Aldermaston

[CND demonstrators leaving Maidenhead on their march from London to Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Berkshire, 1958 (Getty, via the Independent)]

When I was young, perhaps in the Lower Sixth at school, I went on an Aldermaston March, an event organised by CND, to protest in favour of unilateral disarmament, which I think amounted to getting rid of our (very expensive) nuclear weapons, intended to deter the Russians from invading or otherwise interfering in some drastic way. Aldermaston was the home, near Reading, of the Atomic Warfare Research Establishment, in the lead on these weapons, subsequently privatised as AWE Nuclear Security Technologies. For all of which see references 1 and 2. And I was quite surprised this morning to find that the CND still existed and had a website at reference 3.

Not too sure about the dates now, but I don't think we started in London. And I do remember my elder brother getting hold of a shabby, duplicated typescript about the fairly secret thing called RSG 6, which caused a lot of fuss at the time. One of a string of government bunkers intended to hold the country together after the Russians had bombed us back to the Stone Age.

At the time, the UK still had the trappings of a great power, even if the substance was fast draining away, and unilateral nuclear disarmament, while largely symbolic, might have made a difference. Probably not any more. In any event, we failed to convince anything like enough people that we were right.

So all rather a surprise to find, on our return from Chippenham, that Aldermaston, or rather Aldermaston Wharf, was also an important place on our canal network. Had there been some cunning plan to move our bombs by water, hiding in plain sight, as it were?

There had been an early start at the Angel, with BH fortifying herself for the journey to come with a Pot O'Porridge. Today, I find reference 5, but I fail to find the pot.

I had a conversation with Gemini, the start of which is snapped above. It seems that the likes of Bidfood, the sort of people who probably supply the Angel, often get people like Mornflake to do them a special. The name might be special and the weight (53g) is down from what you would get in a supermarket, but the colours and ingredients are right for regular, original Mornflake. It is also possible that in my note, I took liberties with the name, no doubt to be found on the other side of the pot. Point taken.

I took a bacon sandwich. And we then moved into the scenic route home, that is to say A4 rather than M4. A route which worked well on this occasion. Plenty of places with enough going for them to support a City Break - although the railway lines appear to be more Paddington flavoured than Waterloo/Clapham Junction flavoured - with the former not being very handy to Epsom.

I associate this morning to a previous occasion, going the other way, when we stopped at a pull-in with a very fine show of pyramid orchids. Finding which is left as an exercise for the reader.

The first item of interest was what looked like the huge Lansdowne Strand Hotel of Calne and reference 6. Right on the main road, quite a small town. What on earth was it doing there? I did have a vague memory of an aristo Lansdowne who did his money on gambling and horses. It turns out from reference 7 that this is an old - and clearly persistent - confusion. Not a rake, rather a very rich (protestant Irish) peer and politician who also had a huge estate - Bowood - in Wiltshire. Which explains the name but not the size. But that will have to wait.

Past the White Horse, the first time for a while.

Through Marlborough, now open to traffic, a place with a very large market place running through the middle of town and a very large school at one end. We even saw what appeared to be uniformed girls from the school. Times have clearly changed.

A fine Wellingtonia just past Hungerford, already noticed at reference 8.

And so, quite by chance to Aldermaston Wharf, the name having caught my eye and it being convenient to turn off. Lots of water to be seen in gmaps, as snapped above.

With the canal side of things being in the hands of the ABC Leisure Group of reference 9. The goto-people for this stretch of the canal?

Had this one done time as a tripping boat, with an observation cabin forward and a bar aft?

A couple of hire boats in rather better shape. Some fancy looking houses on the other bank. How much is their value reduced by their views of trade and industry? And holiday makers?

There was also a one room museum with a car-boot-sale style collection of memorabilia, some canal flavoured. There were photographs reminding me what a major undertaking building these canals in the first place was. With the recent restorations being a major undertaking too. Something which would require a lot of money and enthusiasm: I would imagine that restoring old railway lines for steam traffic would come in rather cheaper.

We paid for our parking while taking tea and sausage roll, this last being the sort of thing I imagine one might buy in Greggs: one was quite enough for the two of us. While the tea came with pot, teacup and saucer and all the trimmings. BH takes decaff on these occasions.

After which we picked up the M4 and headed for home, to take our picnic there. A bit of slowing down as we changed over to the M25, but nothing serious. Leaving enough time for a spot of botanizing later, as noticed at reference 10.

PS: a little later, Gemini explains that the hotel in Calne grew to its present huge size when the Bath-London road trade boomed: the coming of the railway might have killed it off, but a combination of factors kept it going. But it is still a bit of a wonder that it lives on: maybe the Lansdownes are still rich enough and sentimental enough to keep it on at a loss. Part of this conversation is snapped above.

But not so rich that they could afford to keep their house on. See reference 12.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldermaston_Marches.

Reference 2: https://www.awe.co.uk/about-us/our-history/our-history/. Not working this Monday morning, although it was yesterday. Hopefully our deterrent is more reliable. A little later: back in business.

Reference 3: https://cnduk.org/.

Reference 4: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/10/cow-chop.html. Previous notice of our trip to Chippenham.

Reference 5: https://www.mornflake.com/shop/pots/.

Reference 6: https://lansdownestrand.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/lansdowne.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/10/wellingtonia-139.html.

Reference 9: https://abclg.com/.

Reference 10: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/10/back-to-screwfix.html.

Reference 11: https://www.awe.co.uk/.

Reference 12: https://bowood.org/. The hotel might survive, but the house is now a luxury hotel spa and golf course. Plus gardens and park. The odd Wellingtonia?