-le-Willows, Cheshire leads to the Highways Agency Regional Control Centre
Google Street View
Works Unit Only sign on the M6 at Newton-le-Willows
Highways Agency Regional Control Centre access road for police and authorised vehicles only on the M6 at Newton-le-Willows – so the Google Street View car ploughed-on regardless
Google Street View
A couple of secret slip roads can be spotted right in the middle of all the public ones at Junction 10 of the M4 near Wokingham between Reading and Bracknell, Berkshire. The two extra slip roads, for emergency turnaround use by police vehicles only, can be found north west and south east of J10 but are not marked on even 1:10000 maps.

Take a look at the M5 between public junctions 11a and 12 at Sneedham's Green, just south of Gloucester. Right next to Snow Capel (or Chapel) Farm, you can spot another classic "secret" turnaround junction which utilises a minor road passing over the motorway. This junction is visible on all current mapping but at 1:10000 scale from MAGIC, it is even helpfully labelled "Emergency Access".

These emergency access slip roads were slightly modified to accommodate the construction of the new Gloucester Gateway motorway service station, the first phase of which was due to open in Summer 2014.

Note how the "secret junction" is very close to the Highgrove home of Prince Charles in Tetbury. It would make a very useful escape route for His Royal Highness and accompanying MI5 / Royal Protection Officers to avoid those troublesome traffic snarl-ups. Then again, it is also close to the numerous military storage depots, now abandoned and redeveloped, which once formed RAF Quedgeley.

Close to GCHQ's Doughnut spy HQ in Cheltenham, take a look at Junction 11 of the M5 where the A40 intersects. There are a couple of extra slip roads not for use by the public, on the north east corner of the junction. One leads into a highways maintenance depot, but the other provides rapid deployment for Gloucestershire Police's Operations Centre – including serious crime armed response units – next door on Bamfurlong Lane which leads out to Staverton Airport.

Still in Gloucestershire but some distance from the M5, you wouldn't believe me if I told you that there was a whole secret motorway, not just a secret junction. But it is little more than half a mile long, has no junctions at all and is hidden inside an old RAF base. Confused even more?

The M96 secret motorway isn't up in Scotland, as the numbering would suggest, but in the former WWII bomber base at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, in the heart of the beautiful Cotswolds.

The airfield was taken over in the 1960s by the Fire Service Training College. The old runways have been covered by all kinds of fire simulation training scenarios including high-rise buildings, trains & tracks with station platforms, aircraft and even reconstructions of an offshore oil rig and a ship in dock.

One of the runways has been laid out as a replica of a motorway dual carriageway complete with hard shoulders, central reservation and even an overhead gantry with the fake "M96" sign in place.
M5 Secret Junction at Sneedham's Green
Bird's Eye view of M5 Secret Junction at Sneedham's Green, Gloucestershire
Bing Bird's Eye
M11 Secret Junction and depot at Theydon Bois
Bird's Eye view of M11 Secret Junction at Theydon Bois, Essex. Southbound slip road (bottom left) and northbound slip road plus depot (top right)
Bing Bird's Eye
M25 Secret Junction at Theydon Mount, Essex
Bird's Eye view of M25 Secret Junction at Theydon Mount, Essex
Bing Bird's Eye
M5/A40 Secret Junction and depot at Bamfurlong Lane, Cheltenham
Bird's Eye view of M5 / A40 Secret Junction at Bamfurlong Lane, Cheltenham near GCHQ. Highways Maintenance Depot (left) and Police Operations Unit (right)
Bing Bird's Eye
Fire Service College at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north east across the Fire Service College at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh showing the M96 secret motorway and much more
Click on each "hotspot" area to view close-up details — click again to return
Click for more Pilot's Eye Views of Secret Bases
Click to zoom-inClick to zoom-inClick to zoom-inClick to zoom-inClick to zoom-outBack on the M5 but in Worcestershire, another "secret" emergency turnaround junction for the police can be found at Gallops Bridge near High Green. Interestingly, this is very close to the old disused QinetiQ SIGINT enclave at Defford, which is now used by West Mercia Police as a vehicle maintenance depot.

