Series
Admiralty and Ministry of Defence: Naval Intelligence Division and Defence Intelligence...
Catalogue reference: ADM 360
What's it about?
ADM 360
This series consists of files, maps and digital images of deteriorated negatives relating to beach intelligence reports of the coasts and inland waterways of the United Kingdom. They are from a comprehensive survey conducted in the 1950s and...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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ADM 360
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Title (The name of the record)
- Admiralty and Ministry of Defence: Naval Intelligence Division and Defence Intelligence Staff: United Kingdom Beach Intelligence Records: Files, Maps and Photographs
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Date (When the record was created)
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[1941-1966]
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Description (What the record is about)
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This series consists of files, maps and digital images of deteriorated negatives relating to beach intelligence reports of the coasts and inland waterways of the United Kingdom. They are from a comprehensive survey conducted in the 1950s and reports of beach surveys carried out in succeeding years. The majority of the records were photographic negatives, some were in microfilm form. Those degraded were digitised and the JPEG 2000 digital files were included the series as JPEG 2000 files. This is therefore a hybrid series containing both physical and digital records.
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Note (Additional information about the record)
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Some records include earlier material that pre-dates the Operation Sandstone survey.
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Related material (A cross-reference to other related records)
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For the reports generated from the survey data from the negatives see ADM 326
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Board of Admiralty, Hydrographic Department, 1795-1856
- Board of Admiralty, Hydrographic Department, 1863-1964
- Ministry of Defence, Hydrographic Department, 1964-1973
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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55980 digital records, files and maps
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Open
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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From 2005 United Kingdom Hydrographic Office
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
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These records form part of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) Historic Archive formerly held at Taunton (as an authorised place of deposit under section 4(3) of the Public Record Act, 1958) and transferred to The National Archives from 2005.
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Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
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No further accruals are anticipated.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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Operation Sandstone was instituted in 1947 to survey the coast of the British Isles to facilitate re-occupation by the United States (US) in the event of the United Kingdom (UK) being over-run in war. During the Cold War it was feared that Communist Russia would capture the UK if war broke out. It was thus seen fit by the US to know about the coasts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland in order to re-occupy the countries.
The Royal Navy was asked to carry out a survey of the coast including ports and airfields in an operation codenamed Sandstone. The coastline was split up into phases 1-15, and phases split into parts so that every detail was recorded. Ports were not studied in the phases, but separately due to their strategic importance.
The survey team was disbanded in 1966 before the project was completed due to the invalidity of the original strategic concept by that date.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C17012492/
Catalogue hierarchy
Within the department: ADM
Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and related bodies
You are currently looking at the series: ADM 360
Admiralty and Ministry of Defence: Naval Intelligence Division and Defence Intelligence Staff: United Kingdom Beach Intelligence Records: Files, Maps and Photographs