RAF Barnham Nuclear Store - January 2017

urbexdevil · Jan 24, 2017

With a last minute call waking me up from a rather lazy Sunday layin, myself and Tiny Urban Exploration hit the roads and after a brief debate, decided to head for RAF Barnham.

After hitting the roads for a good few hours we finally made our way to Thetford and began our explore, quite unsure what to expect. We immediatly discovered that a lot of the remaining buildings are now being used as workshops and garages, however the lookout towers and bomb stores themselves were still intact. We were also surprised to find that a lot of the site was in fact under restoration to its original features!

Being late in the day and night time falling quickly, we were spotted by a person who turned out to live on site and look after the place! Our luck had turned, as once we got chatting we were happily shown around the site and given an insight into whats happening and the future of the site. Unfortunatly we were unable to gain access to the lookout towers dispite permission to enter them, however incredibly the main restored tower is in fully working order, including the search lights!

History pinched from another report online, yes I know… I should start writing these up myself.

    Barnham Nuclear Storage Site was active during the early part of the Cold War and was one of only two such facilities built in the UK to store the BLUE DANUBE free fall nuclear bomb. The nuclear storage site was built during the mid 1950s to maintain the BLUE DANUBE away from the V-Bomber bases as well as holding the ‘second strike’ stock should nuclear war break out.

    On official records, Barnham Nuclear Weapon Storage Site was known as a “Special Storage Site” and served the ‘southern’ V-Force bomber airfields, occupied by No 94 Maintenance Unit (MU), with Faldingworth’s 92 MU covering the ‘northern’ bases. Barnham went on to store the RED BEARD nuclear weapon which succeeded BLUE DANUBE.

    Ultimately, the depot had a relatively short life span, ceasing to be capable of holding nuclear weapons in the Summer 1963.