SUBTERRAINEAN UK

Throughout the United Kingdom, sitting deep below the surface ground, lie many of our countries surviving cold war bunkers, many individuals believe that many of these facilities are still in operation, to some extent.

During the 1940's through to the 60's these facilities were secretly built with the intent of regional governments to have a safe place to keep the country running, if circumstances so required. The bunkers that survive today are still kept in a good condition, many are now museums, factories or other modern day businesses.

Para.Science have visited a number of North West and North Wales facilities, many photographs and video shots have been taken, along with a recorded conversation with a caretaker at one of the buildings included on this page.

Individuals wishing to view or explore the surrounding areas of these facilities, do so at their own risk. Many of these buildings are still under government control, and arrest and prosecution could well occur.

Many thanks to the Subterranea Britannica's Research Study Group (RSG) for the use of this information and assistance in finding these sites. More information from throughout the country is available at www.subbrit.org.uk

The following bunkers are situated in the North West of England and North Wales.

FRODSHAM HILL, FRODSHAM, CHESHIRE

The Frodsham bunker, built in the early 1950s, was originally the Royal Artillery's Anti-Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR) for the Mersey anti-aircraft zone. In more recent years, the two-storey bunker has been used by Cheshire County Council as a conference facility, known as The Beacons, and as an emergency centre. We were able to visit this site in the summer of 2000. The central `operations well' of the AAOR could still be seen, along with the three-sided gallery around it. This is one of the few AAORs still to have its original curved glass galleries. This central well, extending the full height of the bunker, served as an auditorium for the conference facility. The dual role of the bunker was reflected in the technical area at the back of the auditorium: it served as both a projection booth and a communications centre. A 16mm film projector sat beside ECN Kilostream NTUs and an EMP-screened Mitel SX2000 PABX (still working). The County Council has since donated quite a number of cold war artefacts from this bunker to the Hack Green museum.

HACK GREEN, NANTWICH, CHESHIRE.

See also Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker for Para.Science photos of the complex.

Hack Green started life as a GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) radar station in World War II. After a period in mothballs in the late 1940s, it was resurrected - again as a GCI station - as part of the project. It was equipped with Type 7 VHF radar and a two-level R6 bunker. The site developed into a major air traffic control station - civil and military - known as Mersey Radar. It operated continuously until the mid 1960s.

In the late 1970s, the Home Office took over the site and used it to build SRHQ 10.2 (which became RGHQ 10.2 in about 1985). Every trace of the radar site was removed, except the reinforced concrete box that formed the the Rotor bunker. A new two-level semi-sunk bunker was built in it. A mezzanine floor divides up part of the lower floor, giving three levels in part of the bunker. In total there is about 30,000 square feet of floor space.

A generator building was added to the side of the bunker. The two large green-painted steel plates act as splinter guards to protect the air intakes against flying debris. Behind each of these guards there is a Dawson-Keith generator set comprising a 6-cylinder water-cooled Cummins diesel engine, with electronic governor, and a 250 kVA 3-phase alternator with electronic voltage regulation. These generators can be operated individually or in parallel (using either automatic or manual synchronisation) under remote control from the switchroom in the main part of the bunker. (This is a more sophisticated standby power arrangement than existed at most RGHQs, which typically had two diesel sets of 125 kVA capacity or thereabouts, which could not be paralleled.)

The 37-metre (122 ft.) high radio tower was designed by Eve Construction to carry a variety of antennas, including a `Chinese hat' UHF discone for RAF ground-to-air communications, 18 assorted VHF and UHF dipoles, Yagis etc., (side-mounted on the top 10 metres of the tower) and two large BBC microwave dishes at the 18.6m level.

In the end the tower seems to have supported rather fewer aerials than it was designed for: the RAF discone at the top, two 1500 MHz shrouded Yagis to provide ECN(RN2) links to the Old Pale hilltop site, a folded dipole for the Army's Mould home defence radio network, and about half a dozen assorted BBC aerials - but no dishes.

Nowadays space on the radio tower is leased to communications firms. IN 1998 HackGreen acquired two large dishes. The air filtration is unusually modern too. It uses ceramic filters, rather than the charcoal filters or air scrubbers used elsewhere. The generators and the air conditioning are maintained in full working order and tested regularly. This bunker, like most of the RGHQs, was sold off in the early 1990s. It was then and still is in exceptionally good condition.

It was acquired in about 1994 by OmnicorpLtd. Part of the bunker has been turned into a museum, housing both radar and civil defence exhibits. This started as the private collection of curator Rodney Siebert, and was available to individuals and groups by appointment only. The museum opened to the public as the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker on 10thApril 1998

BORRAS, WREXHAM, CLWYD, NORTH WALES.

Borras was the Royal Observer Corps' No.17 Group HQ, in the UKWMO Western Sector. At one time it acted for the Home Office as the North Wales RGHQ. Hence the massive 1970s refit. It was cleared by English Heritage and the parts stored for future use. The bunker was sold in 1997 to ``dance artists / remixers K Klass'', who have converted it into a recording studio.

GRANGE CAVERN, HOLYWELL, FLINTSHIRE, NORTH WALES.

WWII RAF bomb store. Was a military museum in the 1980s. Now empty.

BIRKENHEAD CONTROL, BOROUGH ROAD, BIRKENHEAD.

