For anyone growing up in the 1980s, it was easy to become obsessed with the omnipresent threat of nuclear Armageddon. But nearly sixty years since the Cuban Missile Crisis pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war a hidden world below our feet shows just how close we came.
Amid the Cold War nuclear tensions and a possible strike on and by Britain, volunteers were recruited to work in secluded secret underground bunkers tasked with measuring nuclear blast waves and radioactive fallout before feeding this information back to government bunkers – even if their own chances of survival beyond a few weeks were extremely remote.
Dotted all across our Welsh countryside, these unremarkable concrete structures were built between 1956 and 1965 and over 1,563 monitoring posts were constructed at a distance of about 15 miles apart. Thirty-one larger HQ and control centres were also built including the Swansea West Cross AAOR (anti-aircraft operations room) which is adjacent to a TA Centre.
Designed to hold three people, the ‘Top Secret’ bunkers were dug nine feet down and were a reinforced concrete structure measuring about 15ft by 8ft. Only a weathered concrete and steel hatch is visible above ground with its iconic flaking green paint and rusty metal hatches. In fact you may have already walked straight passed one.
All the sites were closed down when the ROC was stood down in 1991, as the Cold War came to end with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The vast majority of the monitoring posts were demolished, left to fall into disrepair, or vandalised and then flooded with rainwater but several have been preserved by private individuals, trusts or heritage agencies.
Several have also been but on the market over the years for between £17,000 and £25,000 but at just 250 square metres, over four metres below ground and only accessible by metal ladder, it’s uses are limited.
You can see inside the bunker here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhhbfM6Ylc
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