Recently, looking through my archive I found this landscape image I took of RAF Fylingdales.
Situated on the North Yorkshire Moors, RAF Fylingdales‘ mission has been to provide an early warning system of a ballistic missile attack for the Western world for over 50 years. Originally It was built as an early warning, defence station during the Cold War to detect a potential nuclear attack. Today it has been upgraded and its powerful radar beam tracks missiles in every direction as well as tracking space debris, it is even rumoured to be tracking a Spaceman’s lost glove.
As a child I would be driven past the station on route to stay at my Grandparents in Robin Hood’s Bay. As we drove by I would shout out excitedly “the golf balls” a reference to its previous incarnation. To me the base has been a secret place, viewed from a distance. Sat alone on top of the moor it has always fascinated me and had a small impact on my life. Originally as a time indicator to the question “how long was left in the car” to more recently somewhere I had a tyre blow out straight outside the front gates. You would not believe how quick a stranger or secret agent stopped and offered assistance.
Years later my childhood intrigue returned as I was given a commission to photograph a story on the environmental work thats goes on at the station. This was my opportunity to get up close and see what was really behind the brow of that hill. From the road you can see only a very small part of the base and visually the landscape swallows up the building. In fact up close the base houses numerous, personal and buildings and includes full size football pitches as well as 3000 acres of the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors National Park. It really was a hidden community on the moors.
Re discovering this image made my remember how photography is a great medium for accessing the places that have a memory and impact on our day to day lives and over the years has given me a little insight in to a hidden world I imagined as a child sat in the back seat of a car.