…down in the post it’s in reasonable condition with most of the furniture gone but what’s left is in reasonable shape…

There are a couple of original artefacts intact and for the first time in an ROC post I also saw some telecoms equipment intact, though I’m guessing the door was brought down here as a replacement unless the stickers were added in-situ…

All in all it was a good little trip and the hatch is better sealed than it was in the first place so I left the place happy, sorry if the photos aren’t entirely clear – I didn’t have torch with me (doh!) and I only had my point-and-shoot camera rather than the DSLR.

The ROTOR programme that led to its construction was a post-war attempt to modernise the UK’s radar infrastructure in the face of veiled threats from Cold War adversaries, the government committed a considerable amount of money to the project even though the British economy was in a pretty dire state.

The site is large when compared to the actual buildings which occupy a small portion of the fenced-in area, consisting of a main building complex…

The coolest part is probably the live ‘golfball’ radar which hums away in the background, as well as the large antenna at the very back of the complex…

Around the side of the main building are a couple of sheds containing an electricity substation, some kind of machine and some barrels – it’s a little bit ‘Black Mesa’ with the humming radar in the background but I don’t think there’s anything too sinister out there.

The interior of the building has two levels and consists of both completely ruined rooms as well as some that would be perfectly servicable, floors are a little unstable in places and some rooms would’ve been dangerous to enter.  It’s worth noting that there was a ‘Hazard Asbestos’ sign on the floor so wear your P3 if you’re on site here, here’s a few interior shots…

When I arrived in the area there seemed to be some activity on the airfield so I had to give that a miss but so I headed down to the woods, parking next to (but not in front of!) a gate by a public footpath. The woods seem to be used heavily for paintballing and there’s plastic tape up all over the place, I managed to tread carefully and avoid being shot but on a couple of occasions I did end up within a hundred yards of a group of paintballers but I don’t think anyone spotted me.

The majority of the structures remaining seem to be odd roofless bunker/trench type arrangements, I saw at least 7 or 8 of them dotted throughout the woods (bearing in mind I was avoiding the ‘live fire’ of the paintballers), I’m not sure what their original use would have been…

I didn’t have much time on my hands so I was probably only wandering around for an hour or so, I’d love to come back with someone who knows the area a bit better – if anyone’s interested please give me a shout.

If you’d like to learn a little more about the place, please check out the first Nocton video or you can get some great background info from RAF-Lincolnshire.info.

Music used in video…

http://ccmixter.org/files/milabrya/19323
http://ccmixter.org/files/morgantj/19473

If you want a little history you can check out the first Nocton video or you can get some great background info from RAF-Lincolnshire.info.

Music used in video…

http://ccmixter.org/files/GrangeGorman/12222
http://ccmixter.org/files/Loveshadow/12996

The site contains an historic listed building, a stately home originally constructed in 1834 and rebuilt in 1841 by the first Earl of Ripon. The hall was first used as an convalescent home for American officers in 1917 during the Great War and was turned into a full-scale hospital by the RAF in 1940 but was has been intermittently used by the US Army from World War 2 right up to the first Gulf War in 1991/92. At it’s height of readiness during the Gulf War the site employed roughly 1,300 medical staff and had 740 beds even though it only ended up treating 35 casualties, following this period the hospital was handed back to the RAF and was finally abandoned to the elements in September 1995.

On a personal note, I find it sad that the property (especially the hall) has been left to fall into such a derelict state, it has been the victim of several arson attacks and an extensive amount of vandalism but the place still has a lot of character with an air of eeriness about it, mainly due to its size and advanced state of dereliction.

Music used in video…

http://ccmixter.org/files/everyeye/3206
http://ccmixter.org/files/Neurowaxx/19080
http://ccmixter.org/files/LiquidEyes/11536

On arrival at Pavenham I struggled to find the site, part because I didn’t have the exact coordinates and part because there was a road closed in the area which caused a long diversion. I cracked open the Dell Mini again and managed to find a grid reference (thanks due to ROC Remembered) and my satnav took me right to the place.

Previous reports made it look as though the post was right in the middle of a patch of brambles so I opted for an approach from the hedge side as it offered more cover from view of few houses and a public footpath. As I proceeded to drag myself through the hedge backwards I noticed a couple of topside features (air ventilator and probe cover) hidden amongst the brambles so I knew I was in the right place but I only found the hatch as I emerged from inside the hedge back into the field so there really is no point in approaching from that side!

The hatch opened easily and I immediately noticed a difference between this post and the previous two I had visited:

The key difference is that the one at Pavenham has the hatch counterweight on the right-hand side whereas those in Alderbury and Burgh-on-Bain are to your back which I found out much to my peril when I got a nasty bump on the head climbing up! The Pavenham solution seems much better and I’m not sure why they’re not all like that, perhaps they realised part way through the nationwide construction programme that they’d end up with injured officers up and down the country!

The inside of the bunker was pretty clean although much more sparse than the previous two ROC posts I have visited, I was very impressed to see many individual artefacts still present including an intact mirror. The other items present included a Glitto canister, a tin of Luxol enamel paint, a Tankard Bitter ashtray, the Eltex chemical toilet and various pieces of paper in good readable condition. The most notable item missing was the bunk bed, this leaves quite a large space free at the back of the room but that at least gave me a better perspective and I got to see the room from a different angle than those normally available to me.

Entrance to the site was simple, I parked up right next to the giant metal gates which were already completely busted up. I got my tools out (Canon 400D, Sigma 18-50mm, Speedlite 580 EXII, Maglite), gloves on (left hand full DeWalt, right hand fingerless), mounted my head-torch and headed on into the site. At first I had a poke around some of the nearby buildings and a few Anderson shelters before heading towards the nearer edge of the site, at this point I pulled back because that area is easily visible from the houses and flats in the distance and I didn’t want to blow my cover this early! After looking around a few of the other buildings in near the gate I headed rightwards.

