Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Orford ... - English Heritage

for October 1956 (TNA:PRO AVIA 65/1258). It was at first proposed to locate the new
facilities on AWRE’s existing trials site at Foulness. However, on this already crowded site
there was not enough room for the required safety radius of 550 yards (503m) around the
proposed test structures. It was also uncertain whether or not the ground at Foulness was
strong enough to support the structures (TNA: PRO ES1/269). In March 1955, William
Penney, director of AWRE, wrote to Ministry of Supply to impress on them the urgency
of having a vibration test building ready for spring 1956 (National Trust Penney 23 March
1955). It was in this context that the first test structures were erected at Orford Ness
(Figure 10). The first group of facilities were designed by C W Glover and Partners,
Consulting Engineers and Architects, London, and their function appears to have been
primarily for the environmental testing of devices prior to overseas trials, their cost was £¾
million. A later document characterised the first facilities at Orford Ness as ‘adequate
to cope with the needs of the Weapons Group to test devices under special handling
conditions of overseas nuclear tests’ (PRO: TNA AB16/2975 E4 6 Oct 59).
In 1959, it was proposed to expand the environmental test programme to simulate the
conditions weapons would be subject to when they were issued to the services, including
transport, storage and operational use. To the planners at AWRE the late 1950s marked
a high water mark for potential projects, including warheads for the Blue Steel standoff
missile, Blue Streak intermediate range ballistic missile, Blue Water surface to surface
missile, the Yellow Sun freefall bomb, and the naval Seaslug missile. There was also the
prospect of the next generation of weapons represented by the development of WE177
freefall bomb.
Ideally, AWRE wished to identify a location for a new trials site within a 60 mile
(96km) radius of Aldermaston. A number of sites were considered, including Wing
airfield, Buckinghamshire, but by January 1960 it had been concluded ‘that there was
no satisfactory alternative to continuing at the Orford Ness site’ (TNA: PRO AB16/2228
E45 15/1/60). The new facilities and work would be split between Aldermaston and
Orford Ness, the former would be responsible for mechanical testing and the latter for
assemblies containing high explosives. Work at Orford Ness proceeded under a Special
Development Order and represented the westward extension of the establishment
including the two Vibration Test Buildings E2/136 and E3/135 (Figure 12), their Control
Room E4/139 and the Magazine E5/140, the approved cost of these structures and
associated infrastructure was £860, 000. The design work for the new facilities was
undertaken by UKAEA’s Southern Works Organisation, under the supervision of their
chief architect G W Dixon, while the design drawings were prepared by C W Glover
and Partners (Millington 1971). Dixon’s other work for UKAEA also included the
Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire (www.chilton-computing.
org.uk/gallery/foreign/slide47.htm). Construction of the two Vibration Test Buildings at
a cost of £120,000 per structure was undertaken by the local builders and contractors
Cubbitt and Gotts and was practically complete by June 1960. Work on the Magazine
probably didn’t begin until a year later when approval was given for the expenditure
of £29,000 (TNA: PRO AB16/2975, E139 12 June 1962). At its height Orford Ness
was equipped with five laboratories equipped with eight large vibrators, which could
be used in association with thermal and altitude simulators, and a radiant thermal heat
shock facility. Shock tests were carried out in two laboratories, one was capable of
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