The
Yorkshire coast has been home to at least five aerial bombing and gunnery ranges; one during the
First World War at
RAF Marske, one at
Skipsea, which was brought into use in the 1920s, short-lived bombing ranges at
North Frodingham and
Roos during the Second World War, and the
Cold War range at Cowden. Land at Great Cowden was requisitioned in 1940 for Aldbrough RAC tank range, which involved the permanent removal of some residents. The buildings left in the villages of Great and Little Cowden were then destroyed as part of the creation of the range. The range was used extensively for training during the Second World War, becoming abandoned later, but then, in 1953, the
War Office purchased over of land to develop the range. The site totalled , and used between 1959 and 1998 as a bombing range by the Royal Air Force and
NATO air forces. Cowden was equipped with two target railways, and various static targets on land and on the area of the range out to sea. However, the railway was believed to only have been used for tank training. The range was equipped with four "reinforced concrete quadrant towers", located at , , , and . By 1992, only one of the towers was still standing, and was deemed to be at low risk of destruction. However, the rate of erosion at the site was between June 1994 and July 1997. During the 1980s, the
Building Research Establishment, had a test centre for piles at the site. The test bed was into the
lowland clay till. Erosion of the cliff edge forced the closure of the site in 1998. As the site is being eroded by the action of the North Sea, the beach is often closed whilst Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams deal with the bombs. The RAF had an EoD team based permanently at the site until 2013, when regular visits were instituted instead. In April 2001, the site was also investigated as a possible depository of ash from burnt carcasses of cattle who had contracted foot and mouth disease. Also in 2001, claims were made by military veterans and local people that
depleted uranium (DU) shells were used by
A-10 Tankbuster aircraft on the range. The
Ministry of Defence denied this stating that only two locations in the United Kingdom had been used to fire DU; Eskmeals in
Cumbria and
Kirkcudbright in Scotland. At the same time, there was a desire to convert the site into a nature reserve, which required
No. 5131 (BD) Squadron RAF to start a long programme of deactivating and destroying ordnance left at the site. In February 2021, Brimstone Site Investigation was awarded a £1.5 million contract to clear ordnance from the site over a four-year period. The contract was the first of its kind awarded to a civilian company by the
Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). By the May 2021, they had cleared over 10,000 items or ordnance, with an expected 650,000 items still awaiting disposal. ==Accidents==