Porton Down

Porton Down is a large science and defence campus in Wiltshire, just north-east of the village of Porton near Salisbury. It covers 7,000 acres of downland and contains two government facilities: the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the UK Health Security Agency. Since 2018, part of the site has also housed Porton Science Park, a business park for private companies in health, life science and defence. The land lies close to the MoD airfield at Boscombe Down and is marked on some maps as a danger area. The site has been a centre for military research for over a century. It began in 1916 as a station for testing chemical weapons in response to German use of gas in the First World War. By 1918 it had grown into a large camp with hundreds of staff. After the war it continued as a permanent research site, expanding its work to include anti-gas defences and civil air-raid precautions. During the Second World War it studied new nerve agents captured from Germany and ran secret biological weapons programmes. Visitors cannot enter the secure areas but can see the landscape and some of the older buildings. The downs around the campus offer wide views over Wiltshire. The site includes laboratories that now hold samples of dangerous pathogens such as Ebola and anthrax. Porton Science Park provides modern facilities for private firms working alongside government scientists. The area remains a place where cutting-edge research continues in both defence and public health.