Site Name: Little Heath (FFD1) Forward Filling DepotStation Road Sub Brit site visit 6th November 2003 [Source:
Nick Catford]
In 1951 Pot A was discovered to have been leaking and the bulk of the material stored in it was transferred to another pot, leaving only about 12 tonnes. In 1953 the decision to remove all the agent and contamination from the area was taken to allow development of the area to take place.
All equipment including pipework and pumps was dismantled and the clean parts disposed of as scrap and contaminated material either incinerated or buried in the pots. Decontamination consisted of treating the entire area with bleach and harrowing surrounding areas to a depth of 18", watering in bleach in layers. Metal and tools were cleaned with carbon tetrachloride, cement and stone with bleach and water. The pots were sealed in December 1954. Large areas of the Barnham Heath site were declared clear of chemical
weapon (CW) contamination in 1954 and vacated by the RAF in 1963. The
main part of the site was used for light engineering but the area immediately
surrounding the pots remained in RAF hands. 
Photo:Personnel
decontamination and changing room
Photo by Nick Catford In 1991 the pot roofs were broken down along with 1 metre of wall, the rubble placed in the vessels and the area sealed and covered in compacted clay. Pots A & B were virtually empty at this time, only C having a considerable amount of scrap material inside. Only part of this was examined and decanted into Pot B prior to infilling. The rest was not examined and surrounding soil was not sampled at this time. In 1995 all three pots were excavated and scrap material removed. Two ground bombs containing mustard were discovered at this time. By September 1996 the site had been cleared and the pots refilled. The remaining land was transferred to the Defence Land Agents prior to sale at the end of April1997. In the late 1990's the site has been used for the storage and disposal of old tyres; the company eventually went bankrupt and the owner was imprisoned for two months for failing to dispose of the tyres despite a court order a year earlier and for shredding tyres without a licence. In the February 2002 the site was sold to the East
of England Tank Museum who specialise in restoring, preserving and
exhibiting historic military vehicles from all over the world. They
are hoping to restore many of the buildings and set up a display relating
to the history of the site. A major project however, will be the removal
of 1,000,000 tyres still stored at the site. 
Photo:Bonding
building
Photo by Nick Catford The 1.7 acre site is located at the end of an access road 1 mile south west of the Elveden - Barnham Road; the road is also a public right of way. Half way along the road there is a small picket post on the east side. Just inside the entrance gate there is a dilapidated guardhouse on the right and just past it there is a junction, the road to the left ran along the north side of the three pots and is now the main access to the museum. Straight ahead the road crosses the old railway spur where a short section of standard gauge track is embedded in the concrete. On the right there is a small brick pump house set back from the road
and on the left the empty storage sheds which is divided into five bays,
each with a hipped roof. Four of the bays are painted black, the western
bay is unpainted and the corrugated steel cladding might have been replaced.
The storage sheds are all stacked floor to ceiling with old tyres. The
brick single storey sub-station is attached to the south east corner
of the building but no internal connection to it. It has a brick blast
wall protecting the entrance and is divided into two rooms one for the
transformer and the other for switchgear. The sub-station is still in
use to supplying electricity to the site although the transformer and
switchgear are not original. Beyond the sheds there is a brick single
storey office which is currently used for storage. The road turns to
the left running parallel with the other road as it passes the office. 
Photo:Empty
storage building (left) and charging building (right). Note the section
of the covered way that originally linked the two buildings.
Photo by Nick Catford On the corner, in the undergrowth on the right hand side there is a set of concrete steps up to a series of nissen hut bases in woodland at a higher level. These date from WW1 when the site was part of a tank range. The nissen huts are shown on a 1940's plan of the site and are labeled 'to be demolished'. The next building on the left is of similar size to the office and was the mess room. It was originally divided into two separate areas, toxic and non toxic. The next building on the left is much larger and housed the decontamination and changing rooms. The building has a number of rooms accessed from a short corridor. The final building on the left was the workshop and store.
The two charging buildings were located between the bonding building and the empty storage building and were linked to both by a brick built covered way. The covered ways to the bonding building have been removed although there positions are obvious on both buildings. The covered ways to the empty storage building have been partially removed with two short brick stubs protruding from the storage building. The two charging buildings are similar, the lower floor consisting
of one large room with a decontamination room and toilet at one end;
there is no internal connection between the two areas. There are three
rooms on the roof of each building accessed only by ladder and on the
western charging building there is a water tank on top of the three
rooms; again accessed by a ladder. There are three holes in the floor
that would have taken water from the tank to the ground floor. On the
eastern side of the eastern charging building there is a ten foot diameter
circular platform raised a foot off the ground; this is the top of an
underground emergency water supply (EWS) tank. A rectangular open EWS
reservoir is located between the empty storage building and the mess
room. The three pots and their instrument houses were located on the eastern side of the site, there is no visible evidence of their existence and much of the area is covered with tyres and shredded tyres. In the field to the east of the main site and outside the inner perimeter fence is the underground mixing tank. There is a raised mounded area in the field with a rectangular brick structure on top that resembles a filter bed. A pipe runs from the main site to this tank and an inspection hatch is covered with concrete slabs. It is unclear exactly what purpose this served but a plan of the Norton Disney FFD shows a network of pipes running to this tank which appears to be a collecting tank for contaminated wash water. The fence posts from the outer perimeter fence can be seen crossing the field. The railway line diverges from the Thetford - Bury St. Edmunds 400 yards north of the site and is carried on an embankment across the field towards the depot where there is a junction, one branch running into the bonding building and the other running along the eastern perimeter of the site. Close to the entrance gate the railway line slews across the road running parallel with the road for a short distance before crossing the other branch of the perimeter roads terminating behind the entrance guardhouse. The track has been lifted but its position is clearly visible where it slews across the eastern road. Two other buildings still stand on the site; one is the boiler house which is south west of the bonding building, outside the perimeter road. This is a large brick building now open at is southern end and used by the tank museum as a paint shop. A smaller building stands alongside the railway line a little to the east of the bonding building. It has a vehicle door at each end and opens onto a raised concrete platform at its eastern end. It's unclear what this building was used for. The buildings and access road are not shown on any maps until 1968
after which they appear on all editions. The Thetford - Bury St. Edmunds
railway line was closed in 1953 and the track has been lifted, its course
however is clearly visible in the vicinity of the depot. For further pictures of Little Heath forward filling depot click here Sources:
[Source:
Nick Catford]
Home Page
|
