Sandford Heath anti-aircraft tower

You can’t fight a war without shells, and until the end of World War 2, the main explosive used to propel shells was cordite. So the factory at Holton Heath, where cordite was produced for the Royal Navy, was a prime target for Luftwaffe bombers.

Raids on the factory were deterred by a ring of gun sites. The surviving tower on Sandford Heath is actually two towers, separated by a few centimetres, so that the vibrations from the 40mm Bofors gun on one would not affect sensitive tracking equipment on the other.

 There was also a decoy built at Arne, 2½ miles away, which could be set alight so the German pilots would think they were bombing the actual factory.

 Nearest postcode: BH16 6HX
OS reference: SY940902
What3words: making.remedy.flocking