Another emergency turnaround junction can be spotted on the M3 in Hampshire at Micheldever, between Basingstoke and Winchester. It uses the minor road passing over the motorway between the A33 and the village of East Stratton.

Two turnaround junctions are situated on the M11 in Essex around Saffron Walden. One is at Newport and the other is at Great Chesterford just south of the public junction 9 with the A11. It uses an old track which actually passes underneath the motorway carriageway in a tunnel. The tunnel theme is used elsewhere too – read on.

Still on the M11 in Essex but much closer to London, take a look at a couple of secret slip roads near Theydon Bois (pictured above). There's one on the southbound carriageway and another on the northbound carriageway, which also obviously serves a curious depot. Both slip roads allow authorised vehicles to enter and exit, but this non-public junction is only a few hundred yards south of the major M25/M11 interchange.

The reason is quite obvious when you take a much closer look at the contents of the adjacent depot on the Bird's Eye aerial photo. The Theydon Bois secret junction is for the use of Highways Agency maintenance vehicles and gritter lorries. They are able to use Coopersale Lane which passes over the top of the M11. Of course, it is very handy for emergency vehicles to perform turnarounds too. Look out for another turnaround nearby on the M25 at Theydon Mount between junctions 27 and 28.

A quite famous secret junction further into London at Chigwell was originally planned as a motorway services area which never actually got built. On the north west side of the junction there is a large police control room, so don't be tempted to use those slip roads which are so invitingly free of traffic.

An impressive cluster of no less than four secret motorway junctions can be found close together around the Langham Interchange at M62 J35 / M18 J7 on Humberside. Check them all out at Pollington, West Cowick and Rawcliffe on the M62 and at Greenland Bridge on the M18.

Rawcliffe Triangle of Secret Junctions
Rawcliffe Triangle of
Secret Junctions
Suspiciously, in what you could perhaps call the "Rawcliffe Triangle" (right and below, in detail), they are also situated close to the Defence Fuel Storage Depot and former UNITER hardened military communications bunker at Rawcliffe Bridge. In this case, both of those turn out to be "red herrings". They are all just more classic examples of turnaround slip roads – for official emergency service vehicles only. The Pollington junction utilises the original minor road into the village before the M62 was built. The curious depot connected into the Rawcliffe junction is actually a sewage works. The secret junction at West Cowick comes complete with an adjoining Highways Agency depot for motorway maintenance vehicles.

Over at the other end of the M62 near Warrington in Cheshire, there's an emergency turnaround junction and yet it's situated only a mile from a public junction. It's at Holcroft Moss between Culcheth and Glazebrook, where Holcroft Lane crosses over the motorway. In the late 1990s, this secret junction came in very handy for British Gas / Transco too. Contractors working on a major gas transportation upgrade project needed to access the fields here immediately north and south of the M62. They used the secret junction to dig a massive trench (pictured further below) underneath the motorway to connect the underground pipeline to the Warrington Gas Compressor Station at nearby Rixton Moss.

You can follow the trench for the gas pipeline project by switching to "hybrid" and "aerial" modes on the Multimap link. Trace the path on Getmapping's imagery from 1999 all the way to the terminating Gas Valve Compound (GVC) at Moody Lane in Mawdesley near Ormskirk, Lancashire. It is only revealed in detail and labelled on the 1:10000 scale map from MAGIC.

Surely the most impressive elaborate police "secret junction" is on the M1 near Hartwell in Northamptonshire alongside Salcey Forest. Check out a pilot's eye view from my special contributor further below. The two slip roads form a "figure of eight" allowing emergency turnarounds by utilising a tunnel passing underneath an elevated section of the motorway carriageways. Another example featuring a tunnel can be found on the M62 high up on the moors at Scammonden near Huddersfield.

