Yesterday (7th January), Trust staff were kindly invited for a visit to our new neighbours at Roman Circus House, DSG (the Army’s Defence Support Group), as members of DSG had previously come for a visit to the Trust. We were given coffee and biscuits and a PowerPoint presentation, and then a guided tour of the whole site and a few chats with members of staff.
The DSG site is next door to Roman Circus House and also to our Butt Road car-park excavation, which DSG members have been taking an interest in. DSG developed out of the Royal Artillery Ordnance Corps and their site is part of the former Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks. Some of their buildings were part of the barracks. The former dining hall and cook-house, and guardhouse, of the 1930s, form a group with Roman Circus House (the former NAAFI, built 1937). There are some even older barracks buildings along the boundary wall, ie a block of infirmary stables, the riding school, former gun sheds and a tack building.
On their web-site, DSG provide this statement:
‘… The Defence Support Group (DSG) provides the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with secure access to assured onshore capacity and capability for the through life maintenance, repair, overhaul, upgrade and procurement support services for defence equipment. This is in line with the defence white paper, National Security through Technology, published in February 2012.
Our core mission is to be a trusted partner in the delivery of assembly, maintenance, repair, overhaul, upgrade and support services for the UK Armed Forces including current and future MOD equipment acquisition and support strategies …’
There were a lot of amazing vehicles on the site, but the WW1 field artillery gun undergoing specialist work was probably the most amazing.
Our visit was extremely interesting and we had a great time, with many thanks to DSG.
Visit the DSG web-site at www.dsg.mod.uk/
The image shows the Trust visitors looking at the infirmary stables of the Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks at DSG.
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