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The Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment at Southwell, known as AUWE(S), was an admiralty research establishment on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. It was built across Barrow Hill in Portland's southern-most village Southwell, in 1949-52, working alongside AUWE(N) establishment at East Weares. They remain infamous for espionage infiltration. The establishments closed in 1995, along with Portland's naval base, with Southwell's site becoming the Southwell Business Park in 1997. ==History== Portland Harbour had long been an important site for research into underwater defence equipment since Robert Whitehead established his Torpedo factory at Ferrybridge in 1891.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Jurassic Coast - Underwater Research )〕 Following World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War period, the Admiralty selected Barrow Hill to build a new Admiralty Gunnery Establishment. The work commenced in 1949 and was completed during 1952. During the excavations for the foundations of the establishment, evidence was found of pre-Roman and Roman occupation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Southwell Business Park )〕 In 1959 the AGE site became part of the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE).〔http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2010〕 This amalgamation mean that all the research into underwater weapons was moved to Portland, including work with the highest security classification at the height of the Cold War. Throughout its working life, the Southwell establishment worked alongside the East Weares establishment, where the two Portland establishments, known as AUWE(S) and AUWE(N) respectively, were responsible for the design, development and testing of underwater weapon and detection systems.〔http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2010〕 In 1961 Portland's two establishments at Southwell and East Weares were the centre of worldwide attention, after the discovery of espionage infiltration. This became infamously known as the Portland Spy Ring, a Soviet spy ring that operated in England from the late 1950s till 1961 when the core of the network were arrested by the British security services. It is one of the most famous examples of the use of illegal residents — spies who operate in a foreign country but without the cover of their embassy. In 1984 the AUWE became part of the Admiralty Research Agency (ARE) when all naval research came under the same direction and this in turn became part of the joint service Defence Research Agency (DRA) in 1991.〔 At the end of the Cold War, an announcement was made that both the navy base and the research establishments were to close. In 1995 the Royal Navy closed their Portland base, and the research establishments. The buildings were left empty, with an uncertain future.〔 However Roy Haywood and Ray Bulpit then purchased the site in 1997, and the Southwell Business Park soon became well-established.〔 Around 2008 work began on constructing The Venue Hotel. In 2013 this premier hotel, along with the on-site Portland Spa, merged to become the Ocean Spa and Hotel. The hotel included a premier luxury day spa, health club, and restaurant, and closed in 2014. In 2010, the park itself became under new ownership, where Compass Point Estates bought the park from KPMG after going into administrative receivership. Scheduled for September 2016, part of the site will be home to the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy's £14 million campus, after an appeal overturned the decision of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's planning committee to refuse permission for the build at Maritime House. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment, Portland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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