Check out these Bird's Eye aerial views of junctions featured above, courtesy of Windows Live Local. Do you know of a better "Secret Junction" near you?

Secret M62 Junction at Pollington
Secret M62 Junction and sewage works at Rawcliffe
Secret M62 Junction and highways depot at West Cowick
Secret M18 Junction at Greenland Bridge
"Rawcliffe Triangle" of Secret Junctions at M62 J35 and M18 J7 on Humberside. Top to bottom: Pollington, Rawcliffe, Greenland Bridge and West Cowick
Secret M62 Junction at Holcroft Moss
Aerial view from 1999 of "secret" M62 junction at Holcroft Moss, Warrington. Gas pipeline trench (left) and Transco contractors depots (top and bottom)
Secret M6 Junction at Yarnfield
Secret M25 Junction at Iver Heath
Secret M25 Junction at Denham
Secret M4 Slip Roads at J10 Wokingham
Secret M1 Junction at Salcey Forest
Secret M40 Junction at Fulmer
Secret M5 Junction at Sneedham's Green
Secret M5 Junction at Gallops Bridge
Secret M11 junction at Newport
Aerial views of more "secret" motorway junctions. (centre): M1 at Hartwell, Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire (top to bottom): M6 at Yarnfield, Staffordshire; M25 at Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire; M25 at Denham, Buckinghamshire; M40 at Fulmer, Buckinghamshire; M11 at Newport, Essex; M5 at Gallops Bridge, Worcestershire; M5 at Sneedham's Green, Gloucestershire; M4 at Wokingham, Berkshire
'Secret' junction on the M1 at Hartwell, Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire
Pilot's Eye view: Looking north over the "Secret" M1 Junction at Hartwell, Salcey Forest
Click for more Pilot's Eye Views of Secret Bases
'Secret' junction on the M1 at Hartwell, Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire
Pilot's Eye view: Looking west over the "Secret" M1 Junction at Hartwell, Salcey Forest
Click for more Pilot's Eye Views of Secret Bases

RAF Menwith Hill and RAF Fylingdales

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Echelon expansion exposed

The infamous RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, near Harrogate, has never been an RAF airfield and isn't actually run by the RAF. It used to appear on OS maps as just a cluster of aerial symbols. It is owned and staffed by the NSA, America's National Security Agency and they have referred to it as Station F83 in the past. In 2016, leaked secret documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the US government's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) refers to Menwith Hill as its "Harrogate Mission Ground Station (HMGS)". During the Cold War, Menwith Hill was legitimately used as an early warning station – linked to RAF Fylingdales - to track ballistic missiles.

RAF Fylingdales wasn't shown on 1:50000 scale OS maps until a major revision was launched in July 2006. Until then, you had to go to the more detailed 1:25000 scale data to finally reveal RAF Fylingdales and it is actually on top of Snod Hill rather than Fylingdales Moor, but the name "RAF Snod Hill" just wouldn't have worked somehow.

It is curious that, since the end of the Cold War, Menwith's "golf ball" radomes have actually multiplied like rabbits. The old "golf balls" at Fylingdales were dismantled many years ago, to be replaced by state of the art Phased Array Radar (PAR) units. The three-sided concrete plinth (thereby giving 360º coverage), upon which these PAR units are mounted, can clearly be seen on Multimap's aerial photo.

From 2010, Menwith Hill's Echelon signals interception system is being massively expanded as part of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). By comparing aerial photography, it can be revealed that the base's West Gate security entrance has been radically redesigned to incorporate a new Visitor Control Centre and Vehicle Inspection Buildings. Furthermore, plans submitted to neighbouring Harrogate Council in early 2009 show that the main hardened and semi-sunken mission facility – Building 1045 (codenamed Steeplebush II) – is being significantly extended south onto spare land with a new Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) project valued at $31 million, plus $10 million for improved power infrastructure to support it.

