New storage facility for over 900 Army vehicles completed

Great that we have this facility, but Ashchurch has always struck me as an odd place to put it (proximity to the M5 aside). Surely in the Salisbury Plain area or at Marchwood would make more sense from a logistical point of view.

A subject we have discussed here several times.
Others have seen the photos and film of Challenger tanks and other kit rusting away in sheds with leaking rooves, so the site was long, long overdue for investment, and had been slated for closure.
Over 7,000 vehicles, boats, and plant were once stored here.
Two points:
Has the railway branch line which once run directly into the site been reinstated? I was told the tracks had been lifted, and on GE it is inconclusive.
Utter stupidity and lack of strategic thinking if so.
Also, what are the chances if it did kick off with Russia this is one of the first places to get hit? No GBAD whatsoever, and several billions of army kit up in smoke concentrated on one, quite small site.
WFM/ JAMES seems to me just another bean counters excuse to cut numbers, with assets stored centrally with assets issued to units deploying and only a skeleton allocation to other units. I assume that remains the case?

Pity not built years ago to house the now ruined C2 hulls, better late than never. hopefully its used so stop such expensive waste with no one ever being held to account.

Seems good

It is a very nice shed for sure. How many Iskanders would it take to be a tumbled down shed? Asking for a friend.

Namaste 🙏,
My partner and Disabled Veteran, remembers Ashchurch Logistic Stores Depot and others, well consisting of lines of old or very old storage tin metal roof and wall sheds, some made out of concrete walls with still tin roofs too.
Either with little wooden personnel doors, plus giant sliding on rails manual open vehicle doors, or roller shuttle doors manual operated too, all with leaking roofs at the best of times, with puddles of water on the floor everywhere too.
Along with these old or very old Logistical Storage Sheds, some more than likely built in WW2 or late 1940’s, or 1950’s and the youngest in the 1960’s plus the odd one in the early 1970’s if you were lucky.
Thet were freezing cold in wither, accept for a military fuel fuel heater in a corner of these sheds, where soldiers would try and warm up, with the vehicle door wide open and the cold wind blowing in too.
Because no one wanted to open and close, these large manually opening and closing shed doors every time a military vehicle or forklift went in or out.
Then in summer these Logistic Storage Sheds, became ovens or hot houses, then you wanted the large manually opening and closing shed doors left open.
Also every time it rain, someone having to go round looking for more leaks in the roofs, with then when you found one, having to move very Valuable Military Ammunition, Components Devices, Equipment, Spare-parts, Trailers, Vehicles and even Weapon systems.
Worth tens of Thousands or Hundreds of Thousands even Millions of Taxpayers money, to somewhere dryer, if possible before they were water damaged or destroyed and written off too.
That what the MoD called Environmental Logistic Storage Sheds, in the late 1970’s, throughout the 1980’s and 1990′, even into the 21st Century, for the British Army, RAF, Royal Navy and Royal,
Ask anyone who served in the Quartermaster or in the old Rotal Ordnance Corps and Royal Transport Corps or now Royal Logistical Corps, or any Servicemen and Servicewomen who visited one of the MoD Logistic Storage Depots too.
My partner tell me he can remember, going to pickup brand new 1/2, 3/4 and 1 Ton Land Rovers, a few new Bedford 4 or 5 Tonners plus couple of new Leyland and couple of new Foden “DROP’s” wagons, plus a new Foden Recovery Wrecker too.
Only to find a shed full of WW2 or post war, or late 1940’s Leyland Mk.2A Hippos 6×4 Military 10-tons heavy trucks, in brand new appearance with very low mileage on them too, with tons of spare parts stored on heavy duty shelving, even unused engines, gearbox and whole axles too, with a few equally old AEC Matador 4×4 or 6×4 medium 5 tons trucks, again looking like new too.
These were army trucks, my partners Grandfather, Great Uncle, plus Uncle and other relatives (both male and female), who served in WW2 and in the 1950’s to the 1960’s had driven.
My partner father was Army Pay Corps or assigned to, he drove only a typewriter and army balance sheets for Officers wages, plus checked his Commanding Officer sums (arithmetic) as the CO was known to make mistakes over Officers pay and expenses from time to time!

The joke to these Leyland Hippo’s and AEC Matador army truck, still being in British Army War Reserves, which we in 2025 do not have the even a fraction of size of War Reserves we did in 1980’s Cold War period.
Was the Ordnance storesman, told my partner, if you want a Leyland Hippo or AEC Matador army trucks, in place of the brand new Bedfords, Leyland and Foden army trucks.
We the Ordnance Depot has spares for the old Hippos and Matadors army truck, to keep them going into the 2,000’s, where they did not have enough spares to keep new Bedford or new Leyland’s and new Foden’s going if war broke out tomorrow for a few months let alone a year of fighting.
The MoD has not changed much, my partners relatives and friends still serving in HMF, in fact things may have got worse, because Defence Ministers and MoD Senior Civil Servants, no little about how an army fights and keeps fighting too, it is the good and proper Logistic Chain Capabilitypies and Large Logistical Storage of ready to use and issue stores, replacement vehicles and weapons, plus fuel, ammunition, food, medical supplies, clothing, food and everything else, either the amy, navy, air force and maries all needs to fight, as well as large number of trained soldiers, sailors, airmen or airwomen and Marines (regular and reservists) as war replacements too!
So is this new Vehicle state of the art Logistic Storage Sheds, really enough, or a drop in the pond of what the British Armed Forces needs, will 2.5 percent of UK GDP on Defence Spending by 2027.
Actually be enough or should the the MoD and the Labour Government have made the 2025 to 2026 Defence Budget right now of 2.5 percentage of UK GDP, with this raising by one percent of UK GDP per year, from 2026 to 2027 (upto 3.5 GDP) Defence Budget, then in 2027 to 2028 (upto 4.5 GDP) Defence Budget, followed by 2028 to 2029 (upto 5.5 GDP) Defence Budget, then 2029 to 2030 (upto 6.5 GDP) Defence Budget, plus then stays at this level until 2034 to 2035 tax year.
While the Labour British Government, asking President Donald Trump and his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, to agree to match UK Defence Spending, not the US Military Budget being cut by Trump and Hegseth by 8 percent (around 70 Billion US Dollars) in tax year 2025 to 2026, with more US Defence Spending Cuts throughout Trump’s Presidency too.

