Building 78, former RAF Barnham atomic bomb store

Building 78 is the former mess hut at RAF Barnham.

MATERIALS Building 78 is constructed from a resin-bonded plywood frame, timber framed roof, and clad in flat asbestos cemented sheeting to both sides of the frame.

PLAN Rectangular in plan, assembled on a grid pattern of 4' by 3'6".

EXTERIOR The windows are standard steel single, double and tri-partite casements. At the west end is a double door. The hut has a shallow pitched roof.

INTERIOR The structure remains intact internally with no introduced partitioning. Some of the original quarry tile flooring remains.

HISTORY In the early 1950s, the Air Ministry had a continuing need for high explosive bombs and storage facilities for them and were looking ahead to 'future war in which atomic and thermo-nuclear weapons would be used by both sides.' It is within this historic context that the Special Storage Unit at RAF Barnham was constructed following the issuing of Blue Danube, Britain's first nuclear bomb, to the RAF in November 1953. The bombs were held in clutches in V bomber airfields such as RAF Scampton and RAF Wittering and the purpose of the store at RAF Barnham, and the almost identical site at RAF Faldingwoth in Lincolnshire, was to provide maintenance and refurbishment to support the airfields and hold spare warheads.

The Air Ministry plan for the Store is dated May 1953, although planning for the facility almost certainly had started before this, and it was fully operational by July 1954. In the first phase of works, the fences, earthworks, fissile core storage hutches, inspection buildings and gantries were built by August 1955. The small arms and pyrotechnics store, barrack accommodation, gymnasium, telephone exchange, meat preparation store and dog compound were erected shortly after to strengthen security. By mid 1955 the double fence was in place, later augmented by the current observation towers erected in early 1959 replacing smaller structures. The Special Storage Unit remained the main holding place for the Mark 1 atomic bomb, under control of Bomber Command until November 1956 when an independent Maintenance Unit was formed. During the operational life of the site, second and third generation British nuclear weapons such as Red Beard and Yellow Sun were introduced on the site. By 1962, the site was in decline and the Maintenance Unit ceased to exist on 31 July 1963. The closure of the station is probably linked to the operational deployment of Blue Steel from late 1962.

The site was sold to the current owners in 1966 and later let out for light industrial use.