Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker
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Kelvedon Hatch Kelvedon Hatch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Brentwood in south Essex, England. It is situated just north of Pilgrims Hatch, approximately to the north of Brentwood and is surrounded by Metropolitan Green Belt. In 2019 the ...
, in the
Borough of Brentwood The Borough of Brentwood is a local government district with borough status in Essex, England. The borough is named after its main town of Brentwood, where the council is based; it includes several villages and the surrounding rural area. T ...
in the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
county of
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, is a large underground bunker maintained during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
as a potential regional government headquarters. Since being decommissioned in 1992, the bunker has been open to the public as a tourist attraction, with a museum focusing on its Cold War history.


Building and intended purpose

The three-level bunker was first built on compulsory-purchased farmland as an air defence station (an 'R4' Sector Operations Control or SOC) as part of the RAF
ROTOR ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...
air defence project. Upon the demise of the ROTOR SOC the remaining Nuclear Reporting Cell and UKWMO elements were incorporated into a Home Office 'Regional Seat of Government' or RSG. The bunker was able to hold various numbers (in the hundreds) of military and civilian personnel, the numbers changing over the years as the role of the building changed from SOC to RSG and, in its later years, 'Regional Government Headquarters' or RGHQ. In the event of a nuclear strike the RSG/RGHQs would be tasked to organise the survival of the population and continue government operations.


History

The Kelvedon Hatch bunker was built in 1952–53 as part of
ROTOR ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...
. ROTOR was a programme to improve and harden Britain's air defence network. It was constructed by Peter Lind & Company of London who still trades today. The bunker was a hardened (three level 'R4') Sector Operations Centre (SOC) for RAF Fighter Command. It was to provide command and control of the London Sector of Fighter Command. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the UK government (Home Office) maintained the bunker as an emergency regional government defence site. Eventually, in the early 1990s, when nuclear threats in general were seen as diminished, the bunker was sold back to the farming family who had owned the land in the 1950s. It is now a Cold War museum and retains many of its original ROTOR and RSG/RGHQ features.


Inside the bunker

The bunker is built underground and the entrance is through an ordinary-looking
bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...
(a standard ROTOR 'Guard House') set amongst trees. The inside of the bungalow leads to a tunnel entering the R4 at its lowest floor (of three). Above are two more floors, the 'hill' which covers it, and a radio mast some distance away. The bunker was able to accommodate some hundreds of personnel (the numbers changing as function and form varied over the years) and could sustain them for up to three months. The bunker has air conditioning and heating (using the original ROTOR AC-Plant but replacing the original coolant with a more 'modern' type .1980s, its own water supply (mains water and its own deep bore hole) and generators, and was equipped with many types of radio equipment, protected ( EMP) telecommunications, teleprinter (MSX) networks and various military systems: MOULD (system to provide communications between Regular Army, TA Battalions and the Army District and Regional Headquarters) and CONRAD (radio government communications systems post nuclear strike) etc.


Modern times

By 1992, the bunker was no longer required and decommissioned. The land was sold back to the original owners, the Parrish family. It has now been renovated and made into a museum and tourist attraction; many locals appreciate the irony of the many brown tourist road signs in the area, clearly directing people to the "Secret Nuclear Bunker". The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
TV show ''
Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...
'' featured the signs. The bunker was used as a "Killer's Location" for '' The Murder Game''. Both the living quarters and the operational zone were set up for the "Killer's Game" in the finale. It also played a significant role in an episode of ''
New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural comedy drama, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall (until its final year, when it was handled by Headstrong Pictures), and broadcast on BBC On ...
'' titled "The Queen's Speech", first broadcast on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
on 20 October 2014. In 2010, the independent British post-apocalyptic/horror film ''S.N.U.B!'' was filmed in the bunker. The 2016 full-motion video game '' The Bunker'', which uses live-action footage, was fully filmed inside the bunker.


Gallery

Image:Nuclear Bunker (4).jpg, Image:Nuclear Bunker (7).jpg, Image:Nuclear Bunker (13).jpg, Image:Nuclear Bunker (3).jpg, Image:Nuclear Bunker (25).jpg,


See also

*
Central Government War Headquarters The Central Government War Headquarters (CGWHQ) is a complex built underground as the United Kingdom's emergency government war headquarters – the hub of the country's alternative seat of power outside London during a nuclear war or conflic ...
*
Civil Contingencies Secretariat The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), created in July 2001 and disbanded in July 2022, was the executive department of the British Cabinet Office responsible for civil defence, emergency planning in the United Kingdom. The role of the sec ...
*
RAF Rudloe Manor RAF Rudloe Manor, formerly RAF Box, was a Royal Air Force station north-east of Bath, England, between the settlements of Box and Corsham, in Wiltshire. It was one of several military installations in the area and covered three dispersed sites. ...
*
Corsham Computer Centre The Corsham Computer Centre (CCC) is an underground British Ministry of Defence (MoD) installation in Corsham, Wiltshire, built in the 1980s. According to the MoD, the centre "processes data in support of the Royal Navy". The centre has been simi ...
*
Continuity of government Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of a catastrophic event such as nuclear war. Continuity of government was developed by the Br ...
* Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker *
Wartime Broadcasting Service The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the ...


References


External links


Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker official website
* Subterranea Britannica
Kelvedon Hatch
* Subterranea of Great Britain

{{Coord, 51, 40, 18.5, N, 0, 15, 23.6, E, region:GB_scale:5000, display=title Government buildings completed in 1953 Buildings and structures in Essex Emergency management in the United Kingdom Museums in Essex Military and war museums in England Cold War museums in the United Kingdom Continuity of government Nuclear bunkers in the United Kingdom British Defence Forces