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SOUTH DRIVE'S ABANDONED HOUSES, HARWELL, OXFORDSHIRE | FEBRUARY 2022
History
There is nowhere in the county quite like South Drive: a 1936 colonial-style Air Ministry development of mellow red brick, garden bays and sash windows,retaining its original road-layout and situated on chalk downland in an area of outstanding natural beauty. South Drive houses are among the oldest surviving parts of this former airbase.
No.8 South Drive, Sir John Cockroft's former residence, should be considered historically important in relation to the development of the site. The bomber station’s first CO decreed that the station should take the name of whichever parish his house was situated in: thus it was that RAF Harwell is what the UKAEA inherited in 1946, rather than RAF Chilton.
A bit extra from The Herald Series, Oxfordshire newspaper
Hundreds of people live in the 72 houses of North Drive, Harwell, originally built as housing for the nearby former RAF Harwell airbase.
Shortly before Christmas, residents learned the land by their houses had been lined up for 400 new homes in The Vale of White Horse District Council’s revised Core Strategy, which determines where new estates will be built by 2026.
Consultation on the plans ends on Friday, January 29.
The site, owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, includes the contaminated former sewage works north of the Harwell Innovation and Science Campus, boarded-up houses built for RAF officers on South Drive, and fields either side of Icknield Way.
Susannah Croucher, 27, who chairs the North Drive Residents’ Committee, said: “For many people, this open space is one the reasons they moved here.
“There are at least 30 kids who use it as their playground, and a lot of people up here have dogs and use those fields every day.
“If they take it away, a lot of us will not want to live here any more.”
She added: “I know there is a massive need for houses, and I am not objecting just because it is two metres from my house, but this is open countryside which is very well used.”
The district council’s analysis of potential housing sites concluded the nearby science campus had many of the facilities usually found in large villages, as well as the capacity to create up to 6,500 new jobs.
Last night, the council refused to comment on the plans for Harwell, although it will be presenting its proposals in the Freeman Hall, Harwell, on Thursday from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus spokesman Jo Reid said: “While the campus is predominantly a strategic employment site, combining it with residential development will enhance its vibrancy and make it a more sustainable place for people to work and live.”
The Explore
We park up on the lived in residential areas of Harwell, where we get a curious resident asking what we were up to carrying cameras, she didn't have an issue with what we were doing but told us we wouldn't get in to any of the properties on South Drive, we pass a sign saying Private Land, this land is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, but when has that stopped us in the past lol, an Official Secrets Act sign wouldn't stop me. So, we carried on through the footpaths to the incredible huge houses, we get in to the first, after scrambling through brambles and bushes, we were quite surprised to find so much still left behind in the first property and were shocked to walk through it, with the sheer size of the building, which looks smaller from the outside. We then get in to a couple more properties, slightly smaller but still with a lot still inside them, incredible place, would recommend to other explorers. Oh, and it turns out the larger property we entered was home to Sir John Cockroft, who was a British physicist known for splitting the atomic nucleus.
Check out our YouTube video on the site.
The Houses on South Drive.
The Harwell Science Campus, home to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
The Civil Nuclear Constabulary, based at Harwell, who didn't catch us lol
A bit of racism on the wall, tut tut
History
There is nowhere in the county quite like South Drive: a 1936 colonial-style Air Ministry development of mellow red brick, garden bays and sash windows,retaining its original road-layout and situated on chalk downland in an area of outstanding natural beauty. South Drive houses are among the oldest surviving parts of this former airbase.
No.8 South Drive, Sir John Cockroft's former residence, should be considered historically important in relation to the development of the site. The bomber station’s first CO decreed that the station should take the name of whichever parish his house was situated in: thus it was that RAF Harwell is what the UKAEA inherited in 1946, rather than RAF Chilton.
A bit extra from The Herald Series, Oxfordshire newspaper
Hundreds of people live in the 72 houses of North Drive, Harwell, originally built as housing for the nearby former RAF Harwell airbase.
Shortly before Christmas, residents learned the land by their houses had been lined up for 400 new homes in The Vale of White Horse District Council’s revised Core Strategy, which determines where new estates will be built by 2026.
Consultation on the plans ends on Friday, January 29.
The site, owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, includes the contaminated former sewage works north of the Harwell Innovation and Science Campus, boarded-up houses built for RAF officers on South Drive, and fields either side of Icknield Way.
Susannah Croucher, 27, who chairs the North Drive Residents’ Committee, said: “For many people, this open space is one the reasons they moved here.
“There are at least 30 kids who use it as their playground, and a lot of people up here have dogs and use those fields every day.
“If they take it away, a lot of us will not want to live here any more.”
She added: “I know there is a massive need for houses, and I am not objecting just because it is two metres from my house, but this is open countryside which is very well used.”
The district council’s analysis of potential housing sites concluded the nearby science campus had many of the facilities usually found in large villages, as well as the capacity to create up to 6,500 new jobs.
Last night, the council refused to comment on the plans for Harwell, although it will be presenting its proposals in the Freeman Hall, Harwell, on Thursday from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus spokesman Jo Reid said: “While the campus is predominantly a strategic employment site, combining it with residential development will enhance its vibrancy and make it a more sustainable place for people to work and live.”
The Explore
We park up on the lived in residential areas of Harwell, where we get a curious resident asking what we were up to carrying cameras, she didn't have an issue with what we were doing but told us we wouldn't get in to any of the properties on South Drive, we pass a sign saying Private Land, this land is owned by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, but when has that stopped us in the past lol, an Official Secrets Act sign wouldn't stop me. So, we carried on through the footpaths to the incredible huge houses, we get in to the first, after scrambling through brambles and bushes, we were quite surprised to find so much still left behind in the first property and were shocked to walk through it, with the sheer size of the building, which looks smaller from the outside. We then get in to a couple more properties, slightly smaller but still with a lot still inside them, incredible place, would recommend to other explorers. Oh, and it turns out the larger property we entered was home to Sir John Cockroft, who was a British physicist known for splitting the atomic nucleus.
Check out our YouTube video on the site.
The Houses on South Drive.
The Harwell Science Campus, home to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
The Civil Nuclear Constabulary, based at Harwell, who didn't catch us lol
A bit of racism on the wall, tut tut
