If you would like to be informed automatically of ALL FUTURE Ordnance Society visits, then please click on the “Follow the Ordnance Society” button under “FOLLOW THE ORDNANCE SOCIETY BY E-MAIL” in the right-hand column.  This ensures that all “NEWS” items will be e-mailed to you as soon as they appear on the web-site and these will include brief notes about future visits as well as all the other “NEWS” items.

Our Visits Secretary, Neil Grant also organises visits for Friends of the Tank Museum and other groups, so the number and variation of trips has increased considerably. The numbers for a visit will often have a maximum, so please ensure that you use the automatic notification method outlined above in order to apply in good time.

Please note that Ordnance Society reserves the right to refuse any visit applications, particularly where access to or within the visit site are restricted.

 

OS & FOTM VISITS 2026

The usual list of our visits and activities for the year are below.  As always, friends and family are welcome on visits. Spaces on some of the events are limited, so if you are interested in attending any of these events, please contact Neil Grant at neilgrant2@yahoo.co.uk.

 

February

 Indoor Skydiving (Saturday 7^th February, Basingstoke, £45)

This basically uses a wind tunnel standing on its end, with fans powerful enough to suspend you in the air as if you are flying. You start by learning to hold a stable position, then you will be shown how to manoeuvre yourself within the air column and even do aerobatic manoeuvres.  The package includes 4 sessions in the tube, each roughly as long as a free-fall from 18,000 feet

 

March

Lip work basket making  (Friday 6^th March, near Swindon, £150)

Lip work is a traditional method of basket making using straw. With this technique all manner of baskets can be made, as well as skep beehives and even chairs. Traditionally split bramble or willow might be used to bind the straw.  All tools and materials provided, and you can take home what you make.

VR combat arena (Thursday 12^th March (evening), Reading, £30)

Put on VR goggles and pick up your gun, and move through a combat area full of VR threats and special effects – zombies, demons, tax inspectors, that sort of thing.  The gear is all wireless, so you can move freely around the environment.  Multiple different game scenarios are available, so we’ll choose depending on what those coming fancy

Bronze Age Casting (Sunday 15^th March, near Swindon, £95)

A day with an experimental archaeologist learning to make a mould from clay, melt the metal using period technology and then cast your own bronze animal models that you can take away at the end of the day.

 

APRIL

Flint Knapping & Stone Tool Making (Sunday 12^th April, near Swindon, £90)

A day with an experimental archaeologist, learning the oldest craft in the world – knapping flint to make a variety of prehistoric stone tools that you can take home at the end of the day

Mail Making (Saturday 18^th April, Hampshire, £110)

Learn to make both butted and riveted mail and to anneal the finish product in a fire.  During the day, you will produce a demonstration patch, a bracelet and five links of riveted mail to take home with you.  All materials provided

Exotic driving (Weds 22^nd April, Leicestershire, £330)

Drive your choice of any three of the following –  an airport crash tender, an armoured personnel carrier, an army truck or a landrover around an off road course.  Note this is not the same vehicles or same location as the tank driving later in the year.

Stonehenge Stone Circle Special Access I (25April, Stonehenge, £20)

This is one of two special stone circle access trips that allows a limited number of people inside the rope barriers around the monument, and into the circle itself.  We get an hour inside the circle for photography etc, and there will be a short, optional talk pointing out some features not normally visible from outside the circle.  Note that this trip is in the evening, whereas the equivalent trip in September is in the early morning.

British Museum Exhibition “Samurai” and Hawaii (Thursday 30^th April, London, £17 and £14, respectively)

These are the British Museum’s big annual exhibitions for 2026, and handily they overlap so we can do both on the same day.  You can, of course, just do one of the exhibitions rather than both.  Based on previous exhibitions, assume it’ll take 2-3 hours for each exhibition, with a lunch break between

 

May

Axe & Knife Throwing (Saturday 2nd May, nr Bath, £45)

A half-day session learning to throw tomahawks, axes and throwing knives.  No previous experience is necessary, and the session will be tailored to the people attending, so if you want you can concentrate on axes or whatever

Wartime weekend at the REME museum (Saturday 9th May, Lyneham, £10)

This includes a tour of the regular REME museum (which holds a number of specialist armoured vehicles and recovery vehicles) but also vehicles from the reserve collection, which is not normally open to the public and guest vehicles owned by private collectors.  There will also be several 1940s re-enactment groups, talks etc.

