Stanford Training Area

Stanford Training Area
Stanford, Norfolk
Entrance to Eastmere
Stanford Training Area Location within Norfolk
Coordinates	52°31′15″N 0°45′17″E / 52.52078°N 0.75480°E / 52.52078; 0.75480
Type	Training Area
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Controlled by	British Army
Site history
Built	1942
Built for	War Office
In use	1942–present

The Stanford Training Area (STANTA), originally known as the Stanford Battle Area, is a British Army training area in the English county of Norfolk. The area is approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²) in size; it is some 7 miles (11 km) north of the town of Thetford and 25 miles (40 km) south-west of the city of Norwich.^[1] The site is run by the Mission Ready Training Centre (MRTC).

History

The site was established in 1942, when a battle training area was required and a 'Nazi village' was built.^[1] Military exercises were already known in the area; tanks had deployed to Thetford in the First World War. The complete takeover involved the evacuation of the villages of Buckenham Tofts, Langford, Stanford, Sturston, Tottington and West Tofts.^[2]

The area was used during the run-up to the D-Day invasion and since then has hosted many exercises. In 2009 a 12.5-acre (51,000 m²) village designed to replicate its Afghan equivalent was added to the Battle Area for the training of troops deployed in support of the War in Afghanistan. The site, built at a cost of £14 million, is populated by Afghan nationals,^[2] ex-Gurkha soldiers and amputee actors, who simulate the Afghan National Army, locals and wounded soldiers.^[3] The village includes houses, a market and a mosque. It also features a system that pumps out smells like rotten meat and sewage.^[3]

The facilities

The battle area includes four historic churches; the one at West Tofts was restored by Pugin and a new church building forms part of the purpose-built village of Eastmere, built to give soldiers experience of fighting on the northern European plains. There is a short landing strip at 52°32′29″N 0°42′06″E / 52.541422°N 0.701805°E / 52.541422; 0.701805.

As a live firing area, access is not allowed without special permission from the Army. In the main this is limited to a number of tours a year and compassionate grounds for former residents of the villages or their relatives.

The area forms part of the distinctive Breckland landscape region, a gorse-covered sandy heath which offers poor agricultural opportunities. Arguably, its use as a military training area has safeguarded a substantial archaeological landscape. Like many other military or restricted access areas in the UK such as Bovington Camp, the buffer area around Porton Down, and MOD areas on Salisbury Plain, it is the home of a wealth of rare species of flora and fauna already lost in other parts of the country. Parts of the training area are designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The battle area was used in the filming of many of the episodes of the comedy series Dad's Army.^[4]

References

Sources

• ^ Ordnance Survey (1999). OS Explorer Map 229 - Thetford in the Brecks. ISBN 0-319-21861-9.
• ^ NorfolkChurches.co.uk. "Norfolk battle training area churches". Retrieved February 17, 2006.
• ^ Telegraph. An Afghan village has been built by the Ministry of Defence in Thetford, Norfolk. Retrieved May 12, 2009.

External links

• BBC WW2 Peoples War site: Breckland Exodus – The Forced Evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942 Part 1
• BBC WW2 Peoples War site: Breckland Exodus – The Forced Evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942 Part 2 by Conal O'Donnell
• Violets for Vera – the death of West Tofts School 1942, by Conal O'Donnell
• Touring the Stanta ghost villages
• Google Earth view

This page was last edited on 13 February 2024, at 20:26