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Newage

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Hi All
Read about this place on the old interweb so just had to go and try to find it. Wow what a trek the location is in Crowthorne woods next to the A3095 right in the middle so you better like walking.

Below is a site location plan if that helps

sitelocation.jpg


The first thing to find are 5 massive hex anti tank blocks..

Crowthorne_001.jpg


The after a walk of another 5-10 minits you come across this, It looks like a section of mocked up WW2 German defence line.

Crowthorne_003.jpg


Crowthorne_005.jpg


Crowthorne_006.jpg


There are about 3 or 4 rows of dragons teeth in the woods a little further on.

Crowthorne_011.jpg


The up turned rail way lines and the ditch go for about 300-400 feet.

Cheers for looking and any comments are most welcome

Newage
 
Nice one Newage

Another new one from the Newage...you certainly have a nose for the WW2 stuff...am now gonna go check this out..on the web that is!
regards from Stu
 
You is a tease young man,the map shows redoubts,are they from an earlier age of warfare?The trees surrounding your fine pics are 40 years old or less,was this open ground when the ww2 stuff was built?
 
Hi
Thanks for the comments, my mate found only 1 small picture on the pill box study Gp web site, It's a man made
forest so I would of thought it was open traning ground 60 odd years ago. The red triangles on the map show
the edge of the modern day DANDER area.

As for the redoubts there is one sign post but we crashed through the wood for a hour and found nothing, but thats not to say they are not there. The woods are so thick in places you can only see a few feet.

Cheers Newage
 
Great stuff mate.....It might probably be worth having a wander with a metal detector around there ..... etc :)
 
I dont know if you guys have found this already but this is a handy site. It shows (for the Reading area, at least) a 1945-50 aerial photo. I had a quick look for this area but couldnt find it. Detail is minimal and the interface is a bit poo but it gives a good overview of the sites Im interested in. I managed to find a heavy AA battery round the corner from my house that I never knew about, shame the farmer has flattened it all!
 
You is a tease young man,the map shows redoubts,are they from an earlier age of warfare?The trees surrounding your fine pics are 40 years old or less,was this open ground when the ww2 stuff was built?

Just googled crowthorne woods.Theres a whole rake of stuff about the redoubts.Between 24july and 8august 1792 there was a massive set of manouvers using 7000 troops and watched at various times by up to 20000 people.There were a lot more redoubts covering a greater area than shown on the map one of which was blown up leaving a crater 40 feet across and 20 feet deep{720 pounds of gunpowder}.Traces of kitchen pits can apparently still be traced.Silly me didn't think,of course the wood must be post training days,tanks and thick woodland don't mix!!
 
I live in Sandhurst only a few miles from this and never imagined any form of defensive/training sites like this near me a few questions i have on my mind are,

1. Does the various type of obstacle suggest that they were for training purposes? to give troops an idea of overcoming obstacles etc

2. The type of obstacles shown must give the impression that this is post great war as tank obstacles were used far greater in WW2.

3. Has anyone from local area got any idea as to why these are placed in this location... the closest army site i can think of is the RMA which is a few miles back Sandhurst way.
 
A Swinley Forest, One of my favourite MTB places. I've been past these an number of times, all of them without my camera. It is a bit of a trek if your walking, a lot quicker on a MTB.

The bike track is called 'Tank run' if that helps.
 

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