If you live in the south/south East

[coulesy]

thanks Bournemouthprepper plenty to think about and a few days are in order, and what are your views on cacheing in the surrounding area i.e tools, equipment seeds, stores etc

thanks again Ric

[Bournemouthprepper]

call me BP, everyone else does

i'm not the best one to ask about cacheing, not a big fan, too much risk of losing expensive kit... i'm a big fan of keeping my kit close and locked! i think if your able to dig a nice deep hole, and have a good memory then its a good idea!

Any questions don't be afraid to PM me, or post a new topic if we havent covered it already! i'm like a little fountain of knowledge me

BP

[coulesy]

Will do BP thanks

Ric

[Slimslim]

Along the lines of national trust castles what about bodium castle,
PRO`s
-easy defended
-surrounded by water
-lots of local trees
-just out side town
-in fairly good nick
-great vantage and veiw point of local surroundings
CON`s
-no local wild food source( that i could see)
-no real local wildlife
-only one way in and out

Love Bodium Castle Although haven't been for a couple of years...

But yeah its a pretty decent place, BP I believe that if you wanted to you could probably lower the Porticulus but not sure if you could get it back up again Bridge over the moat is a simple wood construct build by the NT so that could be defended easily by smashing it apart and making your own expedient bridge that you could drag out from inside the castle itself when you got visitors. A lot of the castle has still intact rooms around but I would imagine that one can simply pitch up tents in the courtyard areas or build some prefabs in there. Also in terms of food the area around the castle could be very quickly used as crop fields and pastures but small scale veg patches and smaller animals such as chickens, goats etc... again can be used inside the castle giving you some kind of sustainability should you enter a siege.

Secondary exits....Not sure if there are any official but thats not to stop you throwing a rope ladder on a wall not being attacked/or for what ever reason of evacuating climbing down and jumping into the moat to swim the last meter or so....Though to be fair that probably would work for everyone so maybe some kind of old school pulley system to take people and supplies down in a emergency situation...

In terms of defence, its a great spot! There's the obvious fact of the castle and moat itself impossible to breech unless one has some kind of Anti-Tank Rocket launcher or a bloody tank itself. But thats not to say you can't factor that into any kind of defence planning... But if memory serves me right there is a small medieval weapon display in one of the rooms (Not sure though! Needs to be confirmed) that could be put to good use. And then the other obvious fact that though we live in a region with very few firearms there is nothing to say that if when the SHTF and you take a castle that you don't neglect the tactics built up from our forefathers over the years in terms of defending castles. Several decent crossbows would make such a structure easy to defend as thats what it was built for Then there is the vanguard of the defence works which is the WW2 Pillbox facing the car park and road, all it needs is a new door, a watchman or two and a walkie talkie and hey presto instant enemy harrasment before they even get started...

But yeah it is a pretty good option for a BOL as long as the locals don't beat you to it....I reckon that you would have to get there or at least in the area before major news of a SHTF moment spread out...Maybe that last notice camping holiday in East Sussex you've always been going on about

Actually I think I may go back over this lovely little place and get some plans together

[coulesy]

Hey slim just read your post and a good assement by all accounts, i have been thinkin that there is far to many questions that needs answering so i have talked the wife into a day out lol so she can test her knew camera lense, i will post a report up in a new thead when i have been.

[Bournemouthprepper]

I think we really need to create like Regional BOL...

Obviously only if TSHTF BIG style, but a way that people who kinda know each other can help each other to survive? could do with the back up

[coulesy]

BP a communal B.O.L is a grand idea think in the sense that ur primary B.O.L gets comprimised and you need a safe place to go to head to the reginal one or after the inital SHTF has happend and you are looking for a safer place you get the idea

[Bournemouthprepper]

We really need to get a good coms net going! but its so dam expensive!!!

[coulesy]

msn or fb chat is free lol

[Bournemouthprepper]

Dunno whether fb chat will be availilbe during TEOTWAWKI haha