ATE North West
Public Information Leaflet

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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, Afghanistan – and countless peacekeeping operations. 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.

Organisation

The Army Training Estate in the UK is controlled by Headquarters ATE, based at Headquarters Land Warfare Centre in Warminster, Wiltshire (see address at the end of this leaflet). The Estate is sub-divided into 12 regionally-based areas, each with its own Headquarters and staff. ATE North West (ATE NW) consists of one major training area at Warcop and 2 training camps, at Halton and Holcombe Moor.

Training in ATE NW

With the demise of the Armoured Training Regiment (ATR) at Catterick in 1994, and the concept of the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) there well established, Warcop itself is now principally an Infantry Field Firing Range for small arms and all other infantry weapons up to medium-sized artillery, and guns mounted on tanks and other armoured vehicles. Halton has a small training area of its own which is used for bridging training, and its camp is the base for adventurous training into the nearby Pennines. In the south of ATE NW is Holcombe Moor, used for Cadet and TA training. Each of these areas is described below.

Warcop Training Area

Warcop Training Area is situated in Cumbria, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 40 miles south of the Scottish border, and covers approximately 24,000 acres (9,715 hectares), of which more than half is MoD freehold land, with the balance being held on lease or by licence. Large areas are used for grazing sheep on both the high and low fell. Some limited land purchases have also been made in recent years, enabling development of useful additional facilities.

Warcop was established in 1942, as a tank gunnery range, urgently needed to prepare for the coming invasion of mainland Europe. Most of the armoured formations which took part in the D-Day landings trained here. In the ensuring years, generations of tank crews came to Warcop, and armoured vehicles are still frequently to be seen. In 1960 the area became an all-arms facility, catering for artillery and infantry units as well as the ATR at Catterick. However, with the ATR’s demise in 1994, the training emphasis at Warcop changed, and about £2m was spent that year to construct 6 new ranges, and to refurbish existing range facilities, to ensure the concurrent training of 5 platoons with a total strength of up
to 240. Infantry recruits train for a week at a time, and ITC is at Warcop for at least 31 weeks a year. There is also increasing pressure from many other regular users, mainly for the live firing of a wide range of weapons, using a complex of 24 high fell, which acts as an excellent backstop.

Halton Camp and Training Area

Halton Training Camp was a TA Militia Training Area prior to the Second World War, during which, and up until 1964, it was developed and used by Royal Engineer Units as a wet and dry bridging training site, accommodating some 1,000 personnel in hard and tented areas. Nowadays it is a 47-acre (19- hectare) site with hard accommodation and a small wood, shrub and grass training area, and one right of way running parallel along the north bank of the River Lune. From 1964 it became an all-year-round general-purpose training camp with the emphasis on TA and Cadet training at weekends, and mid-week as a base for regular army units doing adventurous training. In 1996 the slipways were further developed.

Holcombe Moor Camp and Training Area

Holcombe Moor Training Camp was built in the 1940s and, like Halton, is now an all-year-round general-purpose training camp for TA and Cadet organisations training at weekends, and regular army units doing low-level tactical training and live firing. The camp consists of 750 acres (303 hectares) of freehold land – open moorland to the north and east, and grass farmland with young plantations to the south. Three sites of Biological Interest are situated on the training area and there are 5 well-used public rights of way that cross the area. It is an integral part of the West Pennine Moors.

Part of Our Local Communities

Along with the rest of the Army Training Estate, ATE NW has made excellent progress in the development of sophisticated planning and management systems to ensure that training on the Estate is sustainable. In close cooperation with both statutory and non–statutory bodies, together with the local people, ATE NW continues to strive for the required balance between the Army’s training needs and the interest of the general public.

Within the UK there are nearly 200 military conservation groups, including the one centred on Warcop involving a partnership between the Commander and his staff, Defence Estates, Statutory Bodies and other highly-qualified volunteer members. A regular Firing Notice informs residents of forthcoming exercises and other planned military activity. Noise levels are also monitored and exercise planning takes due account of the effects of training on the local population.

