ATE South East
Public Information Leaflet

To download a copy of this Public Information Leaflet in Adobe PDF format click here.

To download a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader click here.

Why the Army Needs to Train

The British Army is held in the highest regard around the world. This respect has been hard-won over recent years in Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, the Gulf, the Balkans – and countless peacekeeping operations throughout the world. But such professionalism does not just happen by chance. It is attained by constant, thorough and tough training, in realistic conditions. The Army Training Estate (ATE) provides the principal facilities to achieve this professionalism.

Organisation

The Army Training Estate in the UK is controlled by Headquarters ATE, based at the Land Warfare Centre in Warminster, Wiltshire (see address on the back of this leaflet), and is sub-divided into 12 regionally-based areas, each with its own Headquarters and staff.

Training in the South East

ATE South East (ATE SE) provides training facilities for the Armed Services’ regular, reserve and cadet units, UK emergency services personnel, plus some foreign units and police forces. ATE SE is also the main centre for all UK counter-insurgency training. ATE SE comprises the following facilities: Cinque Ports Training Area; 7 training camps with a total between them of 3,700 beds; the Hythe and Lydd range complexes; ‘dry’ training (i.e. without live firing) and watermanship areas in East Kent at Dover, Folkestone, Hythe and Lydd; and dry training areas at Mereworth Woods near Maidstone (also in Kent) and at Pippingford Park near Crowborough (East Sussex). These areas cover in all about 20,700 acres (8,400 hectares) of extremely varied terrain which includes sea shore shingle banks, marshes – plus woods, downland and heathland, of which about 5,500 acres (2,200 hectares) are let for grazing or forestry purposes.

Back to Top

History

The area around Dover is steeped in military history going back centuries. Much physical evidence remains: for example, a number of anti-invasion watchtowers from Napoleonic times, Martello Towers, still line the coast. In those days, local militia practised musketry in the area. The Royal Military Canal was also built in this era as a strategic route sufficiently far inland to avoid raids from the sea. It ran westwards from the shore at Folkstone to Rye, skirting the north of Romney Marsh.

Then, from the 1850s parts of the coastal region were developed as artillery and small arms ranges – which have been in use ever since. One of them even gave its name to a type of high explosive, Lyddite, developed there during the 1880s.

Strange concrete structures also still survive on the cliffs – parts of a sound-locating system built in 1940 to hear German aircraft taking off from airfields in France during the Battle of Britain.

The group of training areas just north of Hythe, Folkestone and Dover are almost totally rural in character: apart from a stretch of the Royal Military Canal, they have few obvious links with military history. However, the training area at Pippingford Park, near Crowborough in East Sussex, was first used for formal military training in 1910, and was acquired permanently during the Second World War. It has interesting archaeological features showing human occupation since at least as far back as Iron Age times, with Roman and medieval remains as well.

Finally, Mereworth Woods near Maidstone were acquired as a residential camp in the 1940s; and since the 1950s they have been used as a training area. The use of its ranges and training areas has enabled ATE SE to preserve a number of landscape features which might not otherwise have survived, while at the same time providing habitat to a wide variety of rare species of fauna and flora already lost in other parts of the country.

Back to Top

Conservation

Along with the rest of the Army Training Estate, ATE SE strives continually to accommodate the interests of both the military and other stakeholders in the guardianship of our open spaces, and has made excellent progress in maintaining the development of sophisticated planning and management systems to ensure that training on our Estate is appropriate in terms of the area, nature of ground, and seasonal factors – for example, by taking into account farming practices and conservation considerations such as the breeding seasons of rare species.

A number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) have been identified in ATE SE, and the Integrated Land Management Planning process is designed to ensure the twin imperatives of sustainable military training and environmental protection are accommodated. Conservation interests in ATE SE are safeguarded by management agreements with English Nature, with further help and advice on estate management from the Cinque Ports Training Area Conservation Group which meets 3 times a year, involving a partnership between the ATE SE Commander and his staff, Defence Estates, English Nature, and other highly-qualified members.

Perhaps the most interesting land environment is the large shingle area around Dungeness, the largest and most complete example of its type in Europe – if not the world. Indeed, 9 ATE SE training areas in Kent are SSSIs, and Pippingford Park in East Sussex lies within one. Some have been notified under the EU-wide initiative as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). Restricted access and closely-controlled use of all these areas means that there is a wealth of rare species of fauna and flora.

Some of the most interesting include the Adonis Blue butterfly, and many other rare insects, moths, bats and snails, as well as Late Spider orchids, nationally-rare Liverwort, rare Slender Bedstraws, lichens and mosses.

Great care goes into managing these precious assets, recognising that it is in everybody’s interest to care for and preserve their many fascinating and priceless features.

Back to Top

Public Access

There is a presumption in favour of public access to the Army Training Estates, on Public Rights of Way, balanced against the overriding national requirement for safe and sustainable military training and conservation. Public access cannot be permitted to the range firing areas for safety and other practical reasons – among which are that unexploded shells and mortar bombs, dating from the First World War onwards, are regularly found during clearance operations. This risk, coupled with the high troop usage of the other training areas, plus grazing and woodland management over much of them as well, means public access is only possible on the marked public rights of way which cross some areas. When on such a Public Right of Way crossing a training area please adhere to the following:

When permitted onto a training area:

Follow the Country Code

• Enjoy the countryside and respect its life and work
• Guard against all risk of fire
• Use gates and stiles to cross fences, hedges and walls
• Leave livestock, crops and machinery alone
• Take your litter home
• Take special care on country roads
• Make no unnecessary noise
• Keep to the public paths across moor and farmland
• Fasten all gates
• Keep dogs under close control
• Protect wildlife, plants and trees
• Help to keep all water clean

Great care is taken to ensure the safety of these walks, although areas used by the armed forces for training can obviously be dangerous – and this applies throughout the ATE SE. Anyone walking on MoD land must obey all signs and byelaws relevant to the area being visited.

Remember! Unexploded Ordnance: do not touch any unidentified object.

Always comply with the following:

Safety

Do not enter areas where there is an obvious military presence:

• Do not approach, touch, or pick up any objects lying on the ground
• Keep to the footpaths and do not deviate from them
• The use of metal detectors is prohibited
• Keep away from all buildings, bunkers and military installations except
  where it is clearly shown that public access is permitted
• No camping or fires are permitted
• All cliffs are dangerous

Part of Our Local Communities

To assist in this task no fewer than eight conservation groups have been set up within the Home Counties. Many local experts and people with a genuine interest in environmental matters, join these groups which ensures the MoD has the very best knowledge at their disposal when making decisions which may affect the local area.

Back to Top

Additional Information

Both the Army Training Estate and Defence Estate (DE), it’s land agent, produce more literature. The ATE Annual Report summarises yearly progress by the ATE organisation; DE’s Walks on MoD Land details a number of walks on 10 ATE areas including Salisbury Plain itself, Castlemartin, Catterick, Dartmoor and Otterburn. ATE also produces In the Field magazine, published annually, which contains news from some of the smaller training areas around the country, as well as updates on developments in management techniques. Finally, DE’s annual publication Sanctuary contains articles about the Defence Estate across the whole country. All these publications are free and can be obtained from the respective addresses and websites listed below.

Useful Addresses

Headquarters ATE SE
Dymchurch Road, Hythe, Kent CT21 6QD
Telephone: 01303 225834

Headquarters Army Training Estate
Land Warfare Centre, Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 ODJ
Telephone: 01985 222856

Defence Estates
Blakemore Drive, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B75 7RL
Telephone: 0121 311 2000
www.defence-estates.mod.uk