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Spookier? Ah Well : Nuclear Harwell (2)

October 30, 2024 0Likes

Animals : Aircraft : Atoms

Once a sweet little village …

… surrounded by farmland, things took a noisy turn at Harwell with the arrival of John Laing buildders in 1935.

From its opening in February 1937 until March 1944, various bomber squadrons were stationed at the airfield. On the outbreak of the Second World War, it became part of No. 38 Group RAF, initially used for leaflet missions over France using Vickers Wellington bombers, later bombing raids on Bremen, Cologne and Essen. 

There were numerous Luftwaffe raids on the airfield from August 1940 until September 1941. The original grass field was replaced with concrete runways between July and November 1941.
The RAF station was closed at the end of 1945 and the site transferred to the Ministry of Supply on 1 January 1946, where it became the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. 

The above is a picture of the “Cyclotron” from the early 1950s – probably a danger to anyone who worked on it – whatever it did! There was plenty of this …

… and the disinctive tower was a notable highlight (?) of a drive past on the old A34. It has long since been demolished.

Over the years that reduced in scale and other science-based research moved in, such as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1957. The site is now home to the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

It does have one of these.
Located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory campus at Harwell in Oxfordshire, Diamond is an alchemist’s dream, a place where beams of light 10,000 times brighter than the sun are deployed to probe the nature of everyday things.

Diamond is the Marmite of the physics world. Just as the sticky gunk left over from the brewing process was repurposed as a savoury spread, the light that streams from Diamond was originally the waste product of a particle accelerator.

No, fbb doesn’t really understand it all, either.

No 3 son, who has walked public footpaths in the area on several occasions, reports that there are still sites surrunded by high security fences and patrolled by armed guards. Who knows what goes on there?

What does go there in 2024 is Thames Travel / Oxford Bus service X34 & X35 …

… which, with its as

sociated peak hour X24, replaced the former Connector roure X32 just over a year ago.

Here is the GoAhead route map from Didcot to Harwell and Newbuty …

… and locally between Didcot and Harwell.

Great Western Park sounds like yet another “Business Park” but it is actually a rather well designed housing development.

The X34 and X35 climb up to higher ground …

… to reach the centre of the estate. Here we find a welll appointed shopping centre …

… with ASDA and a smart looking pub.

It is called “The Station Garden” and fbb wondered which station on this site was blessed with the garden. 

It wasn’t and there wasn’t. 
The local line from Didcot to Newbury ran nearby …

… but with no station near Great Western Park.

On the old map, The Station Garden is to the west of the “D” of Didcot.

Our X34 bus passes through the quaint and large;y unspoiled Harwell village …

… which compares with the old monochrome picture at the head of this posting.

And so to our tour of Harwell Business Park, a weird mixture of the very new …
… the obviously ex Military …
… and another rebuild and replace in progress.

The Harwell terminus was a bit of a non event.

But across the road are not one but two spooky guardposts.

… and lots of fencing and warning notices. fbb was quite glad to be on the bus to Wantage.
So, it was back down the old A34 (now the A4185) to Rowstock Corner …

… and hang a left for the relatively nuclear-free zone of Wantage.

 Next Cannes/Nice Rail blog : Thurs 31 Oct 

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to a  blog near you

Thurs 31 Oct
(mini) Nice journey but …
Fri 1 Nov
(maxi) Newbury to Didcot, not by X34
Sat 2 Nov
(mini) Nice, the conclusion
Sun 3 Nov
(midlin) Weekend Variety (1)
Mon 4 Nov
(midlin) Weekend Variety (2)
e & o e
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