Former Cold War explosives storage area at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Foulness Island (EHER 82411)

The Explosives Storage Area of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment on Foulness Island. The site comprises 11 explosives storage and security buildings and supporting infrastructure constructed between 1947 and February 1953. The buildings are built of yellow stock brick, with flat reinforced concrete walls, and arranged mostly around the southern half of an oval-shaped road laid out in 1947.

NRHE data transfer: May 2013. Scheduled Monument. Scheduled Monument: Atomic Weapons Research Establishment Foulness Island, 1947 Explosives Storage Area (List Entry No. 1411759). For the designation record of this site please see The National Heritage List for England. <1> <2> NRHE summary description: The Explosives Storage Area of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment on Foulness Island. The site comprises 11 explosives storage and security buildings and supporting infrastructure constructed between 1947 and February 1953. The buildings are built of yellow stock brick, with flat reinforced concrete walls, and arranged mostly around the southern half of an oval-shaped road laid out in 1947. The entrance to the track is located at the south-west, flanked by two buildings: X25, a store room which may also have been used as a search room; and XPP2, a police lodge. All the explosives related buildings in the area are protected by two single or a pair of lightning conductors. The key building in the group is the Explosives Preparation Laboratory X6 (23), where the explosives components of the devices for the Hurricane trials were assembled. Located approximately half-way up on the west side of the oval, X6 is a split level, flat-roofed rectangular building divided into two sections; a taller assembly bay to the north and a lower metrology and changing room bay to the south. The Explosives Storage Area, along with the headquarters complex, comprise the earliest structures relating to the development of Britain's first nuclear bomb.