Location of Ship Targets

[PNK]

I didn't realise it wasn't under Bombing Ranges! Yes it should. Perhaps the Grimston ones should be split out/copied. North Wootton, maybe, but it did have a ship target though.

[Alastair]

I've copied my Grimston Warren/Roydon Common replies across to the thread for that site under Bombing Ranges.

[PNK]

WW1 ship shape.jpgTain Ship 1963.JPG

I spotted the pictures above on the Flickr site and on Canmore, both appear to be ship shapes.

The first was on the RAF Museum Flickr album of mainly WW1 era photographs and the majority had no location details. This one was in a batch relating to airships so could this be a ship target for airship crews or merely a docking target?

The first pic is here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/royalai...n/photostream/


The second photo is a close up from Canmore' aerial photos (well worth subscribing to) and appears to show a similar type of ship shape target this time it is at Tain from 1963.

The photo is here
http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk/database...&QUICKSEARCH=1

I put the location of the Tain one at around NH 835 849, assuming the circular target area is the same one visible today.

Is it just coincidence they look similar as they were taken nearly 50 years apart! Were they targets of something else?

[lyegrove]

This is a few years late but I know the Castor site well and there are 2 towers still there. Your map is also pretty good at identifying the target which was a large triangle made up of concrete slabs, like a pavement with grass in the central area with a concrete block at the center point. It was hidden under the dense scrub in the middle of the heath and myself and a friend found it in the mid 70s after a week of crawling around under the bushes. I know in the late 70s, early 80s a lot of the scrub was removed by the Nature Conservancy Council so the stucture may have been removed at that time? maybe not? To the north of the nature reserve are a number of small quarry areas which used to provide rich pickings for brass rifle shell cases, I assume it used to be a small range.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Thanks lygrove for the confirmation of the Castor target.

The 'quarry' areas in the north of the nature reserve are 19th century Heath Pits which, as far as I can find, were dug for coal. Anyway, such workings were often used by local defence forces for small arm practice.

[PNK]

Excellent information lyegrove. It's not always possible to find out what the targets were made of. Standard sizes were use but construction materials differed due to local condidtions.

[lyegrove]

No coal in this neck of the woods, excavations were a result of extracted limestone.

[PNK]

For a moment I thought this was the triangular target at Castor Hanglands (official name Upton or Ailsworth Heath) but then the brain kicked in and told me it wasn't pointing magnetic north! Still it got me excited for 5mins

[PETERTHEEATER]

No coal in this neck of the woods, excavations were a result of extracted limestone.

Thanks lyegrove. Limestone for cement or flux?

[Arcade Al]

Thanks lyegrove. Limestone for cement or flux?

Depends when they date from - lots of it was used for building all the limestone villages around and about.