Uffington White Horse & Wayland’s Smithy (Saturday 16^th May, Nr Swindon, Free)

A guided walk covering the Uffington White Horse (probably iron age), Uffington Castle hill fort (definitely iron age) and Wayland’s Smithy long barrow (Neolithic). Note that this visit will involve a certain amount of walking.

Whip cracking and juggling workshop (Wednesday 27^th May, Barry, £85)

Learn a variety of cracks with a bullwhip, learn to wrap it around objects for those with Indiana Jones fixations, and learn to juggle.  You can pick the balance you want between the two activities on the day.  Includes lunch.

 

June

Vulcan Bomber Experience (Saturday 6th June, Coventry, £15)

A chance to get on board one of the most iconic British cold war aircraft.  We get a walk around the aircraft with the ground crew, who will talk us through how to arm, fuel and maintain the aircraft.  We will then see the aircraft being powered up from ground power, so we can see control surfaces move, open the bomb bay doors etc.  Finally, we get into the cockpit for a talk from former air crew about flying the aircraft operationally.

Corn Dolly Weaving (Saturday 13^th June, Hampshire, £65)

Lean to make a variety of traditional corn dollies and their history and significance, and take what you make home afterwards

Mail Making (Saturday 13^th June, Hampshire, £110)

Learn to make both butted and riveted mail and to anneal the finish product in a fire.  During the day, you will produce a demonstration patch, a bracelet and five links of riveted mail to take home with you.  All materials provided

 

July

BAE Glascoed Artillery Ammunition plant (Wednesday 15^th July, Near Cwmbran, free)

Tour of the factory and associated museum plus presentation about BAE’s operations

Avebury, Silbury & West Kennet (Saturday 18th July, Nr Devizes, Free)

A guided tour of these related Neolithic monuments in Wiltshire – the stone circle at Avebury, Silbury Hill and the Neolithic long barrow at West Kennet. Note that this visit will involve a certain amount of walking, and that we may cut it short and skip West Kennet if the weather is bad (probably by being too hot, given the date)

Fort Cumberland (Thursday 23^rd July, Portsmouth, Free)

Fort Cumberland began as an eighteenth-century artillery fort, part of the chain defending the naval dockyard at Portsmouth.  It was updated and strengthened in the Victorian period and during the world wars, before finally being taken over by Historic England as storage and laboratory space.  The fort is not normally open to the public, but this includes a tour of the historic fort, a tour of Historic England’s laboratories (including things like the Osteological collection) and a visit to the Gin distillery which sublets part of the site.

 

AUGUST

Vintage Bus to Imber Restricted Village (Saturday 15^th August, Warminster, Pay on day)

In 1943, the village of Imber was requisitioned for military training.  The civilian population was never able to return after the war, and the village continued to be used for urban combat training.  As it is in the middle of a restricted military area, it is not normally accessible except for one day a year, when a special service runs trips out to it in vintage red routemaster double decker buses.

Silchester Roman Town (Sunday 16th August, Silchester, free)

Silchester is one of the few Roman towns that did not continue as an urban centre into the Saxon and Medieval periods (being essentially replaced by Reading), and now its walls and Amphitheatre stand among fields.  This will involve some walking

Fort Nelson (Saturday 22nd August, nr Portsmouth, Parking charge only)

Fort Nelson is one of the Victorian forts built to protect the vital Portsmouth dockyards from the landward side, and now holds the artillery collections of the Royal Armouries – everything from medieval cannon to railway guns.  The event includes tours of both the fort and the collection.

