RNAD Milford Haven

54Strat · (#1)

Technically, RNMD Newton Noyes but why go against the grain?

History

The Royal Navy established a depot here in the 1930s for the manufacture and storage of mines.

The mines were stored in large underground magazines and moved around by the depot’s own railway system. This rail system combined standard and narrow gauge and extended onto a jetty where the mines would be loaded onto ships. Housing for the naval officers was located near the former mansion of Castle all. The remains of two WW2 mine-watching posts can be found between The Horseshoe and the Gulf refinery jetty.

Following the ww2, the depot continued to service ships for deployment during the Korean and Falkland wars. During the late eighties the depot was closed as cold war tensions relaxed and was subsequently sold off to Gulf Oil, who planned to use the site for berthing supertankers. However, no development happened and the site was briefly used as an indoor athletics arena for the local area. The council took over the site, and as of 2006 the site has been in the hands of an energy company who plan to develop a bio-diesel plant.

Explore

A family holiday in July 2011 in Milford Haven led to me and my eldest sneaking off for a couple of hours around RNAD Milford Haven. Situated just to the east of Milford Haven's harbour, it's a large site that has been really trashed over the years. Not a window intact and very little of any clue as to what the orignal purpose of the buildings were, though if you look for them you will see small references to it's former life; a paint store, an armoury workshop, officer's quarters, armourment sheds and loading docks. The velodrome is in good condition and basketball court markings are still visible in the main shed.

Images from other reports and google street view revealed that the palisade fencing we found has been erected since those previous visits. The head of the access road is now fenced and new palisade fencing prevented easy access to the star of the site, the tunnels. That's for another time.

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