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shrivenham


berni

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i had never heard of shrivenham untill coming back from Beltring with LLoyd in his jeep ( russ was being driven home in the Jimmy as he couldn't drive with his bad foot). and lloyd asked if we could organise our new years road run to the MOD site there.

when i got home i tried finding it on the internet but didn't know it existed let alone how to spell it so i put the idea to the back of my mind untill it came up again in conversation.

well, as it happens a couple of weeks ago i had a phone call from John C asking if i could make up numbers for a trip to Shrivenham he had wangled (my ears pricked up at this) and ask a few mates up to about 20 altogether. first phone call was to lloyd who got 2 jeeps with 8 bodies with no effort at all & i got another 14 without too much effort.

we arrived at Shrivenham MOD site in Wiltshire, not far from swindon, about 10.30 am and after signing in we went through the gates.

the first shed we stopped at was full of armour (woo hoo big toys to play with) and the only provisio was that we didn't take photos inside the warrier or chally 1 & 2. also ,& this is the worst bit, because they are all runners we weren't allowed to play with levers or press buttons ( my living nightmare)

i sat inside 1 of the tanks & was confronted with so many knobs & switches etc it was driving me crazy not being able to touch anything. i am 1 of these people who will pull, prod,twist,flick,open,close & move anything not fixed in place.

we had an hour to climb on & in everything in 2 halls.

next it was on to the large gun armoury,

again we weren't allowed to play with moving parts but our guides were quite happy to open, close breeches & show us how these big guns worked ( they didn't loose any fingers in the process)

after tea / coffee & biscuits we moved on to the small arms armoury.

now then we could play with everything in here as long as we could pick it up.

there was UK,US,german, USSR etc. it was wall to wall metal

there was also a couple of hundred pistols in display cases.

this was a pretty amazing place & being so up front to so much was great.

we also got to have a drink in the officers mess, which was so cheap it was fab,

after a meal and a chat in the nearby pub we eventualy got home about 6.30 pm.

 

the day was fantastic and i also met Great war Truck, hi tim too( you are so much younger than i pictured).

here are a couple of pictures from the day,

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06023.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06017.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06001.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06005.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06024.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06010.jpg[/img]

 

this was my favorite, called a tavern11, it is a us made UK vehicle

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06009.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06044.jpg[/img]

width=640 height=480http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/berniep/shrivenham06042.jpg[/img]

i took about 40 pictures so the above is just a few samples.

ta

Berni

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i don't know.....

i think you can only get in with a private invite from someone stationed there. i think thats how it works.

another trip may be planned in 2008 but you could try being a bunny boiler & donning a mini skirt & high heels & chatting up a squaddie :-D

in the meantime though i'll try & find out for you

cheers

Berni

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From time to time Friends of the Tank Museum had trips there. Some years ago I joined the Friends soley for access to these sort of trips. Because it depends on the goodwill of an individual to exploit a contact within an establishment I think it tended to be a thankless task & they don't seem to happen anymore.

 

But the most memorable for me were two trips to AVD Ludgershall. In those days the Fuuchs NBC vehicles were the lasted acquision, of not much interest to me nor were MBTs but to see fields upon fields of Pigs, Frrets, 432s as far as the eye could see was amazing. I took a lot of photos but that was pre-digital & if it was now there would be gigabytes taken.

 

Other memorable trips were BAEE & VD Ashchurch. The other benefit of being a Friend was free entry to the Museum. But given that the trips have ceased & one ticket buys you entry for the year seems no great advantage being a Friend sad to say.

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  • 10 years later...

My sister in law visited here last week, I've used MOLDIV app on my iPhone to give the images some clarity as the originals were quite dark-also taken on an iPhone.

 

I've tried to group the images together by relevance as they were sent to me in a jumble, no copyright on these.

IMG_4555.jpg

IMG_4589.jpg

IMG_4558.jpg

IMG_4560.jpg

IMG_4566.jpg

IMG_4584.jpg

IMG_4586.jpg

IMG_4587.jpg

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