Album Military from tarboat

Hurst Castle

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:22:09 +0000

tarboat has posted:

This artillery fort was established by Henry VIII on the Hurst Spit between 1541 and 1544 defending the western entrance to the Solent against France and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1649 it was used to detain Charles I before his execution.

Improvements and repairs were made during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and again between 1861 and 1874 when sixty-one gun positions were built in two long granite-faced batteries alongside the older castle. Re-armed in the Second World War it was finally decommissioned in 1956 and has become a tourist attraction. Of the four lighthouses built there from the 18th century onwards, of which the highest, opened in 1867, remains in use.

Coastal erosion is now badly affecting the site and it is threatened with destruction if funding cannot be found to bolster the defences against the sea.

Rhydymwyn

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 07:06:42 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Building at the Rhydymwyn Valley Works near Mold. This large site was used for the processing of poison gas munitions during WWII. The finished shells and bombs were stored in nearby tunnels.

Close defence

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 06:44:46 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Spigot mortar base at Windy Knoll overlooking the roads into Castleton in the Peak National Park. Mam Tor forms the background with Mam Nick on the left side. Presumably this was part of some form of defensive line in this area between Machester and Sheffield.

Beach defence

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 06:02:45 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Pillbox on Finnygook beach at Portwrinkle.

Leaving Plymouth

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Thu, 16 May 2024 06:07:03 +0000

tarboat has posted:

HNLMS De Ruyter leaving Plymouth. This Dutch Frigate was commissioned in 2004. The accompanying tug is SD Powerful operated by Serco Marine Services in support of the UK Naval Service.

Gas factory

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 06:41:05 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Remains of one of the buildings at the Rhydymwyn Valley Works near Mold. This large site was used for the processing of poison gas munitions during WWII. The finished shells and bombs were stored in nearby tunnels.

Rusty camp

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 08:02:35 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Windows in one of the Nissen huts at Snape Farm Prisoner of War camp, Weston.

Sulphuric Acid Only

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:27:23 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Preserved sulphuric acid tank wagon at Bristol Docks. Built in 1940 by Charles Roberts & Co Ltd at Wakefield, it is painted as owned by the War Department and allocated to the Royal Ordnance Factory at Bridgwater.

Firewatching

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 05:35:38 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Detail of the west side of the Warrington Transporter Bridge. An interesting feature is the siting of a Second World War firewatcher's shelter on the end. This heavy steel plate structure was installed in order to provide some protection from shrapnel for the firewatchers who were there to protect the nearby factories from incendiary bombs. It will have contained a seat and small shelf with, almost certainly, a telephone. This example appears to be a locally made item rather than the 'Consol' firewatching shelter which was sold for the purpose to a range of businesses.

RNAS Crail (HMS Jackdaw)

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 11:23:49 +0000

tarboat has posted:

The Royal Naval Air Station at Crail has a large number of surviving listed buildings including this Aircraft Repair Shop which is listed Category A.

POW huts

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 06:16:41 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Rusty Nissen huts at Snape Farm Prisoner of War camp, Weston. This site has now been cleared and replaced by housing.

Anson flypast

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 06:47:35 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Avro Anson, WD 413, did several flypasts at the Poynton Show. Apparently it is one of only two still flying in the UK.

Lost Nissen

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 26 Mar 2022 07:18:21 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Ex army Nissen hut at Kilnsea, Spurn Point, East Yorkshire. Now demolished as the sea has almost reached this spot.

Pumping station

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 07:13:40 +0000

tarboat has posted:

The wartime oil pipeline between Stanlow and Immingham ran through Poynton in Cheshire where there was a pumping station to boost the flow. At some point after the war the pipeline was realigned in this area and the pumping station abandoned. Remarkably the buildings have survived, this one containing a small office at the front and the blast wall protected space for the oil engines and pumps at the rear.

Locos of the First World War

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 06:53:10 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Military railway action at Pages Park on the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway. The line up features, from the left, 40hp Armoured Simplex LR2182, War Department Hunslet 303 and War Department Baldwin 778.

Chapelcross

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 14:43:13 +0000

tarboat has posted:

The Chapelcross nuclear power station near Annan, was very similar to Calder Hall. With 8 x 30mw generators it did not make large quantities of electricity, but it was the main source of weapons grade plutonium for Britain's nuclear weapons. Commissioned in 1959 this magnox station came off line in 2004. The four cooling towers that stood behind the reactor halls were demolished a few years before I took this photo in 2009 during decommissioning.

RAF Langham Dome Trainer

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 16:01:36 +0000

tarboat has posted:

This reinforced concrete hemisphere is known as the Dome Trainer. Built in 1943, it was one of about 40 built around the country, of which, it is thought, only 6 survive.

It was designed and built as a Ground-to-Air gunnery trainer. Projection equipment inside the Dome displayed film of dive bombers and other aircraft making attacks from various positions within a 180 degree arc. The image was moved around the Dome using a complicated system of cams and mirrors. Films were projected in colour, with full sound, creating a realistic experience for the trainees sitting in the middle at a replicated anti-aircraft gun. On firing at the attacking aircraft the instructor could gauge whether the gunner was on target by viewing the yellow light flashes projected onto the wall of the dome as he pulled the trigger; the gunner himself could not see this because he was observing through a yellow filter.

For its time, it was a very sophisticated training simulator. Trainee gunners, once competent in this would then go to Weybourne or Stiffkey for live firing at target drones towed behind aircraft.

It is believed the Dome was also used as an Air-to-Air gunnery trainer. The films would have been slightly different and the trainee would have been sitting in a mock up of a turret such as that seen on a Wellington bomber. It is possible it was also used for navigational training purposes by projecting star groups onto the walls/ceiling.

In 1961 the Ministry of Defence sold off the Airfield and its sundry buildings, a large part of which, including the Dome was acquired by Bernard Matthews pic. The Dome is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, probably Norfolk's youngest such monument! It has since been donated to the North Norfolk Historic Buildings Trust (NNHBT). It is the Trust's intention, together with the Friends of Langham Dome (FoLD) to repair and restore this building incorporating its wartime use as a trainer for Anti-Aircraft Gunners. It is hoped that if enough funds can be raised and the Dome renovated, that it will be managed by the Friends and made available to the public and schools, telling not only the story of the Dome but also the important contribution made by Langham, and other East Anglian airfields, to the defence of the country in World War 2.

Valley Works

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 06:07:13 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Remains of one of the shell filling buildings at the Rhydymwyn Valley Works near Mold. This large site was used for the processing of poison gas munitions during WWII. The finished shells and bombs were stored in nearby tunnels. If you look carefully you can still see the camouflage paint on the walls.

Defending the main line

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 06:28:04 +0000

tarboat has posted:

A Virgin class 221 SuperVoyager hurries north along the West Coast Main Line close to Hopwas in the Tame Valley. The pillbox formed part of the Western Command Stop Line No.6 and ran from Tamworth, E side of Stoke-on-Trent, to Macclesfield and Stockport, thence to 6 miles SE of Manchester.

Bosnians

nobody@ipernity.com (tarboat) — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 05:56:58 +0000

tarboat has posted:

Troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina representing the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the Tracks to the Trenches event at Apedale.