The Warcop Training Area (WTA) is a UK Ministry of Defence military training area near the village of

Warcop Warcop is a village and civil parish in the Eden district of Cumbria, England. The parish had a population of 491 in the 2001 census, increasing to 532 at the Census 2011. It is near the A66 road and is north of Kirkby Stephen and about 5 ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. Part of the

Defence Training Estate Defence Training Estates is an organisation within the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. It is the operating division of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, and is responsible for the management of the 78% of the defence estate allocated ...

, the area consists of approximately of MoD freehold land.Ministry of Defence - Defence Estate and Environment, What we do
website accessed: 26 August 2010)

History

The training estate was established in 1942 originally as a tank gunnery range and tanks still use it to this day. On 19 October 1944 a Short Stirling bomber (LK 488), crashed on Mickle Fell whilst on a training flight from its base at RAF Wratting Common in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

; of the seven crew, only one survived. On 22 April 1999 a soldier died when a grenade exploded in his pocket. On 4 June 2014, one soldier died and two others were injured in a training accident when a military vehicle rolled over.

Coverage of the training area

Within the training area are Little Fell (745m) and

Mickle Fell Mickle Fell is a mountain in the Pennines, the range of hills and moors running down the middle of Northern England. It has a maximum elevation of . It lies slightly off the main watershed of the Pennines, about south of Cross Fell. After Cro ...

(790m), Burton Fell, Warcop Fell, Cronkley Fell and part of Murton Fell. Most of the training area is in Cumbria but a portion is

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. The area forms part of the

North Pennines The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north–south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Tyne Valley and ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

and about two-thirds of the area falls inside the Appleby Fells

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

.Cumbria County Council - Access on MOD Warcop training area
(Website accessed: 26 August 2010)Appleby Fells SSSI map
MagicMap,

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United K ...

Army use

Warcop Training Area is used six and a half days a week by the Infantry Training Centre at

Catterick Garrison Catterick Garrison is a major garrison and military town south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest British Army garrison in the world, with a population of around 13,000 in 2017 and covering over 2,400 acres (about 10 ...

, other regular

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and

Army Reserves A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

using the Warcop Training Camp. The camp also has its own assault course and

zip line A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bot ...

References

{{Reflist Training establishments of the British Army Geography of Cumbria Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria Installations of the British Army Murton, Cumbria