Off to Bovington!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My brothers are taking me to Bovington Tank Museum later in the week as a post-birthday celebration. Last time the three of us went the youngest was little more than a babe in arms and stayed in the car with his nan!

My other brother remembers seeing attempts to start one of the WWI tanks, I just remember lots of tanks…

Yes, I am as excited as the little kid was back in 19-mumble.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Great place to visit!

What tickled me the first time I went was when getting near in the car the roadsigns saying !CAUTION – Tanks Crossing! etc. Necessary of course, but not the sort of thing you see every day

Have Fun.

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Been there and enjoyed the second visit the first was spent walking around the outside on guard duty when I was training as a tank crew member

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I took youngest to Carver Barracks quite a few years back (home of bomb disposal). They demo'd their crawler thing use to defuse car bombs remotely on a mock carbomb in the shape of an old Cortina. Later in the afternoon they fire up a large Russian tank that emitted huge clouds of greasy smoke, and proceeded to crush the remains of the Cortina underneath it!

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Years ago at work we had a M113 armoured personnel carrier which was used as a mount for Green Archer mortar tracking radar.

Driver moved ahead and the lid came down above his head. In the confusion it crawled over the edges of a number of parked cars in our carpark.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Just up the road from Bovington is the Lawrence of Arabia memorial that marks the spot of his motorcycle crash from which he died. He was an old boy of my fathers school the City of Oxford High School for Boys and my school which was formed by the amalgamation of COHS and Southfield School. Lawrence was a complex character but may have played a useful part in the First World War. Obviously as an old boy of my school and a fellow motorcyclist it interested me. I thought I would mention it as you will be very close to the memorial and easy to visit if you were interested. It’s only really an inscribed stone marking the spot so not an awful lot to actually see.

Mike

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Have a great day out, Neil, if you are taking photo's with a camera, take the widest angle lens you have. Since then they have built a big new extension to the museum. When I went there about 14 years ago, there was a Brough motorcycle leaning against a wall, I have often wondered about that. Just down the road is Winfrith Heath, the site of one of the earliest British nuclear reactors. Also, the Sammy Miller motorcycle museum is not far away.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Mike Poole on 21/11/2022 12:54:15:

Just up the road from Bovington is the Lawrence of Arabia memorial that marks the spot of his motorcycle crash from which he died. …

Mike

If I'd known that when I was at Bovington, I'd have paid my respects. T.E. Lawrence, no relation to LBSC, had a fascinating career and a complex personality.

The 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' is a highly readable classic. It's not the original because Lawrence accidentally left the first draft on a seat in Reading railway station, and it was never seen again. It it ever turns up the finder will make a fortune!

Dave

[John Paton 1Participant @johnpaton1]

Another 'local' story relates to their Tiger Tank (The only operational one in the world!)

after years of careful restoration by museum engineers to get it going it was taken up to London to take part in a military parade (for the Queen I think) and was being driven by a 'squaddie'.

He did not know how to drive it and apparently failed to follow the correct gear change procedure which I gather caused the engine to wildly over rev and promptly blew up.

They tried to obtain a brand new engine from a museum in France but to no avail.

I believe the cost of making replacement parts and rebuilding the engine was eye watering compared to the original restoration job.

This was relayed to me by a tank engineer friend of mine , now sadly deceased, who worked at the Museum workshops. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of tank components and must be greatly missed by the museum.

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

Interesting place to visit, I've been lucky enough to visit many times with military students so have got to see behind the scenes and listened to some interesting talks by the curators. Many years ago we were allowed to climb inside them.

WW1 tanks, it seems its Bovvys' policy not to run them anymore, they don't want to risk damaging them. Its a good job the preserved railways don't have that attitude!

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

I hope you enjoy the visit, Neil. It's certainly good to get to see the things up close and examine their engineering. With regard to the Tiger 1 issue that John Paton referred to – I don't know the detail but I believe the transmission was a weak design feature that caused as many to be lost to mechanical failure as to Allied action. The 'folded' suspension of the Comet tank is very interesting.

The last couple of times I was down there I thought the display chaotic. Unbroken lines of design and development, such as from the 1939 Cruiser Mk.IV all the way through to the current Challenger series weren't reflected in the display; the German Tiger series were a long way from the contemporaneous Panther; and from the placement of some exhibits an incautious visitor might've been left with the impression that the small British Matilda 1s were fighting King Tigers at El Alamein.

That was after the new section was built on, but still a few years back now, so maybe things have changed.

[Peter Simpson 3Participant @petersimpson3]

Wish it was further Up North, would love to look round it. Enjoy yourself.

[VicParticipant @vic]

We went on Tiger Day when they fire up and run a German Tiger Tank for visitors.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 21/11/2022 16:53:14:

Posted by Mike Poole on 21/11/2022 12:54:15:

Just up the road from Bovington is the Lawrence of Arabia memorial that marks the spot of his motorcycle crash from which he died. …

Mike

If I'd known that when I was at Bovington, I'd have paid my respects. T.E. Lawrence, no relation to LBSC, had a fascinating career and a complex personality.

The 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' is a highly readable classic. It's not the original because Lawrence accidentally left the first draft on a seat in Reading railway station, and it was never seen again. It it ever turns up the finder will make a fortune!

Dave

Should you find yourself at Bovington again Lawrence’s retreat Clouds Hill is less than half a mile further up the road from the memorial stone and is now a National trust property open to the public.

Mike

[BufferParticipant @buffer]

I grew up in Dorset and when my dad took me there as a kid it was a very big shed with wall to wall tanks. You could climb up onto the first one and your feet would barely touch the ground as you hopped from tank to tank. Sadly by the 80s this had ended. It's still a great place though I really enjoyed going into the ww1 tanks and of course everyone loves the German stuff. Have a great day.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Old Mart –

The Winfrith site was more than just "one of " Britain's nuclear reactors.

It was the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's main research site, and at its maximum had something like a dozen different reactors; all experimental. Most were small but two were of "production" size, and one drove a small power-station that fed surplus electricity to the National Grid. I think this was a joint Anglo-French project until the French unilaterally pulled out.

The site also had associated fuel-handling facilities, extensive engineering workshops, a full apprentice-training centre and so on.

The two big reactors, in an area fenced from the rest of the site, are now being scrapped. The remainder of the establishment has become basically an industrial estate under a fancy name; but does have high-grade companies on it.

The old story – we were among the world's leaders in nuclear-power research, but as with so much else, threw it all away.

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