Birkenhead Corporation Control was located in a purpose built Civil Defence Corps Control Centre beneath the Technical College Theatre (later re-named the Glenda Jackson Theatre in honour of one of the Wirral's most famous daughters), in Borough Road, Birkenhead. It was opened in 1952 and used until 1968. It was later reactivated in the 1980's as the Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Emergency Centre and refurbished in 1988 with a standby generator, forced air ventilation, blast valves and two water tanks. (Two sets of blast doors were fitted during construction in 1952, these were not upgraded).

Following the refurbishment Merseyside County Standby was co-located at the site. At this time the centre was also fitted with an Autex 1600, 100 CMX and a TXS 50 ECN unit. In 1990 The Wirral Emergency Centre was moved to Westminster House, Birkenhead and the bunker under the Glenda Jackson Theatre was closed; at that time Merseyside lost it's standby centre.

The Glenda Jackson Theatre itself is now also closed and the Wirral Metropolitan College is due to close in the near future. It is likely that the site will be demolished. The bunker is currently used by the college as a recording studio and rehearsal room with several structural changes being made since the closure of the emergency centre. Entrance to the bunker was from the main corridor linking the college with the theatre, the blast doors have now been removed and replaced with ordinary wooden doors. These entrances were in the form of airlocks opening into a small room with a second door diagonally opposite into the bunker. The first air lock opened into the 'Dispatch Room' where the PABX was located. From the despatch room the ventilation plant room was on the left and the male toilets were accessed through the plant room. The internal solid walls forming these three rooms have now been removed and four smaller rooms have been created in the space. These are used as rehearsal rooms, one is empty, one contains a double bass and two contain drum kits.

On the right hand side of the former dispatch room was a door into one of two Control Rooms (Control Room 2) but the doorway has now been walled up. The narrow MSX Room was also accessed from the right hand side of the Dispatch Room, this now acts as a corridor into the other rooms. A message hatch into Control Room 2 has been filled in. A door at the far end of the MSX room opens into the 'Message Room' which is now empty apart from a piano. The emergency exit in the far corner of the room has been bricked up and the two message hatches into Control Room 2 have been enlarged to form a wide open doorway between the two rooms. Control Room 2 contains various items of audio equipment.

A doorway linking Control Room 2 with Control Room 1 has been blocked up and access to the Control Room 1 can now only be made through the Message Room. Control Room 1 has been converted into a recording studio with audio mixers and tape decks. Two message hatches between the Message Room and Control Room 1 have been replaced with a large glass window. From control room 1 there is also a door into the 'Liaison Room' and through the second air lock back into the basement corridor. These rooms are used for storage as are the former women's toilets which were accessed from Control Room 1.

The standby generator was located in a room outside the bunker and has now been removed. While most sirens were removed in the 1990's that at this site along with the control cabinet still survive in the college lift room. Inside the cabinet there is a WB1400 carrier receiver that was used to operate the siren remotely. The siren can be key operated and we were able to test it briefly, any longer and the college would have been evacuated. According to the log this was the first siren test since 1992. The siren is located on the roof of the lift room in a metal cage. The control cabinet and the siren have now been donated to the Hack Green museum where they will be installed in 2002.

CHESTER WWII RAILWAY CONTROL CENTRE

WW2 protected Railway Control Centre still stands in the station car park. The building is a rectangular windowless concrete blockhouse. It is now used to store spare parts by Railtrack contractors. It has a dog leg air lock at each end with steel gas tight doors. Inside one side is a large rectangular room running the length of the building. There is a central spine corridor with smaller rooms along the right hand side. Internally there are no original features remaining apart from the doors.

MOLD EMERGENCY CENTRE (STANDBY)

The bunker at Mold is situated underneath Mold Fire Station. It was built in 1966 as Flintshire's County Control becoming the standby centre for Clwyd when the counties changed in 1974. It was taken out of use in the mid 1990's and is now completely empty having been stripped of all fixtures and fittings. The fire brigade are planning to refurbish it but it has recently suffered from severe flooding which has brought parts of the ceiling down and revealed some asbestos.The entrance is at the side of the fire station where there is a flight of steps down to a heavy steel and concrete blast door. This gives access to a large room immediately under the three fire engine bays. It is unclear if the room was originally this size or if partitions were removed when the bunker was stripped. There is a doorway at the far end leading to the rest of the bunker.

LLANDUDNO JUNCTION, NORTH WALES.

Llandudno Junction was the designated site for the Home Office's RGHQ for north Wales, but in the end the building was never converted. The original plan was for the refrigerated cold store at Llandudno Junction to be used. It was of the same type as other UK buildings. Conversion, although not ideal, was a well known way of progressing. Some thought was given to the use of the twin tunnels at Rhydymwyn, but this never materialised, principally because of the cost. Had it been used it would have borne a great resemblance to the south Wales HQ at Brackla, which used twin ammunition storage tunnels of a similar type. In fact the old ROC HQ at Borras was converted and used, and although this was far too small it actually became the RGHQ for North Wales. When it was sold off and the interior was stripped out, although it did retain many artefacts of ROC parentage it also sported a great deal of brand new RGHQ communications and other gear, so it had definitely been used for this purpose in its last throes of life. The applicable message transfer cabinets etc., were also installed there.

This article was reproduced in MAPIT's Phenomena magazine in 2001