ÿþ<HTML LANG=en-GB> <HEAD> <TITLE>The Derelict Miscellany :: Worms' Heath Igloo 2 H.A.A. Battery</TITLE> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="warlingham, worms, heath, igloo, nucleus, gun, guns, HAA, Anti-aircraft, surrey, cold, war, concrete, ack-ack, derelict, history, abandoned, military"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Often mistaken for a WWII site, this HAA (Heavy Anti-Aircraft) Battery on the downs above Warlingham, Surrey was actually built during the early years of the Cold War as part of the Nucleus or Igloo scheme of Anti-Aircraft defences."> <META NAME="author" CONTENT="D. A. 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The site has recently been cleared of all vegetation and is used for storage. The metal doors of the crew and engine rooms have been removed but electrical wiring survives intact. <br><b>Page Updated:</b> September 2011<BR> <br> <p align="left">In 1946, following the end of the Second World War a review of anti-aircraft defences code-named 'Nucleus' was implemented to determine which would be retained and which would be disposed of. Out of around 1000 Heavy Anti-Aircraft batteries in use during wartime, just 210 were to be retained and re-equipped under the new scheme. By 1951 with the threat of nuclear war looming, Nucleus had developed into the Igloo scheme. A total of 78 new H.A.A. sites were initially proposed with permanently mounted guns at 54 sites. <br><br> Worms' Heath was just one of these new batteries, probably constructed in 1951 at the same time as Pendell Anti-Aicraft Operations Room (A.A.O.R.) near Merstham from which it and the other guns of the London South Gun-Defended Area were administered. <br> Unlike their Second World War predecessors at <a href=purdown.html>other sites</a>, the four octagonal 3.7" gun emplacements here are open on two sides and have just four ammunition lockers each (WWII emplacements had six). Two reinforced rooms adjoin the walls on the outside of each emplacement; a small crew shelter and an engine room with a motor driving a hydraulic pump used for training, elevation and to power the automatic ammunition loading machinery. <br> The layout is also slightly different to Second World War sites with the four emplacements laid out in a shallow arc. If there were ever associated structures such as magazines and a command post, they have now been lost under the National Air Traffic Services wireless station now standing to the north. It's possible that these facilities were housed in Nissen huts and so fared less well than the gunpits themselves. The site was connected by telephone line to the A.A.O.R. and a G.P.O. termination point is still visible located in a wire-fenced compound to the eastern end of the concrete hardstanding. The site was probably abandoned c.1960 when Pendell also became redundant, later to become the the Metropolitan Police's southern war H.Q.), but for reasons of national security did not appear on any O.S. maps until the mid '60s. <br> </p><center> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8958.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8958.jpg" border=1></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8948.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"> <img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8948.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8950.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"> <img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8950.jpg" border=1 ></a> <br> Left to Right: [1]. One of the gun emplacements, complete with flat-pack shed; [2]. Crew shelter and ammo locker; [3]. Holdfast/gun mounting. Note the conduit in the floor which carried a transmission shaft from the engine room. <br><br> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8954.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8954.jpg" border=1></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8956.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8956.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8968.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8968.jpg" border=1 ></a> <br> Left to Right: [4]. Switch with cable leading through wall to engine room; [5]. Engine room being used as a wood store; [6]. Inside another of the engine rooms. The channel to the left of the plinth is a continuation of the transmission shaft conduit seen in pic. 3. <br><br> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8969.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8969.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8962.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8962.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8963.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8963.jpg" border=1 ></a> <br> Left to Right: [7]. Heavy-duty fuse boxes; [8]. Fuse box forced open in another engine room; [9]. Engine room lighting <br> <br> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8964.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8964.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8952.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8952.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8947.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8947.jpg" border=1 ></a> <br> Left to Right: [10]. This pipe surfaced just outside one of the engine rooms and might have carried a cable of some sort; [11]. Compound for GPO telephone termination point; [12]. The westernmost emplacement looking towards the N.A.T.S. Site. <br> <br> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8943.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8943.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8973.jpg', 650, 490, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/storau-james/forumpreviews/haa/100_8973.jpg" border=1 ></a> <a href="#" onClick="jkpopimage('http://derelictmisc.org.uk/forum/WORMS.png', 816, 482, '.'); return false"><img alt="." height=220 src="defence/wormsthumb.png" border=1 ></a> <br> Left to Right: [13]. N.A.T.S. wireless station; [14]. Camera - the masts were surrounded by impressive security measures including alarm sounders, C.C.T.V. and an electric fence; [15]. Map and plan derived from Subterranea Britannica and the Ordnance Survey (all rights reserved). Click for full. <br> <br> <font size=1.5> <U>CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY</U> <br><br> English Heritage, 2007, 'HEAVY ANTI AIRCRAFT BATTERY LS49' [http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1414291&sort=2&rational=m&recordsperpage=10&maplat=51.30210000&maplong=-0.01630000&mapisa=1000&mapist=ll&mapilo=-0.0163&mapila=51.3021&mapiloe=w&mapilan=n&mapios=TQ382578&mapigrn=157811&mapigre=538270&mapipc=] Accessed 19/09/11 <br><br> Catford, Nick, 2004 'Site Name: Penketh 3.7" Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery (MY76)' [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/p/penketh_haa/index.html] Accessed 19/09/11 <br><br> </font> <br> </font><b> <a href="index.html">Home..</a></b><br> <BR> </td><td width=13></td></tr></table> </TD></TR><TR><TD bgcolor="#EEE9E9" ALIGN=CENTER> <font size=1>Derelict Miscellany. Website &amp; content Copyright D. A. Gregory 2005-Present unless stated to be otherwise.</font> </td></tr></table> </font> </body> </html>