"Memories of Saxa Vord"

When Units close most historical items end up in central MOD repositories (if they don’t end up in the local skip). The last CO of Saxa Vord had the foresight to arrange for a significant amount of unclassified material to be left on Unst (not only that but he went through  the proper processes to have some material declassified to add to the “archive”). The thought was that a local display could be organised to show these mementoes and that this might act as a small help in encouraging visitors to Unst. The RAF pull-out would have a devastating effect on the local economy and anything which would help the tourist industry would be a welcome bonus.

For various reasons (lack of money and a suitable venue being the 2 most obvious), nothing happened for 4 years. Recently however, there have been welcome developments.

Some of the items have now been put on display in the old Station Medical Centre. Aaron & Cassie Foord, the owners of Foords Chocolate have set up their business in the old SMC and have undertaken to exhibit a number of items from the base – including the Red Star Board – they have titled their display “Memories of Saxa Vord”

Not only that but they have decided to produce a gallery with pictures of personnel who have served on the camp over the years. They would be pleased to hear from anyone who did a tour at Saxa and would like to have their photo added to the display:

The display will be opened officially in the next few weeks; however, the items are already on view to visitors.  I was on Unst last week and had a look around at the exhibits and can strongly recommend it as a place to call at for those visiting Shetland, especially as entry is free! (I must add that I have no financial interest in Foords Chocolates). 

I have attached a few pictures of the displays as they were last week. (Left click on pictures to enlarge).

 

A link to Foords Chocolates: http://www.foordschocolates.co.uk/

The rest of the material has been taken to the Unst Heritage Centre (in the old Haroldswick School) but is not available to the public yet. In the future it is hoped to mount periodic displays there.

CONTENTS LIST

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Visit of the Lord Lieutenant of Shetland, Mr JH Scott in 1998

In June 1998 the Lord Lieutenant of Shetland, John H Scott, visited the station to present some medals and awards.

One of the historical hangovers, not appreciated by many stationed at Saxa, is the situation regarding land ownership in many parts of the Highlands & Islands. Certainly a large part of Shetland is owned by a few families. The Scott family estates include part of the Shetland Mainland, Bressay, Noss and a significant part of Unst. A handful of families own most of Unst. John Scott is the father of Tavish Scott, who is currently the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Scotland. Photos of the presentations follow. (Left click on pictures to enlarge). 

 

 

A group photo showing all recipients, the Lord Lieutenant and the CO Sqn Ldr Jones is below:-

 

CONTENTS LIST

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Erection of the Type 80 Radome (Updated 10 Jan 15)

Following the bad gales at end of Jan 1961 it was decided that the Type 80 should be provided with a radome to protect it from the weather. Work on this began in early 1963. Obviously this meant that the Type 80 was off the air for a large part of the year.

The Type 14 was in use as a replacement and, although the performance was greatly reduced, the station stayed operational for most of the time. The Unit was involved in an incident towards the end of June 63 when assistance was requested by HM Coastguards who were trying to locate an overdue Norwegian ship – the Nesbakk, M-992-G. The ship was detected  on radar over 40 miles north-east of the site. An RAF aircraft and a surface vessel were directed to the vessel which had broken down. Eventually a Norwegian rescue ship took the Nesbakk under tow and escorted her safely to Alesund in Norway.

A  Norwegian firm was engaged as the main contractor but a number of local firms and people were involved in the construction. The first photo, taken from the air, shows the site at an early stage. The hut used by the contractors are marked with an arrow on the left-hand side of the picture. (Left click on photos to enlarge).

  The next sequence of pictures shows the progress of the building as shown in official photos.

 

 

 

 

 

As I said earlier, a number of local folk were employed on the project. One of them was Bryan Edwardson and I'm grateful to Bryan and his wife Beth for allowing me to use the next three photos:

The construction of the radome was completed on 25 Aug 63 and Flight Trials, which were held shortly afterwards, confirmed that the dome had very little effect on the radars performance. However, soon afterwards there were severe gales which damaged a number of the radome panels and the radar had to be taken off the air from 20 Sep 63. The Norwegian contractors had to be recalled to repair the radome and, once again, some local people helped finish the job. The gales also delayed the painting of the structure.  The next image shows where a couple of panels have been blown out and, workers can be seen scaling the ladder on the right-hand-side of the radome.

The Type 80 had to be kept off the air until 13 November whilst these problems were rectified.  An image of the completed, newly-painted radome in 1963,  is below:

 

For the outsider it is hard to envisage the scale of work involved but for the next 15 years the 90 ft circumference radome was home to the 18 ½ ton, 75 ft wide Type 80 scanner assembly. Two photos, taken inside the radome, follow:

 

Although the structure was eventually demolished and replaced, it was the first "golf ball" on Saxa and became a memorable landmark.

As the Unit was to confirm in the early 90's  – radomes don’t offer total protection from the Shetland climate!

CONTENTS LIST

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SSAFA Fun Day 2001

In 2001 a Families Fun Day was held on camp to raise funds for SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, a service charity). At the time Saxa was not an independent station – it was known as RRH Saxa Vord (RRH standing for Remote Radar Head) and RAF Buchan parented the Unit, providing most of the services. The number of personnel had been reducing since 1999 and by this time there were under 70 servicemen and women at Saxa Vord. The base didn’t become an independent command again until 2004.

It was rather gratifying to see that many of them, their families and a number of local folk turned out in what appears to have been  rather poor weather and yet still have fun (Left click on photos to enlarge).

 

CONTENTS LIST

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AOC's Inspection 1992

In 1992 the CO was Sqn Ldr Nick (Flash) Gordon. The AOC 11 Group was Air Vice Marshal John Allison CBE, RAF. He seems to have an interesting CV. Although he spent a large part of his RAF flying time in Phantoms he is believed to be the last RAF Pilot to have flown a Lightning whilst in service. After retirement he has flown Spitfires, P47’s, P51’s & an Me109. He has also flown a number of old types in the Shuttleworth Collection and has been instrumental in the restoration of a number of others. He left the RAF in 1999 and spent a few years working for Jaguar Racing. More parochially his main claim to fame is as a chauffeur for me on one of the 2 back seat Phantom trips I had from 228 OCU at RAF Coningsby in 1976.
 

The photos below were all taken during AVM Allison’s visit. I have been able to title the AOC in C’s Commendation to C/T McCaffrey as the commendation could actually be read the in the original picture. I have no information about the award in the last picture and will happily title it if anyone can give me the information needed. (Left click on pictures to enlarge).

CONTENTS LIST

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