Dear Sir,
As a fellow Newtonian, I have always been keen to learn and discover the history of our town, more so after we reached a 75-year milestone. It’s been great reading stories and seeing old pictures of our town in development. Like many others, I have grown up knowing the ‘story’ of this town, a town that grew off the back of a large WWII munitions factory, where the ‘Aycliffe Angels’ filled brass casings full of hell! A large factory that later became the foundations of our industrial estate, which sprouted our town under a New Towns Act, a town of better living, where worker and manager can live next to each other. In a nutshell, that’s pretty much how the story has been told. But there must have been something here of great importance, beyond that of a munitions filling factory, as we were No.8 of 17. Why did it attract the attention of Winston Churchill and the King, even Germany made a propaganda reference to it! It was classified as ‘Top Secret’ and code named ‘R.O.F 59’, just to confuse the Germans. But was there more to this facility than we all know? What made it different to all the other munitions factories around the country in wartime Britain, and why so top secret? Whilst doing a bit of light research, I stumbled upon a collection of ariel photography carried out by the R.A.F, images of the munitions factory in all its glory, from construction to operation and beyond. The images show every detail in how it was actually laid out, the infrastructure of railways and roads, plus bunkers, which some appear to be underground. The images also show how the site quickly changed at the end of war, from a military purpose to a civilian. But, more importantly, they clearly show the truth, but also, what lay beyond this area of mass production, as occupying the site opposite is an additional large facility, where INEOS is now. This industrial looking facility has a different appearance to the filling factory, but is clearly connected to the whole operation and is highly secure, with tunnels into a large bunker and the whole site being fenced off. Further up the road from here, at School Aycliffe, or where the Chestnuts are, is another large building complex that looks even less industrial, more laboratory looking if anything, but clearly connected via one road linking it all together, School Aycliffe Lane, which passes the site at ‘INEOS’ and links directly to the munitions factory. This road then leads out at Simpasture Gate (at Finchale Road allotments) to yet another site; a site that is equally highly secure and vast! Approximately one mile in length! But this site is greatly different to all the others as within, there is very suspicious looking activity and earthworks. The facility is unlike anything else. The site covers an area from what is now Finchale Road, where there is a small building complex between Hopper Road and Dixon Road, but where the allotments are, and reaches as far as Woodham Burn School. What is strikingly noticeable about this site is, it looks to be perhaps a weapons testing facility of some kind but, on a grand scale, spanning from a house that still exists today at Lee Green, in a straight line to Woodham Burn School itself, where there is an enormous blast bunker, and I mean enormous! Which is still partially here today. This complex looks to be highly suspicious, more than just a firing range, as at the business end where Pease Way Surgery now is and at the Woodham Burn site, there are objects and structures that can’t be identified. What looks to be the control building is now Lee Green Dance School which, as a building in itself clearly stands out from all others. It has an elongated garden that points in the direction of Woodham Burn School and fits on the ariel photography. Having looked at the pictures very closely, I still can’t figure out just what was going on here and its real purpose but, whatever it was, it must have been highly secret, as it was rapidly covered up with the development of our new town over its exact footprint, leaving nothing behind but the building at Lee Green and the once large bunker at Woodham Burn. The fact is, I haven’t found anything like it at any other munitions facility, which makes me now wonder what was so ‘Top Secret’ to attract Churchill, Royalty and the interest of Germany? Was it the munitions factory, the entire facility or was it something else at a time of great urgency in wartime development? It’s quite clear that the whole area was in use from School Aycliffe to Woodham Burn, clearly there was more than just a munitions factory here; perhaps it was a site of weapons development and testing on a major scale, and one that was a huge threat to Germany? But, what I find most alarming, is just how quickly the entire facility was demolished and built on post-war, like a massive cover-up operation, Bakelite, industrial units and our town! In a matter of years, it was all gone! No mention of it whatsoever other than there was once a large munitions factory here were our ‘Aycliffe Angels’ tirelessly worked. But one thing is for certain; its legacy still remains if you know where to look, the evidence is all around us. So, I ask, what was the real reason for the development of our town? What was the large testing facility under the entire blueprint that was so rapidly covered over, or shall it remain a wartime secret hidden by civil development? It would be interesting to know what was really going on here and would help in the better understanding of our town because, clearly, there’s more to the story than we all thought…What lies beneath?
Name and address supplied.
