Orford Ness is a unique place. On the coast of Suffolk in Eastern England, it is a ten mile long vegetated shingle spit, with an area of marsh and also lagoons and waterways. Since before the first world war there has been a military presence, and secret testing facilities have been present for most of this time. Due to the usual British love of secrecy and the remote location along with the strange nature of some of the experimental procedures undertaken here, many legends have grown up about this place. I will try to unravel some of them and and with that in mind this page will change as information becomes available. Much of what went on at Orford Ness is still secret!
Before and during WW2, radar was developed here. The original test to see if a plane could be detected in the air had told "the boffins" that it was possible (Daventry 26th February 1935) and it was eventually decided to pursue the detection of aircraft and other vehicles and ships by radio reflections at Bawdsey Manor and Orford Ness, both on the same stretch of Suffolk coast. The results are history, but it was highly secret then, just before WW2. Almost nothing now remains of their efforts apart from a few buildings where some experiments took place, but these are just ordinary looking structures. Never the less, these buildings an a few mast bases are survivors of the first radar development. Only after some experimantal trials here did development move to Bawdsey.
More practical tests were carried out here on munitions and their effects. Huge amounts of development work on bombs, from WW1 to the nuclear age was undertaken here. The ballistic shape of bombs was decided by drop tests done here. From apple sized WW1 bombs to the huge 22,000 pound Grand Slam bomb. What remains from this era is a legacy of unexploded ordinance and a very few buildings, like this one, the bomb ballistics building from where drop tests were monitored.
Another important interlude from WW2 of which no trace remains, is the testing of both domestic and enemy aircraft and munitions. This was done to improve the ability of of allied equipment to survive, and to destroy the enemies equipment more effectively. Many planes were subjected to destructive tests here and both domestic and captured munitions tested and developed. This enterprise was most useful, but has left very little for us to see.
The cold war uses of Orford Ness produced the biggest and most impressive structures which remain in place. Firstly the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment site. The technology required to make and test nuclear weapons was brand new after WW2 and some of the learning process was undertaken here. The huge first generation bombs were proved to work in the first British test, but the making of a deliverable weapon was another matter. In all six huge laboratories were built, along with many smaller buildings, to test every conceivable combination of physical situation and stress which these bombs might be subjected to. There were two major considerations with nuclear weapons. Firstly they had to survive all stresses and still work on delivery. Secondly they had to survive all hardships without going off before the appointed moment. This still holds true now, and these crude tests will have provided much useful data to ensure efficiency of later weaponry.
