CEGB structural test centre (August 2009)

Hi all.

I'm just getting get into the hobby again and bringing my gallery and own website up to data, so I thought I'd post one of my old reports from 2009. As it's not local to me, I'd be interested to hear what state it's in now.
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I've been looking forward to my trip to Chedder for a while for two reasons, one of them being this:



The now disused National tower test centre/Structural test centre operated by CEGB/Nuclear Electric until a few years ago.

After having seen it from somewhere near the centre of Chedder, I picked my way through a number of residential roads and finally found the access road. Expecting a fairly long uphill walk, I was surprised I could drive right up to the gates.

I parked up a little way down the road and walked up to check out access, then promptly hid when I saw the 50' concrete tower with 3 CCTV cameras pointing at the two bottom entrances, but given the rest of the site I wasn't just going to leave it at that.


On finding a way through into the site, I came up beside the tower, and found none were covering the back of the site, so onto the photos

There were three main structures left on site, one fixed gib crane mounted on the quarry wall, a "mobile" rail mounted rotary crane, and a normal fixed tower.

The mobile crane was made up of a triangular base, each corner with wheels on, and the crane body mounted on the outside corner, supported back to the other legs.
As this took all the load off to one side, this was used to counterbalance it.










I really wasn't up for climbing the 20' to the
bottom of the ladder alone so I confined myself to the ground which only had the track motor cabin :|






The fixed tower looked like it had been used for drop testing equipment as it had two guide rails down the centre, but is currently being used to support the end of the jib.






The fixed jib crane was presumably used for assembling the pylons for testing (If you look on Google Earth, a pylon base is visible underneath it)






The site also contained a number of buildings that look like they were for admin, training or just workshops, but these had been stripped and had evidence of being done up.
Some had tools and equipment left inside, but I have no idea how recently they were used.







There were also plenty of these nuisances around to keep me on my toes :|




After all that, the views were amazing, especially from the top of the quarry were you could see to the horizon


Full report and gallery on my website.

Thanks for reading

It was actually the site where they impact tested the flasks used to transport nuclear waste via rail. It's a neat little place really with a lot of hidden history.

The buildings at the bottom entrance of the quarry were in use as recently as 2008.

Very interesting report & photos.

krela said:

It was actually the site where they impact tested the flasks used to transport nuclear waste via rail. It's a neat little place really with a lot of hidden history.

The buildings at the bottom entrance of the quarry were in use as recently as 2008.

Click to expand...

I worked there in the 60s when it was used by the CEGB for structural testing of "towers" (pylons).

DavidG said:

I worked there in the 60s when it was used by the CEGB for structural testing of "towers" (pylons).

Click to expand...

always interesting to hear from someone who worked at a place. this report is quite old but looking on google looks like there is still a few bits there

DavidG said:

I worked there in the 60s when it was used by the CEGB for structural testing of "towers" (pylons).

Click to expand...

My dad use to go there occasionally to do testing. He worked in Plant Design CEGB in Guildford

I did my industrial placement with the CEGB in Guildford in the late 1980s (TTSD - transmission and technical services division).

I seem to recall it took a long time to get from the main offices to the computer room and typing pool, on account of the pub in-between the two buildings

Sadly the main building is no longer there. I have more photos if anyone is interested.

My dad worked there and London till his death in 1978. I was quite young when he passed but I remember a couple of days out to Cheddar when he had to stress test some pylons. His name was Ron Williams.