Orford Ness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Orford Ness | |
|---|---|
  Location of the site |
|
| Type | Former military test site |
| Location | near Orford, Suffolk |
| Operator | Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Atomic Weapons Research Establishment |
| Status | Inactive |
| In use | 1913 – early 1990s |
Orford Ness, described by a BBC documentary as 'half wilderness, half military junkyard', is a shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching along the coast to Orford. It is divided from the mainland by the River Alde, and was formed by longshore drift along the coast. The material of the spit comes from places further north, such as Dunwich. The peninsula was formerly administered by the Ministry of Defence, which conducted secret military tests during both world wars. The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment had a base on the site, and is believed to have developed the firing mechanisms for nuclear devices there. Many of the buildings from this time remain clearly visible from the quay at Orford, including the distinctive-looking 'pagodas' which were designed to collapse in the event of an accidental explosion. There is also a transmitting station on the peninsula, which uses the former Cobra Mist experimental over-the-horizon radar site to send medium wave broadcasts across the North Sea to mainland Europe.
Orford Ness is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public under the name "Orford Ness National Nature Reserve", though some buildings are closed off because of their advanced state of disrepair. In his travel book Rings of Saturn, the writer W.G. Sebald discussed his experience of visiting Orford Ness, likening it in appearance and atmosphere to a post-nuclear wasteland.
| It is a place of strange contrasts. For the National Trust, its 'elemental nature' contrasts with the 'inherent dangers' of this place, a 'hostile and potentially dangerous site'. Military structures – the Bomb Ballistics Building, the Black Beacon, the 'pagodas' used for explosive design – have been converted into viewing spots. This is not a celebratory site, however; there is ambivalence and doubt here, with regard to what is being physically and ideologically conserved. |
Owing to its military history, its stark appearance and the fact that it was closed to the public for many decades, several apocryphal stories have circulated about Orford Ness. The best-known is the suggestion that Nazi troops attempted to invade England and actually disembarked at the tip of the peninsula, before being repelled with a wall of fire. However, Shingle Street residents of the time have subsequently denied any such attempted invasion took place, and the story is now largely dismissed as myth.
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[edit] Geography
Orford Ness is Europe's largest vegetated shingle spit.[3][4] It is approximately 15 km long,[5] and the site covers an total area of approximately 901 hectares (9km²).[6] Forty percent of this (360ha) is shingle, 25 percent (225ha) tidal rivers, mud flats, sand flats, and lagoons, eighteen percent (162ha) grassland, and fifteen percent (135ha) salt marsh.[6]
The spit formed almost entirely of flint deposited by waves through the process of long-shore drift. The main inflence on its formation has been storm waves throwing shingle over the top of the beach crest, where it is protected from ordinary wave action.[3] Over time, this process leads to the formation of stable ridges of fine particles, and swails of coarser shingle.[3]
The size and shape of the spit fluctuates over time (see map). Estimated growth rates range from 64m per year in 1962 to 1967, to 183m per year in 1804 to 1812. Between 1812 and 1821, the total length fluctuated by 2.9km.[7] As a result of the dynamically changing nature of the spit, the true age of its formation is unknown.[8] However, before about 1200, Orford is thought to have been a port facing the open sea.[9]
[edit] See also
Wartime events at Shingle Street are explored in more detail in two books by James Hayward.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Woodward, Rachel (October 2004). Military Geographies. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405127775.
- ^ Note: Woodward states that the testing grounds closed in the early 1990s.
- ^ a b c Evans, Paul. The effects of nesting gulls on the shingle vegetation at Orford Ness Suffolk. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
- ^ The name 'ness' means 'promontory'. See Smith, Joshua Toulmin (1839). The Northmen in New England, Or, America in the Tenth Century. Hilliard, Gray, & co, 186.
- ^ Annex 06: Orfordness in: Coastal habitat restoration – towards good practice. English Nature (2003).
- ^ a b Orfordness — Shingle Street. Joint Nature Conservation Committee (January 2001).
- ^ Lee, E. Mark, Higgitt, David L. (December 2001). Geomorphological Processes and Landscape Change: Britain in the Last 1000 Years. Blackwell Publishing, 168. ISBN 0631222731.
- ^ Coastal vegetated shingle. National Trust (2006).
- ^ Bowen, Ann, Pallister, John (November 2001). Advanced Geography for AQA Specification A. Heinemann Educational Publishers, 48. ISBN 0435352822.