Trump want all Nato Member Countries, to increase their own Defence Spending or by 5 percent of their Countries GDP, or American Presidency will not honour Arctile 5 of Nato Treaty. While Trump himself is cutting US Defence Budget by 8 percent this year and again next tax year too, plus pulling US Forces out of Europe too!
That is not the moves of a Defence Friends and Allies, that the moves of a traitor now and maybe an enemy in the future too!
Trump is already it seems giving intelligence to President Dicator Putin and his Soviet Regime in Moscow, on Ukraine 🇺🇦 Defence Forces, Government and civilian population too,.
Maybe Trump’s Maga Far Right Fascist Republican US Government Administration, are giving intelligence on European Countries and other Nato Member States, plus Western International Democracies and Allies of Ukraine to Russia as well?
While cutting off US Intelligence Assistance to Ukraine 🇺🇦 totally, to get Ukraine 🇺🇦 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hand over to Trump Ukraine 🇺🇦 Valuable Minerals, Oil and Gas Reserves plus Valuable Ukraine Wheat and Gain production, to so call repay the USA for Humanity Aid and Military Aid supplied to Ukraine, but Europeans are not blackmailing Ukraine like Trump is.
Trump is trying to make money out of the Russian President Vladimir Putin illegal war on Ukraine, while helping Putin to win in the process, plus Trump’s is hoping to get paid by both sides too, that the Art of Deal for President or Dicator Trump! Is to exhort as much as possible from Alies for yourself and while betray your Allies to their enemies too,,
All to make yourself stronger and your Allies weaker, plus helping Enemy Rogue States and their Dicatorship’s, because you want to be the new Dicatorship in the World too!

There has been humidity storage at Aschurch for some time, but I believe one or two of these sheds have gone to be replaced by brand new facilities. If you go to Google Earth and use the ‘timeline,’ you can see the extent of the remodelling in recent years. Considering Ashchurch was doomed to be ‘thousands of bloody houses,’ the turn around in fortune is nothing short of a miracle. The throw away, scrap, sell, period appears to be over regarding UK military policy and daft arguments for scrapping the MBT fleet may be consigned to the bin? If anything good comes from Trump’s White House, it will be the realisation that the UK must spend more on defence in all its forms.

Wendy, thank you for a fascinating blog on life at Ashchurch. I love passing that place and looking out for a chance to peep into the sheds. The idea WW2 trucks were stored there in recent years is the stuff of dreams, especially AEC Matadors in pristine order, which may have ended up at the Ruddington auctions? If you have more juicy stories about Aschurch, I love to read them…..All the best.

All ones eggs in one basket I would have thought , prime target to get a kalibr cruise missile through the roof, just like Brize.

A lot of eggs in one basket methinks, got to be a prime target to get a kalibr cruise missile through the roof.

Apols for double post, this new format doesn’t appear to allow you to edit or delete.

I spent over 5 years working in and out of Ashchurch on the MAN Support Vehicle programme.
Yes when I first went there, their was a Centurion BARV in one of the sheds, along with an old series 2 Landrover configured for the royal family to ride in the back of, whilst reviewing troops. There were also the old Haulamatic dumpers used by the RE. Overtime they all disappeared along with the old CETs.
They also had for a few years a number of towed Rapier units just dumped in there.
Sadly for to long, both Army top brass and the IPT’s from Abbeywood ignored the importance of the site and allowed it to deteriorate to the point that not only was the storage building rotting, but also the equipment stored within.
The saddest thing was the fact that as other have said, most sheds were in an appalling state of repair. It was expanded in WW2 as a major transit store for the US Forces. Ships came into Liverpool and other west coast ports, and then came down the old A38 on the way to the south west (Devon and Cornwall) where the US forces gathered before D-Day. You could tell the difference between the sheds as those “thrown up” during the war had complete “asbestos” sides, whilst pre-war ones had small brick sides below the asbestos.
With the closure of the Lugershall “armoured” storage depot after the end of the Cold War, (itself now a housing estate), all was transferred to Ashchurch, but sadly NO investing the site infrastructure. It was sad to walk around the hangers, seeing vehicles of all times rotting away, covered in seagull poo, and constantly exposed to the weather though leaking roofs and doors that had either fallen of or where stuck open.
I dread to think what the clearance costs for all this asbestos was.

The term, ‘All eggs in one basket’ comes to mind. Take such a facility out, and what then?

But will it stop us blowing all our money on unsuitable vehicle stocks.

We are good at that, buying a load of container trucks that couldn’t take standard containers.