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HMS Dryad - remember the good times?

D

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As I hear HMS Dryad is fully closed!

Are they still using the Units for training purposes or has every thing now been moved over to Collingwood?

Poor Dot, she always did make a good egg and bacon buttie for stand easy! And let’s not forget about the bar, Bop nights were always a good run ashore (cough)! Wednesday, get chirpy on a few cheap cheeky vimto’s and jump a cab down to South Sea for a weekly trip to Jo’s!

Lads, remember Tampax Towers? You could see that building moving in the wind, I swear.

The newish accommodation (portsdown), was great too! Mind you, it was easy to sneak into other messes as you just hade to use a knife to move the inside door lock over.

What about Gold, Juno and Sword accommodation, that was like a 5 star hotel!

But the one thing that pee’d me off was the Para’s coming down for training, they would always smash in the bandit machines and leg it!
 
Not everything has moved to Collingwood quite yet JD but would you believe they even have some bugle thing in the morning instead of a proper pipe!!
 
Jenny_Dabber said:
Are they still using the Units for training purposes or has every thing now been moved over to Collingwood?
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Dryad decommissioned a few years ago now, renamed MWS Southwick Park. Pretty all Warfare Branch training is now at Collingwood but the sims in Cook remain, and will do until the 23's are gone.

SP Is now the "Defence Police College" The reggies have moved up from Whaley, and RMP marched across from Chichester so they are just waiting for the RAF Snowdrops to arrive to be fully purple

At least with it staying military the golf course remains!
 
I remember DOTS and tampax tower , I was in FLINT sqn .Bros were in the charts and the type 23 wasnt in service . I was a Golly before seeing the light and going to the Submarine service .
 
I was at DRYA ... sorry, Southwick Park, last month for a game of golf and guess what - Dot's still there! She says that she gets less trade in the afternoon (fit Army types) and MUCH more at night (very drunk and hungry Army types).

And the place is heaving with Pongoes. But it's good to see it being used, and there's lots of crabs to take the piss out of!
 
D108 said:
I fucked a wren on top of the GYM at Dryad
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Only one? Geeze sherlock, your letting the team down :wink:

My 'mate' was on 'lifeguard' duty when she got caught with her BF having a bit of fun during 'water sports' in the Gym's pool.

I always use to fall asleep in the 2050 modules, always too cold for me! Always got bored in the CACs SIMs during training, had to sit there for hours waiting for a seat on the plot to open. Always dreaded it, they would put me in with the AC grrrrrrr.......bored 8O

Frigging Sonar Modules (2030) were worse than the Radar ones. Mind you, listening to the EW's blow that whistle would wake me up every few minutes :oops:
 
Went through WA training in Lewin Block at Dryad - happy days :)

....followed several years later by AC training - sorry you didn't like working with us J_D lol !! Hope I never bored you during CACS training ;)


The GYM? Twas always the Squash Courts in my day 8O
 
As an ex RP (1976 - 1990) I seemed to spend every other year at Dryad. I always remember doing security rounds, we had to walk around with little cards, telling us where to go ... and what to look out for when we got there. At Tampax towers (What was that building really called?) the card said we had to check the bushes, and look out for "scullduggery". I never saw any scullduggery, just loads of sailors shagging.

On my ADAWS course we had one lad (nameless) who went ashore regularly to Cosham and get rat arsed. He would then wobble back to Dryad on a push bike he had nicked. By the time we passed out, there were seven bikes abandonded in the woods around the golf course.

We did a fire exercise once. The fire was in the post box outside the SRs mess. We had fearnaught suitmen. An attack party, support party. A first aid party. HQ1 Closed up, the full monty. The little red hand cart pushed round... For a fire in a post box.
 
The Dryad Fire Party reminded me of the one at Mercury. There was a POMEM whose permanent job was the maintenance of the Land Rover Fire Engine - must have been a good number 'cos he rebuilt a Riley in the garage in 18 months. Fire Party was just about half the Duty Watch, which was POOD, OOD (a Chief) and lots of New Entries. Drill every night, in some obscure corner of the grounds, about 25 firefighters in all, including two in Fearnought suits and 4 or 5 running around looking for nearest hydrant.

Security Patrols too at Mercury.... another New Entries job until the 80s. Most of the Duty Watch were allocated 2 hour watches through the night, to walk around with a helmet and little stick - well, a main road passed right through the middle! Apart from the Main House (the Wardroom), there were the Instructional Blocks (one of which had a reputation for being haunted) and a cluster of Nissen Huts at what was called North Camp. We were allocated a bunk (hopefully with a dry mattress) in a Nissen hut near the (purely decorational) gate and there always seemed to be some kind of food going. In the 60s, the trainee WRNS lived at Soberton, so not much to entertain those on patrol. In the 70s, the WRNS had a nice new building within the main Mercury site, and then the fun was between 2230 and 0100, walking around the grassy avenue called the 'Broadwalk'.
 
You certainly had it easy as fire party at Mercury Geoff, no land rover in my day, both the pump and trailer pushed/pulled by hand, my job was the throttle man on the pump, great fun trying to judge the advance of water along the hoses so that the lads at the business end could get the nozzle on before the pressure hit them. OOD, a Lt in my day used to time the whole thing from call out to water coming out of the nozzle, I can't remember the optimum time, but if you didn't acheive it they would call you out again later.

There were water tanks, left over from the War, along with the Nissan huts, which were supposed to be used for the water supply, of course depending on where the "Fire" was it could take longer to run hose and so increase the time taken, one duty watches solution was to draw water from the ornamental pond outside of the Wardroom, result a very fast run, an empty pond, some high and dry ducks, an unamused Commander who loved those ducks and a duty watch fireparty who spent the next few evenings cleaning and refilling the pond.

Ah! Happy Days
 
You're right, Janner, I got my years mixed up there. In the 60s (when I was an N.E.) it all worked as you say, stopwatch and all. The POMEM and Land Rover were there when I went back there in 1981 as an RS (and therefore had to do POOD), and again in 1989 when I was a CRS in the SCU, so had to do OOD.
 

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