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Conservation

Careful Conservation of a Unique Heritage

Warcop’s use as a military training area has preserved a substantial landscape, home to a wealth of rare species of flora and fauna, and also with numerous archaeological remains, and great geological interest, with some of the UK’s finest untouched limestone dating 10,000 years from the Ice Age – weathering and preserved condition being thanks to the restricted access for the last 60 years.

Warcop includes many conservation designations: the whole training area, including Stainmore, lies within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with the exception of the southwest corner beyond Hag Lane. There are also areas within the Appleby Fells and Upper Teesdale Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which forms part of the Moor House-Upper Teesdale Candidate Special Area of Conservation. Helbeck Wood in Warcop’s southeastern corner is also a SSSI in its own right, along with some of Hilton Beck – itself part of the River Eden and Tributaries SSSI. Warcop also participates in the Black Grouse Recovery Project, protecting the black grouse population and improving its habitat – and benefitting other threatened species on the training area, such as the English grey partridge, skylark, song thrush, linnet, reed bunting and spotted fly-catcher. Badgers thrive here too, undisturbed by live firing, and there is significant activity to protect red squirrels against encroachment by grey squirrels into the area.

Another project is providing bat roosts by including them in some new buildings, in old mine workings sealed against trespassers, and also in modified underground bunkers. Six species have been identified, in one of the most important colonies in the north. The ranges also host many butterflies, moths and other insects, including some rare species. Projects have been undertaken to improve the training area’s wet habitats, including those of the great crested newt – as well as others to re-establish old hedgerows and dry-stone walls.

To the south of Warcop, the Halton Camp site includes 20 acres (eight hectares) of ancient seminatural woodland.

Further south still, Holcombe Moor is situated within the Green Belt and an Area of Local Landscape importance, with several woodlands of varying ages scattered throughout the training area. Many of the mature woodlands are confined to the valley sides adjacent to Holcombe Brook and Simon’s Lodge. The area surrounding Simon’s Lodge is designated as a Site of Biological Interest; and at least one of the Spenleach Farmsteads and the field system on the southern half of the training area are of archaeological interest, dating from the 17th century.

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Public Access

There is a presumption in favour of public access to the Army Training Estate, on Public Rights of Way, balanced against the over-riding national requirement for safe and sustainable military training and conservation. The first priorities for any training area must be military training and public safety. However, archaeology, conservation and agriculture follow closely. At Warcop, training takes place 7 days a week and for virtually the whole of the year. Night firing is also permitted on most days except for Sundays. For safety reasons, therefore, public access is restricted to public rights of way during non-firing days only: live shells and mortar bombs, some dating from the Second World War, are still found on the ranges during clearance operations. Access is permitted on the public rights of way on 12 access weekends per year, which are publicly notified 12 months in advance. Other short-notice access days are advertised locally, and additional access information is available by phoning the information free phone number shown below. When on a public Right of Way across a training area, follow the Country Code:

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 ATE Scotland. 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

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Additional Information

In addition to this Public Information Leaflet for ATE Scotland, the ATE and its sister land agency organisation, Defence Estates (DE), each produce other 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 estates including Salisbury Plain, Castlemartin, Catterick, Dartmoor and Otterburn. ATE also produces In The Field magazine, published each autumn, which also contains news from some of the smaller training areas around the country. Finally, DE’s annual publication Sanctuary contains articles about the Defence Estate across the whole country. All these publications are free and may be obtained from the relevant addresses below.

Useful Addresses

Headquarters ATE NW
Warcop Training Area, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria CA16 6 PA
Telephone: 01768 341661
Access Information: Freephone 0800 783 5181

Halton Training Camp
Lancaster LA2 6LW
Telephone: 01524 66161

Holcombe Moor
Hawkshaw, Nr Bury, Lancashire BL8 4JJ
Telephone: 01204 882991

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