I’ve done quite a bit of reading over the last few months, I’ve just not really had the time to write about it. But…I will upload some reviews soon.
Recent books I’ve read include; George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-four’, Bill Bryson’s ‘Thunderbolt Kid’, Matthew Fredrick’s ’101 Things I learned in Architecture School’, a few Cold War bits and pieces and Martin Parr’s compilation ‘Boring Postcards’ (not really much to read there, but nice though).
Hopefully, all coming soon!
Bruggen-Bracht, Germany – Risley, UK
3 BAD or 3 Base Ammunition Depot was a large ammunition depot in West Germany close to the Netherlands border and RAF Bruggen. It was constructed to store ammunition for the BAOR or British Army of the Rhine in Germany during the Cold War, in the early 1950’s around the same time as RAF Bruggen. It was supposed to be the largest of it’s type at 1200 Hectares. The site closed in 1996 under the operation of the, by the now only 3 years old, Royal Logistic Corps. It was handed back to the German Government who spent millions of Deutsch Marks converting it to a nature park.
Former fire reservoir, 3 BAD
ROF Risley or Royal Ordnance Factory Filling Station No‘6, to give the full original title was a munitions factory in Risley in the UK and was one of 16 Filling Stations. The factory was built on a portion of Risley Moss, originally part of Chat Moss, the land was drained and construction began in August 1939, work continued for around 18 months to finish the facility, with production starting before the entire site was complete in September 1940. The ROF had a number of protected concrete bunkers for storing munitions that were covered with earth and turf, giving the impression of being underground. The location was chosen due to the typical weather of the area, which was mist and low cloud, helping to obscure the ROF’s location from Luftwaffe bombers. After the end of World War Two the ROF became surplus to requirements and survived until 1956 as a storage depot when part of the site was sold to the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The rest of the site lay disused until a buy was found in 1968 in the form of the Warrington and Runcorn Development Corporation, who created the new town of Birchwood on the site. Part of the site however was used to create a nature park.
Risley Moss, ROF Risley
As you can tell from the above, both 3 BAD and ROF Risley were used for British military purposes and both ended up as nature parks. The fact they were each built for a different conflict, 3 BAD the Cold War and ROF Risley World War Two is minor. I visited 3 BAD first in late February 2009 and ROF Risley in early March, I’d planned to visit Risley for many years but never got around to it. Having read about ROF Risley and visiting 3 BAD, knowing the geography of Risley as it is local to me from maps and articles I had read, I began thinking how similar the 2 place might be.
Former storage building, 3 BAD
Former storage bunkers behind playing field, ROF Risley.
It would appear normal service wasn’t resumed.
However, I have some books on order and a couple of reviews to do. So hopefully I’ll get around to doing something later this week. I’m also planning on updating my site: Saul Beeson Photography, as well this week with some Cold War related stuff from earlier this year in Germany and the UK.
