Ashley Walk ranges

Anyone know the exact location? Is it visible on Google Earth?

Edit : There is a range of some description East of Fordingbridge – is that the area? https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

the range is north east of the Fighting Cocks Inn, Godshill. There is a car park further up the road from the pub, walk out left of the cricket pitch and follow the path out across the forest. The area they are looking at is now described as an ‘air raid shelter test site’ but it was in fact a submarine pen, built to simulate German pens on which to test bombs.

Grand slam, upkeep and highball were all tested here and the idea of ‘skip bombing’ was developed here. Sadly, it was decided to clear a lot of the remains of the remaining structures some 15-20 years ago. Several of the existing bouncing bombs were constructed from parts found out here on the ranges. There are quite a lot of bomb craters in the area and some are very large indeed. The 40mm S gun was also tested here, the aircraft flying in from Boscombe Down. Several S gun cases have been found out in the forest over the years and recently, a number of practice bombs were uncovered removed by EOD.

It will be interesting to see what if anything was pushed into the submarine pens before it was covered with earth but I suspect they have forgotten that some 8 years ago, 2 grand slams were found in a quarry near Swanage. There were no ranges in that area capable of having Grand Slams dropped on them and you couldn’t drop 2 side by side if you tried so I suspect the ones found were gathered from Ashley Walk and deposited in a large hole in the ground.

Dave