RAF Menwith Hill - Steeplebush II
RAF Menwith Hill Echelon expansion programme revealed. Steeplebush II hardened mission building extension site for Global War on Terror (GWOT) projects
RAF Menwith Hill - Steeplebush II
RAF Menwith Hill - Steeplebush II
RAF Menwith Hill Echelon Steeplebush II expansion programme revealed by comparing imagery from 2009 (top) and 2002 (bottom)
Menwith Hill Steeplebush II in 2002
Menwith Hill Steeplebush II in 2009
Menwith Hill Steeplebush II in 2010
Menwith Hill Steeplebush II in 2015
NSA's Menwith Hill Steeplebush II expansion: 2002, 2009, 2010, 2015
RAF Menwith Hill - 2009
RAF Menwith Hill - 2002
RAF Menwith Hill expansion programme revealed. Comparing Google Earth imagery from 2009 and 2002 shows Vehicle Inspection Buildings (bottom left) and Visitor Control Centre (top) at West Gate
RAF Menwith Hill
Aerial view, June 2012, from the east of RAF Menwith Hill
Copyright © Aerial Photographix Limited
RAF Menwith Hill Building 1045 Steeplebush II extension
Aerial view, June 2012, from the east of RAF Menwith Hill. Building 1045 Steeplebush II (right) and its new extension (left)
Copyright © Aerial Photographix Limited
RAF Fylingdales with PAR units at the top
Aerial view of RAF Fylingdales with the PAR units at the top
Phased Array Radar (PAR) units at RAF Fylingdales
Phased Array Radar (PAR) units at RAF Fylingdales
Photo: www.subbrit.org.uk
© Nick Catford
Nowadays, Menwith Hill is actually labelled on the latest OS maps as "Menwith Hill Camp", making it sound like an innocuous barracks full of harmless squaddies. In reality, Menwith Hill is used to intercept communications in conjunction with GCHQ.

Because it was originally illegal for GCHQ to spy on its own UK citizens, this problem was easily circumvented by having the US owned Menwith Hill do the dirty work for them. Because of this US control, British MPs trying to ask questions in Parliament about the base just came up against a brick wall. With the introduction of recent far-reaching Acts of Parliament, handing more powers to both GCHQ and MI5, virtually anything goes.

On the subject of squaddies, just east of the Menwith camp, on the road into Harrogate, there's the Army Foundation College. It is the centre for junior soldier induction training, split between the sites of the old Uniacke Barracks (south of the road) and Hildebrand Barracks (north) on Penny Pot Lane.

While in Yorkshire, take a look at the centre of York itself. On Fulford Road you'll find Imphal Barracks. More squaddies, you think. But look beyond the razor wire fencing and to the rear of the site, you can find the Defence Vetting Agency where extensive background checks on applicants to MoD related jobs are performed and detailed records are kept.

Interestingly, right next door to Menwith Hill, the DCSA have another base which they refer to as HMS Forest Moor. It is responsible for routing communications for the Royal Navy. The OS 1:50000 series map shows HMS Forest Moor as a tell-tale geometrically shaped building, but is not labelled. Up to the end of 2004, if you went to the 1:25000 OS map, the building disappeared. If you tried the Government's MAGIC interactive mapping website and checked the 1:10000 scale map, HMS Forest Moor reappeared and the empty "farmer's fields" immediately to the south suddenly sprouted aforest of aerial masts, fully labelled. Now that's what I call MAGIC.

Indeed, as if by magic, in November 2004 the online version of the 1:25000 scale map from the OS Get-a-map website suddenly started showing HMS Forest Moor in all its glory with a cluster of aerial mast symbols, as detailed on the 1:10000 map.

The old Royal Navy centre next to the road has now been abandoned and is currently being considered by property development companies. One such company has applied to Harrogate Council for planning permission to convert the administration and accommodation blocks for HMS Forest Moor into a medium security mental health hospital.

