Talk:Fort Halstead

Neutrality

"Vital?". Can't see how a fortification that was constructed to meet an obsolete threat of invasion by Napolean could be "vital". It was built for ammunition storage between 1895 and 1897 and disposed of by Government auction in 1921: that's how important it was. It was reacquired by the War Office in 1937 for armament research, but again, it is hard to quantify how important it was to winning or preventing any conflicts. A local newspaper states that the land the establishment is on has now been sold and might be developed in to housing, which suggests it isn't needed now, either. --81.174.151.35 19:54, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Hopefully the changes I made last night have gone some way to improving the neutrality and accuracy of the article. I agree that references to "vitality" etc. were neither of the above. The link you provide appears to be speculation, given that the last paragraph explicitly states that Dstl have no plans to scale down operations at the Fort. DJR (T) 13:59, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Official Secrets Act

Reference to the Act in the context it was makes no sense, since all civil servents are required to sign in. Even I had to do that when I worked for the Department of Transport! Nick Cooper 22:33, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Except that now you've told us all - does that get you locked up in the Tower? :) Lynbarn 23:35, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Bah! I forgot about that! Nick Cooper 23:38, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Noteable people

A list of noteworthy people who have worked at Fort Halstead might be relevant to the article? Some examples are:

Sir Alwyn Crow

William Penney (Lord Penney)

Sir Nevill Mott (Nobel Laureate in Physics)

Dr Douglas Hartree

Sir John Lennard-Jones

Sir Frank Ewart Smith

87.113.89.93 (talk) 00:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Do you have some kind of evidence for this? It is needed per WP:CITE. DJR (T) 03:06, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

No, I have no evidence, but a quick search with Google reveals these examples of confirmatory texts...

Alwyn Crow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrotated_Projectile http://www.freewebs.com/heinkill/PAC.pdf

William Penney http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/William_George_Penney

Nevill Mott http://www.amazon.com/Fragmentation-Rings-Shells-Pressure-Phenomena/dp/3540271449

Douglas Hartree http://iee.org/OnComms/pn/History/HistoryWk_Computing_in_Britain.pdf

John Lennard-Jones http://iee.org/OnComms/pn/History/HistoryWk_Computing_in_Britain.pdf

Frank Ewart Smith http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/679710.html

(Is citing other parts of Wikipedia sufficient, or is it not a sufficiently credible source?)

They probably all published scientific papers during their time at the establishment, but someone with access to a better facility than "Google Scholar" would have to look for them. 87.114.25.79 (talk) 00:52, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately Wikipedia is not a valid reference, which rules out the vast majority of the above. Furthermore, most of the above articles no not even mention Fort Halstead or related projects... DJR (T) 17:48, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Come off it. The Penney article names Fort Halstead as does the Hartree and the Lennard-Jones articles; and neither of these three articles are from Wikipedia.Pyrotec (talk) 18:01, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

The presence of Penney at the Fort is confirmed by published officially-sponsored histories of the Atomic Energy/Weapons programmes. I've haven't looked for the others yet.Pyrotec (talk) 17:54, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Not sure what you're reading DJR: I gave an external reference for each person, and each reference places said person at Fort Halstead. In case your browser is broken, here are some extracts:

Crow:The British parachute and cable projectile was developed by the team of Sir Alwyn Crow who was the director of the Projectile Development Establishment at Fort Halstead

Penney:Penney returned to England and intended to resume his academic career, but was approached by C. P. Snow and asked to take up post as Chief Superintendent Armament Research (CSAR, called "Caesar") at Fort Halstead

Mott:For a brief period during the latter part of World War II, Nevill F. Mott led a theoretical group at Fort Halstead

Hartree:Hartree himself joined the Projectile Development Establishment at Fort Halstead

Lennard-Jones:He was seconded to the Ministry of Supply in 1939 and served as Chief Superintendent of Armament Research and ...worked for Lennard-Jones in the External Ballistics Department and at Fort Halstead

Ewart Smith: Automatic Electric Switching Device We, FRANK EWART SMITH, Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Armaments Design, and DONALD ALEXANDER NEWNAM, both of Ministry of Supply, Armaments Design Department, Fort Halstead'

I don't really consider that saying the above people worked at Fort Halstead is speculation or hearsay, I was really just asking out of politeness whether the information would be useful in the main article. If you want some controversy, did you know that in a radio broadcast, Lord Haw-Haw promised to bomb Fort Halstead?

87.114.25.79 (talk) 12:33, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Go ahead and add them.Pyrotec (talk) 19:20, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Believed?

A nuclear bomb was indeed developed there, not just "believed" to have been so. In addition, it led to the in-joke that it was the only nuclear weapon ever to have been dropped on British soil - as it is speculated to have rolled off a shelf. I'm not sure Im allowed to say much more, however, many of the "beliefs" posted on this page are indeed true 81.130.45.60 (talk) 19:49, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Closure

"On 17 June 2011 Dstl announced that its facilities at Fort Halstead are to close following a review of operations at the site."

As this 'news' is more than two years old, do we need to keep this article? Has FH closed? if not, then surely an update is well overdue?

RASAM (talk) 20:18, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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