Black Holt former Atomic Bomb Store: Component Testing Building

A mounded and reinforced concrete component-testing building dating to the 1950s.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of reinforced concrete, painted brick, earth and turf.

PLAN: the structure is semi-buried beneath a large earth mound. The interior space is roughly rectangular and divided into three main sections.

EXTERIOR: the building is obscured under the earthen mounding. The main space is accessed from the north via a track and by a timber boarded double leaf door with wicket.

INTERIOR: An unburied section of the space is top lit with profiled sheet roofing. The interior walls are of painted brick. The interior space is divided by a spine wall pierced with flat headed openings. Beyond is the buried section which has test bays to the rear. These are divided by brick columns which have corbelled ‘capitals’, each supporting an I profile, deep, steel beam. There is a hydrometer in the end bay. An office is located at the north end of the building.