NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2011
Keppel topples as Culdrose revamp ends
NOW there will be quite a few airmen who’d relish the chance to do this – take a swing to Culdrose’s Keppel Block with a JCB.
But for the air station’s
Executive Offi cer there was a slight hint of sadness as he sat behind the wheel of a digger to begin pulling down the accommodation block. Thirty years ago Cdr Jerry
Ovens was among the fi rst people to move into Keppel, built in the early 1970s for trainee offi cers as part of a massive redevelopment of the Cornish airbase to meet the demands of the day. That £8m revamp took place when concrete was de rigeur, and the architects designing the new-look Culdrose promised they would use techniques to soften the exterior. Fast forward 35 years and
Keppel, like most concrete structures, is a drab grey... and the interior’s spartan and basic. The block is one of the few remaining relics of that 1970s modernisation of Culdrose; what sailors expect of accommodation has moved on once more... such as not wishing to walk half a block to the nearest heads or share shower/bath facilities. So enter a 20-metre long-
reach crushing machine, one XO (guided by a demolition expert) at the controls and Keppel’s demise began. Within a few minutes much of the upper fl oor was lying on the ground.
Come July 2012 a brick block will have arisen on the site with en-suite facilities for its inhabitants; its designers promise that the replacement building will “create a pleasing environment in keeping with the rural surroundings”.
When it is complete, it will conclude the current phase of modernisation at Culdrose.
Snow brings in dough
LAST year’s snow may have brought the country to a halt, caused countless broken arms, wrists and legs, and cost the economy £700m... ...but this picture-postcard image of HMS Victory blanketed by the white stuff looks lovely and helped bring in thousands of pounds for Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. The heavy snowfall and cold
snap at the beginning of 2010 forced staff to curb the opening hours of the site’s numerous museums and attractions – and, understandably, kept the public away.
buildings – and Nelson’s iconic fl agship in particular – covered in snow brought photographers out in force.
marketeer Melissa Gerbaldi, was an estimated £10,000 of free advertising as images of the snow- carpeted dockyard fl ashed around the world courtesy of print media, websites and specialist magazines. As for this picture of Victory,
well it graced the front of 10,000 Christmas cards, netting upwards of £5k.
With the fresh dump of snow just before the festive period, the photographers returned to the dockyard to update their image libraries and there are plans to produce more Victory Christmas cards for this year’s yuletide... … so that’s just £699,985,000 the economy needs to claw back now...
The dockyard ended 2010 on a high with more than 23,500 people filing through its gates for its Victorian Christmas festival – a success which has prompted a re-run from November 25-27 this year.
The result, says dockyard But the sight of the historic
11
Up and at ’em one last time
JUST three months after HMS Chatham paid a fi nal visit to her namesake town, more than 60 members of her ship’s company will be in the Medway port to say their farewells on Saturday February 12.
They will close the book on
an affiliation going back to the late 1980s when they parade through the streets of Kent, exercising their right to the Freedom of the Borough of Medway for the final time. As with her three older sisters, Chatham is being paid off early under October’s defence review. She’s already said her goodbyes to the city of her birth, Newcastle – last month the frigate spent four days in North Shields, a few miles along the Tyne from the Swan Hunter yard where Chatham was built from 1986-89, before joining the Fleet the following year.
The freedom parade in Kent – with bayonets fi xed and colours fl ying, all in time to the drum beat of the Royal Marines Band from HMS Collingwood – will begin in Chatham High Street at 11.30am and end at the Medway Council buildings, where offi cials will host a reception for the sailors. “Although the day will be tinged with sadness, HMS Chatham has enjoyed more than 20 years of friendship and support from the local population and I’m certain that many happy memories of this special bond will remain long after the ship has gone,” said Cdr Simon Huntingdon, the frigate’s fi nal Commanding Offi cer.
His ship was making her
fi nal entry into her home port of Devonport – fl ying a decommissioning pennant – as Navy News went to press. A formal decommissioning ceremony occurs this month.
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