Report - 1st Post... Broughton RNAD Cumbria Aug 2016

[Brett Mussilini High]

The site was decommissioned in 1992 at the end of the Cold War. The United States Navy used the site for storage of its armaments for its North Atlantic Squadron. The site had a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge railway. Locomotives from this railway are preserved on the Almond Valley and Whipsnade railways. The weapons were flown out of the site by helicopters shuttling back and forth over a number of days to a USN Cargo Ship lying offshore and away from the town's harbour of Workington.
The large majority of the buildings and bunkers remain along with underground storage and an extensive network of storage sheds and other military buildings. Ownership of the site was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to Allerdale Borough Council in 2008 who have yet to decide what to do with the site. The site was purchased by the Borough Council for £1. In October 2008 Cumbria County Council called for interest in the redevelopment of the site rebranded as Derwent Forest. As yet there has been little interest due to the huge cost involved with cleaning up the site. There are unexploded ordnance and large amounts of asbestos as well as unmarked mine shafts when it was a colliery prior to World War II. Furthermore, having previously ruled out allowing the site to be used for coal mining, Allerdale council later agreed to allow mining by any prospective future owners as a way to raise funding for any potential tourism development.
It was announced on 13 January 2011 that the two shortlisted developers for the site would not mine the site, allaying fears about the environmental impact of the development of the site. A decision is due by the end of February 2011.

I have frequented the site on and off with my dogs over the years, thought I would nip back with a camera now its earmarked for development, its been covered before but this site is 1050 acres so I doubt it all been covered, previous posts mentioned not finding any underground areas, they haven't had the time ive had to look for them, they are there, need some form of lighting to show it, phone torch does not touch the blackness, anyway, heres some recent shots of how much nature has claimed back at the dump

Entrance to the underground bits

 

[Bolts]

You need to upload your pics to an image-hosting site like Flickr and copy the BB code to post them on the forum. There's a thread about it somewhere.
I'd advise keeping pics of your kids off here too, you never know what kind of people you'll meet on the internet

 

[Brett Mussilini High]

Cheers for the info mate, I take it the link works then I just need to select the photos without the nippers in and post them one at a time from Flickr or similar, I'll give it a whirl now and scrap this post off, cheers again fella

 

[Brett Mussilini High]

 

[Brett Mussilini High]

Right I think I've got the hang of this now, apologies if you think I'm flooding it with photos, it's 1050 acres to cover

The old knackered window shot

I've loads more photos of switch gear and odd bits of machinery but not to everyone's taste so I won't ruin the post.
If anyone is fancying a little visit I'll tell you now I've had two full days in it and still have about a quarter to explore, there is frequent patrols by armed farmers on quads, there's a fencing contractor bobbing about and rentokil are prone to a drive round the site too, try and keep away from the most northern corner of the base as there's a house and coincidentally the farmers turn up not long after you get spotted near there, if your enjoy a game of hide and seek though you will be fine, there's nothing to take other than photos it's just one of those atmospheric places to have a scout about in, it's been stripped over the years by locals and contractors for anything of any value, still a good ratch

 

[JashCoin]

Interesting wright up Brett. We spent about 3 afternoons walking round really is a large site. Did you find anymore underground sections? as I could only find the 1 which is the one you have in the above photos i belive.

Only had to do farmer dodging once haha was fun though