The Military History of Orford Ness

Barry Searle’stalk starts with the nearby  constructions of Orford Castle, the Martello towers and the geography of this unusual site. The talk moves on to the initial government purchase of Orford Ness in 1914 to create an airfield used to support WW1 aerial warfare developments. The inter-war period saw the development of radio beacons and early radar technology. The development of bomb ballistics technologies to assist the design of gravity bombs and sighting systems. Enemy aircraft vulnerability assessment during WW2. The testing of first generation British Nuclear weapons at Orford Ness and then second generation weapons developed in association with the US. During this Cold War period a huge over the horizon radar system was built. The talk concludes with the purchase of the site by the National trust in 1993 and what visitors can expect when visiting Orford Ness today.