It’s easy to underestimate this place at first but Nocton is truly massive – space isn’t really a problem in Lincolnshire so almost all of the buildings are single storey and if you imagine a combined RAF base and 740-bed hospital it ends up being an extremely large site. Inside the main body of the facility there are a series of long corridors, in what appears to be the main building there’s a large corridor running down from front to back (i.e. from the gate end straight forward) which is then crossed by long corridors running to the left and right at several intersections down the main corridor.

The walls contain directions around the site in the form of coloured stripes and every now and again you see a red bar hanging from the ceiling showing which department you’re at, in my time there the only labelled bits I made it to were the pharmacy, path lab, surgical ward and gynaecology department. Pretty much all of the rooms across the site are large and empty, it’s reasonably clear to see where an area would have been full of beds (i.e. a standard ward) and where there would’ve been a series of private rooms with beds but some of the areas are a bit ‘different’ and have some interesting little quirks. One of the more interesting buildings I found must have been some kind of administrative block and housed a giant safe, seemingly impossible to get into now but the door is still there and the whole unit is at least the size of a normal door. The place must have housed sensitive documents and military secrets, I’m not sure exactly when Nocton closed down but it’s intriguing to think about whether there’s still some classified material stashed away in there!

Across the whole of the base there are in excess of 50 buildings (see Google Maps) so there’s quite a lot of work to be done if you want to cover the whole place. I only skimmed the surface really but I think I managed to rush my way in and out of most of the major areas (but certainly not every building in each area). In terms of safety I saw a couple of signs and even some graffiti pointing out that there is asbestos present on the site so make sure you go in there wearing a P3 dust mask.

I picked mine up at Screwfix for about £5, there are cheaper P3 masks but don’t compromise your safety by using a lower rated (or unrated) mask or by using some other fabric to cover your mouth – if it doesn’t work out you could end up with serious illness down the line. Otherwise I thought that most of the surroundings, floors, ceilings and the occasional staircase all seemed relatively intact – it doesn’t mean they all are though so keep your wits sharp and don’t forget to read the Urbex Safety post.

After exploring for nearly a couple of hours I began to get one of those ‘sixth sense’ feelings that I’d overstayed my welcome and decided to leave, I took my time traversing the site and popped into a few areas on the way but I was fully intending to head off the site. I’d gotten this strange vibe that maybe I wasn’t alone on the site, it’s hard to explain why as I hadn’t heard any voices and sites like this always have strange noises (doors creaking/banging, pipes rattling, etc.). I wouldn’t say that I was worried as it was a windy day which will increase that sort of ‘natural’ activity and besides the only people likely to be on the site would be other people exploring and I’ve always found other explorers to be polite and courteous (if not slightly suspicious!) but something deep inside me told me that I really ought to leave and it’s always worth listening to your instinct.

The location is pretty but the inside is quite trashed, nowhere near as good a condition as Alderbury ROC I visited not long ago. Despite that, this post still has a piece of switchgear intact which was quite interesting and a strange board with pictures of spanners on it (presumably where they used to hang).

This time I didn’t encounter any fellow explorers so I just had a look around the underground portion as well as a little look at the overground shed/building – I’m not sure what this would have been used for though. I didn’t have much time so I just headed back to the car, there’s never a great deal of exploring to be done at ROC posts anyway.

One bit of advice I have for you when exploring ROC posts is to watch the metal counterweight on the way back up! I managed to bump my head on it quite heavily and I could still feel the pain a day later, if you did this too severely you could even slip off the ladder which could be quite dangerous so take care.

Here’s a few more photos…

The Royal Observer Corps were in existence from 1925 to 1995 and their first significant operation was to act as aircraft spotters in WW2 where their task was to radio in any sightings of enemy aircraft or flying bombs. After the war ended they were briefly stood down after being in continuous operation from September 1939 to May 1945 then as the peace transitioned into the Cold War their role changed. The new role was to report nuclear explosions and monitor the nuclear fallout, to do this the crew of three would have to be prepared to spend up to 21 days underground in a 16ft x 7ft x 7ft bunker, between 1958 and 1968 over 1,500 of these bunkers were built across the country.

On arrival at the site I had to straddle a barbed-wire fence and then found the hatch easily, it was weighted down by a large flint boulder and the hatch opened easily once it was removed. Having never been to an ROC post before I felt a little apprehensive as I looked down the pitch black hatch, 20ft above a dark and slightly watery looking floor – anything could’ve been down there. I strapped on my head torch and proceeded downwards and I was surprised to see how small these bunkers were. Having been down there for just a few minutes I heard voices approaching, I stayed quiet for a brief time to gauge who the people were and what they might be doing. I was somewhat paranoid of being locked down there by the landowner or some random miscreants so before they reached the hatch I yelled out “HELLO?”, this startled the new visitors briefly and then they hung their heads over to see what was going on. It turned out that they were fellow explorers like me and they seemed like a nice friendly pair and it was nice to meet them both.

The bunker itself was surprisingly small and contained a pair of bunk-beds, a couple of cupboards, a crate and quite a few pieces of paperwork and documentation including fallout charts, instructions, aircraft identification diagrams and so on. This particular bunker was in pretty good condition, I gather from Googling around that many are not quite this neat and tidy, this one was apparently used by the BBC at some point in the recent past.

Having been down there for probably 10 minutes or so I decided to pop back up (as did my fellow explorers) and call it a day. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to shut the hatch (don’t force it, there’s a bar you need to shift and then it works) and then I replaced the boulder and headed back to the car.