Meanwhile, the newly updated 1:25000 map also finally revealed what seems to be the DCSA's control building for the aerial farm to the south of the road, which is unaffected by any future plans for the main HMS Forest Moor site.

It has been widely suggested that both the DCSA and GCHQ have operatives working on covert signals interception projects within Chetwynd Barracks at Chilwell near Beeston, Nottingham. At first sight though, this base would apparently just be part of the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) network. Chetwynd was also used as a major training and mobilisation centre for the war in Iraq.

Other key DCSA communications facilities can be found at Inskip, near Preston in Lancashire, at Anthorn on the Solway Firth coast in Cumbria and at Crimond on Scotland's Aberdeenshire coast between Fraserburgh and Peterhead, next to the St. Fergus North Sea Gas Terminal. One of the main communications masts at DCSA Crimond is shown below, in new aerial photography from Getmapping released in Summer 2005.

Predictably, both of the DCSA Inskip and DCSA Crimond sites are labelled "Disused Airfields" on 1:25000 scale OS maps. Anthorn is not labelled at all, although it is a former Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) and now forms part of the network of communications sites tracking the UK's Trident submarine fleet.

In early 2006 it was announced that from April 2007, Anthorn was also going to take over the transmission of the UK's accurate time signal using atomic clocks. Since 1927, the signal had been transmitted from the Rugby site in Warwickshire, which in more recent decades had also been part of the MoD radio network tracking submarines carrying the nuclear deterrent.

DCSA Crimond
Aerial view of one of DCSA Crimond's main communications masts
If the US Government wants to perform commercial espionage in Europe, then it's easy – just use Menwith Hill. The scandal surrounding the Airbus contract a few years ago, confirmed Menwith Hill's role in this murky world. The communications involving the bidding process by the various companies vying for the contract were intercepted by the NSA at Menwith Hill. The details were passed directly to the US Government, who then made sure their own US companies were furnished with this "insider knowledge". Thus, the US companies mysteriously landed the contract.

This scandal and the Echelon system of communications eavesdropping centred around Menwith Hill have been extensively documented by Duncan Campbell – an author, investigative journalist and TV producer and one of the world's most authoritative independent experts on SIGINT (signals intelligence).

"The Hill": Duncan Campbell's Channel 4 TV Dispatches episode from 1993
In a court case involving women peace campaigners a few years ago, a blundering British Telecom official accidentally revealed in open court that those nice BT engineers had connected fibre optic cables into Menwith Hill from their own communications site at nearby Hunters Stones. These cables are said to provide the Menwith Hill base with over 100,000 UK telephone lines.

Menwith Hill does perform important work in counter-terrorism. The telephone calls between the terrorists plotting the "9/11" (September 11th 2001) hijackings were picked up by operatives at Menwith Hill. Tragically, by the time the masses of data had been assembled, passed to GCHQ for analysis and decoded by "spooks" at MI5, the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers and all their occupants had been turned to dust.

After the attempted repeat wave of London bombings of 21st July 2005, following the original atrocities of 7th July, one of the alleged terrorists was tracked all the way to Rome by GCHQ/MI5 operatives working closely with Menwith Hill, by plotting his mobile phone intercepts.

In an amazing revelation, 19th century maps of the area show that the base is built directly above large disused quarry workings. So it seems that many of Menwith Hill's activities are buried underground in many levels of secret blast-proof bunkers and tunnel networks.

British Telecom seems very keen to keep its chums in MI5 and GCHQ happy. BT's massive research laboratory at Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich in Suffolk, routinely takes apart all new communications equipment that is produced so that "spooks" know precisely how to hack into them. At BT's "switching centre" located in the Shropshire town of Oswestry, GCHQ is handed phone tapping opportunities on a plate.

RAF Menwith Hill radome
Echelon exposed! A satellite ground station at RAF Menwith Hill gets a new white "golf ball" radome cover in 2007
End of Part 4
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