Location
United Kingdom
50° 37' 21.0864" N, 50° 37' 21.0864" E
Media
Field Notes
Site used in the Dorset Defence Trials, run by the Microbiological Research Establishment (MRE) Porton Down and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Reports of all experiments carried out in the 1960's and 1970's that released bacteria over populated areas, including those that are still classified, were scrutinised in detail in INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF THE POSSIBLE HEALTH HAZARDS OF THE LARGE-SCALE RELEASE OF BACTERIA DURING THE DORSET DEFENCE TRIALS by Professor Brian G. Spratt FRS, Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, University of Oxford. A copy is available in the Mike Kenner Archive held by the ARC - Office of Experiments.
Sitting next to the world heritage 'Jurrasic Coast', and accessed via the West Fleet Holiday Farm, the site is less well known for its involvement in Porton Downs experiments. These experiments included co-ordination of public spaying from Lyme Bay by the ship Icewhale. The MOD also dispatched the beautifully named research vehicles, the Night Ferry and Golden Arrow to Fleet to oversee the armada of sampling vehicles - land rovers, spread almost as far as Dorchester. The site can be approached through the West Fleet Holiday Farm, although there are many notices which state you cannot park near the entrance. You therefore need to park further away and aproach by foot. This is Private Land, and you will need to be sensitive to the wishes of the land owner who also keeps a herd of prize cattle.