 

September

Tank Driving Day (Sunday 13th Sept  nr Winchester, £250)

You get to drive four different military vehicles on this half day session – a Chieftain tank, Abbott self-propelled gun, Stormer load carrier and FV432 APC.  No prior experience necessary

Army Small Arms School (Wednesday 16^th Sept TBC, Warminster, suggested donation)

A guided tour around the army’s own gun collection, which contains examples of pretty much every weapon the army has issued, tested or captured since the 1870s.  Even better, it’s a working collection, not a museum, so there will also be a handling session with some of the weapons.

Stonehenge Stone Circle Special Access II (Sunday 20^th September, Stonehenge, £20)

This is the second of two special stone circle access trip that allows a limited number of people inside the rope barriers around the monument, and into the circle itself.  We get an hour inside the circle for photography etc, and there will be a short, optional talk pointing out some features not normally visible from outside the circle.  Note that this trip is in the early morning, whereas the April trip is in the evening

Oxford Castle & Prison (Sunday 27^th sept, £20, Oxford)

A guided tour of Oxford Castle, from the Saxon tower and medieval Mott and bailey through to the 18^th century debtors prison

 

October

Vickers Machine Gun Collection, Bisley (October 4^th, Bisley, £10)

A definite must for anyone with an interest in the Great War, this gives us an afternoon of hands-on access to a very extensive collection of…well, pretty much everything to do with these iconic weapons.   For those who have visited the VMGC at home, this is a very different presentation, set up as a public exhibition at Bisley

Axe & Knife Throwing (Saturday 17^th October, nr Bath, £45)

A half-day session learning to throw tomahawks, axes and throwing knives.  No previous experience is necessary, and the session will be tailored to the people attending, so if you want you can concentrate on axes or whatever

 

November

VR combat arena (Thursday 26^th November, Reading, £30)

Put on VR goggles and pick up your gun, and move through a combat area full of VR threats and special effects – zombies, demons, tax inspectors, that sort of thing.  The gear is all wireless, so you can move freely around the environment.  Multiple different game scenarios are available, so we’ll choose depending on what those coming fancy)

 

PAST ORDNANCE SOCIETY VISITS (Pre-2018)

The relevant Newsletter which contains a description of these visits can be found in the Subject Index under ‘Society Meetings and Visit Reports’

A.W.E. Aldermaston	2015
BAE Systems, Barrow-in-Furness	2001
Birmingham Gun-Barrel Proof House	2007
Boscombe Down	2002
Bovington and Holton Heath	1996
(I) Calais, Todt Battery & V3 Site	1998
(II) Calais, V2 Sites	2000
Day In Essex (Coalhouse Fort and Tilbury Fort)	2002
Dover & Dover Turret	1994
Eskmeals and Kirkcudbright	1997
Fort Amherst & R.E.M.E. Museum, Chatham	2009
Fort Halstead	1992
Fort Nelson, Portsmouth	2003
Helicopter Museum, Weston Super Mare	2017
Kineton, B.O.D.	1993
Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Museum	2016
Mary Rose, Behind the Scenes, Portsmouth	2015
Naval Ordnance Museum, Priddy’s Hard (now ‘EXPLOSION‘)	1991
Ordnance Disposal School & Museum, Chattenden	1990
P & EE, Lavington	1994
P & EE, Pendine	1994
Pattern Room, Nottingham	1991
(I) P.E.E. Shoeburyness	1990
(II) P.E.E. Shoeburyness	1992
Portsmouth Dockyard	1995
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst	2016
(I) Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham	1991
(II) Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham	1992
(III) Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham	1996
Rotunda, Museum of Artillery	1989
Thames Forts boat trip	1998
Waltham Abbey, Royal Gunpowder Mills	1999
Warminster and Larkhill	1992
Warminster Small Arms School Corps Weapons Collection	2008
Western Rifle Shooting	2017
Whale Island, Portsmouth	2003
Whitechapel Bell Foundry	2017
Woolwich Experience, Arsenal, Rotunda, RA Barracks, RA Academy	1999