Site Event/Activity record ESF21564 - Documentary Analysis - RAF Barnham Special Storage Site

In 1998, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) undertook a survey of the atomic bomb stores, Special Storage Site, at former RAF Barnham, Suffolk. This comprised a photographic survey, and a site description based on a field visit and drawings made available by Mr Eldred (Cocroft 1998). The site was also briefly described and illustrated in Cold War Building for nuclear confrontation 1946-1989 (Cocroft and Thomas 2003, 29-34). Later, the site was protected as a Scheduled Monument and a number of its buildings listed. In 2008, Mr Eldred and English Heritage funded a Conservation Management Plan (ACTA Purcell Miller Tritton 2008), which has guided subsequent innovative work to conserve its 1950s steel and reinforced concrete structures. It was in the context of this work that the Operational Record Books of No.94 Maintenance Unit were investigated at the National Archives, Kew. This brief note provides a commentary on the entries in the Operational Record Books, in particular where they are able to clarify the chronology of the site and shed light on the storage of nuclear weapons. Building numbers referred to in this note correspond with those in the original site report (Cocroft 1998).