Building 60, former RAF Barnham atomic bomb store

Summary

Building 60 is a non-nuclear store with attached concrete gantry on four columns projecting over the road to the front (south).

Reasons for Designation

Building 60, a non nuclear bomb store, is designated at grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* RARITY: A rare building on a unique site designed to accommodate and service Britain's first nuclear weapon, the Blue Danube. It is the only such surviving facility in the country.
* HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: The building has more than special national and international interest for its historical association with the development of the earliest British nuclear weapons technology during the Cold War, which helped shape Britian's post-war history.
* GROUP VALUE: The building has strong group value with other buildings at RAF Barnham, and was part of the national deployment of nuclear weapons.
* INTACTNESS: Building 60 is largely intact.

History

In the early 1950s the Air Ministry had a continuing need for high explosive bombs and storage facilities for them in anticipation of a future war in which atomic and thermo-nuclear weapons would be used by both sides. It is within this historic context that the Special Storage Unit at RAF Barnham was constructed following the issuing of Blue Danube, Britain's first nuclear bomb, to the RAF in November 1953. The bombs were held in clutches in V bomber airfields such as RAF Scampton and RAF Wittering and the purpose of the store at RAF Barnham, and the almost identical site at RAF Faldingwoth in Lincolnshire, was to provide maintenance and refurbishment to support the airfields and hold spare warheads.

The Air Ministry plan for the Store is dated May 1953, although planning for the facility almost certainly had started before this, and it was fully operational by July 1954. In the first phase of works, the fences, earthworks, fissile core storage hutches, inspection buildings and gantries were built by August 1955. The small arms and pyrotechnics store, barrack accommodation, gymnasium, telephone exchange, meat preparation store and dog compound were erected shortly after to strengthen security. By mid 1955 the double fence was in place, later augmented by the current observation towers erected in early 1959 replacing smaller structures. The Special Storage Unit remained the main holding place for the Mark 1 atomic bomb, under control of Bomber Command until November 1956 when an independent Unit (95 Commanding Maintenance Unit) was formed. During the operational life of the site, second and third generation British nuclear weapons such as Red Beard and Yellow Sun were introduced on the site. By 1962, the site was in decline and the Maintenance Unit ceased to exist on 31 July 1963. The closure of the station is probably linked to the operational deployment of Blue Steel from late 1962.

The site was sold in 1966 and let out for light industrial use. Non Nuclear stores buildings 60 and 61, held the high explosive part of the bomb and its outer casing. The central section of the casing held the high explosive lenses assembled into a large ball with forward sections containing electronics and radars and stored elsewhere in the building. Owing to the weight and size of Blue Danube, the gantry at the entrance was required to manoeuvre the bomb onto a bomb trolley for storage via the steel joist runway beam fitted with a hoist. Building 60 is currently used for storage and has blockwork partitioning which is reversible.

Details

MATERIALS
Building 60 has a reinforced concrete frame and blockwork walls, and a flat concrete roof.

PLAN
Rectangular, aligned approximately north-south.

EXTERIOR
Building 60 is surrounded by substantial earth bunds. It has a central recessed entrance flanked by two projecting two storey, flat roofed plant and switch rooms which originally contained plant to maintain a stable environment. The original steel doors remain. The rear elevation has a central door and there are crittall windows to the rear and sides. The gantry has a central rolled steel runway joist on which hoists were originally located.

INTERIOR
Originally sub-divided internally into compartments of 11 x 3 bays allowing the storage of up to 66 bombs, Building 61 has been partitioned internally to create smaller work units.

Sources

Books and journals
Cocroft, WD, Thomas, RJC, Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-1989, (2003)

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