The Secrets of Underground Britain - MODERN MYSTERIES
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2013
- Journey deep underground to Veryan, one of the few remaining Royal Observer Corps posts ... Kelvden Hatch in Essex ... Corsham ammunition depot ... the mysterious Pear Tree House hiding in a regular housing estate ... and a secret seed store designed to protect crops from biological attack!
Those "bagging" on Nick Catford, for his use of "err" and "ahh" should really lighten up. He has a tremendous wealth and passion on the subject of "Subterranea Britannica" we all should be so lucky to have his level of passion and knowledge for our own subjects of interest. I've watched several documentaries where he provides expert testimony and am quite amazed by his depth of knowledge (pardon the pun). His passion and knowledge more than make up for his lack of polish as a "professional" presenter. When you watch these documentaries about Cold War Bunkers and then watch the classic post apocalypse "Threads" You gain insight into how they may or may not have worked.
I agree, but it doesn't prevent my skin from crawling every time he errrrrr
CompetitiveAudio to be honest I didn't really notice, I was just too interested in what he was saying.
No different to having a conversation with a man down the pub.
Dammit! now that you mentioned it, i noticed it. Ughh! thanks . now its like listening to rainman
6 years late but I would love to listen to that guy talk for hours!
Excellent documentary and very well researched. Given that Nick Catford is a renowned academic, with considerable knowledge of underground structures, he made a great difference to what would otherwise have been a dully programme.
Shame they played down High Wycombe and didn't mention any of the other major bunkers (Northwood, etc) or the latest generation of really deep structures, but Corsham kind of dominated. Nick gave the clue when he said that the latest bunkers were effectively underground office blocks, butthere is such a thing as national security
Justice 4 Thomas O'Shaughnessy, or another royal baby for us to keep, get the royal family and the hangers on to fuck imho
ThePyrogenica I don't understand why they'd build nuclear bunkers in the exact spot where the nukes would all be targeted lol. Surely you'd build your bunkers out in the middle of nowhere as far away from a hotspot as possible. All very well while your safe in your bunker but what about when it comes time to go back outside and everything's glowing eerilie green. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but if there was something to it, anyone in the know won't be in this country, because there will be nothing left... They'd be off on some tropical island somewhere a thousand miles away from where the action would be. Just because someone lives in nights bridge and drives a Merc doesn't mean theyre getting a spot in the bunker lol
I always laugh when they say"keep the government going after the war" these places were for the government only and not the masses, who were all likely to be killed in a nuclear war.
Be hard to govern when 99% of the people are dead.
But these vids are educational and entertaining to watch, hats off to the engineers who built them.
They don't care about the general population, as long as they can save their own greedy arses.
This bunker is just like many others in the UK, I live a few hundred board away from one. They would have been manned by ordinary men who had volunteered to serve in the Observer Corps. Nothing to do with privilege or elites.
As the saying goes, WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones
Time to clean up Corsham we may need it in the next few months 👌
I joined the R.A.F. in 1968 and after a twelve month apprenticeship I worked at raf rudloe manor (corsham) for 18 months. My best mate and I were full on transport enthusiasts. There wasn't much I didn't know about aviation long before I joined I started gliding at Porthcawl at 13 years old. I believe in UFOs and always have done all my life. I'm 68 now and despite the fact that anything airbourne in the sky that I can hear, see and sometimes feel, I always look for and usually identify what it is. I've never seen anything unusual. The same goes for rudloe manor. Only recently I was quite shocked to hear about it being britains area 51. I was in communications and nothing much got past us whereever we were. So what do you want to know about rudloe ? If it was a quiet night shift I would disapear into the escape route and explore the vast underground system. How deep ? about 100 foot. Is there a railway track coming from the main line in box tunnel and terminating at a platform. ? No, there's two tracks, one each side of the platform. I'm sorry but I cannot say I heard or saw anything unusual regarding UFOs. I wish I could as I've been a long time and I would blow the damn whistle. Ive written about what I got upto in the RAF and it's in a A5 booklet. Im Peter Griffiths and you can have the files and print it yourself (its free) . You dont have to print it as you can read it off the screen. I'm looking for a means of sending it to people ( like as an attachment on an e-mail). I'm on facebook.
I would love to read your booklet and memoirs, but it won't be easy to find you on Facebook. Is there a way you could publically upload it somewhere and post a link; or perhaps post a link to your Facebook profile?
Could you upload it on to Amazon? ;)
I'd like a copy of your book
Fantastically interesting and well put together programme.
Yes +1
I’d like to know his thoughts of mudflood and Tartaria.
Absolutely awesome , as they say you never know what is under your feet , totally interesting , thank you for sharing x
Lister engines are still used today, when I was building "Jack Up" rigs in Singapore most of the equipment installed was made in the USA but the Lister cold start (diesel/compressor) was hidden in the back of the compressor room, this equipment was used to start the rig up from a "dead" situation.
What a really well put together programme. I found it very interesting. Thank you.
No no ,Thank U.
Fascinating, thanks for posting
Some years ago I lived next door to a guy who made the cabinets for electrical things at Kelvedon hatch.. He was still sworn to secrecy but nearing the end of his life told me bless him.. we both lived only a few miles away from that large underground centre
Cool video!
I love anything to do with bunkers.
(The first guy talking at the beginning looks like he's related to Sly Stallone)
We still ran Sylvester type plug and cable mini exchanges in the New South Wales State Emergency Service and Civil Defence regional offices, they were removed in 1993 and I was one of the last trainers for them.
We ran tempest shielded teleprinters and all radios ran through EMP cable protectors.
Did some voluntary work for Nick McCamley at Monkton Farliegh mine, smaller sister of Corsham many years ago. Great times underground, hard work assembling conveyers. clearing areas for tours and clearing railway sidings but parties were fun! Manod mine was interesting as well when we went up there for a look around.
Farleigh was fun wasn't it?, Manod was wet and cold, got soaked crawling under the gate, Cheers, J.
Monkton farleigh is a lovely place to go
I worked in a bunker at Greenway lane in Cheltenham in the 80s. I installed a corded switchboard due to the EMP problem, a later solution to get round this was the TEMPEST shielding system. The place was mostly derelict with an observation platform still with maps from WW2. It was quite strange and eerie being alone inside, the blast door key was a foot long. If the nuke fell, the comms backup was the switchboard and private wires, CB and amature radio sets. It is now a part underground fancy private house, should never been allowed it sold cheap and was part of our heritage.
FYI the Tempest system is still Restricted information.
It can't be too restricted or classified, it's all over google, lol
You’re a Cold War Hero👍🏻👍🏽🇺🇸🇬🇧
@@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR no infornation is restricted COLLABORATOR.
Was this linked in any way to the bunker up at Leckhampton Hill on the Cotswolds Way?
The toilet paper said "Government Property: Use Both Sides". haha
Standard issue of 3 sheets per session...once up, once down, one polish.
Love it at 7:52 with the lady using a bit of string to pull up a message!
Those where the days :)
"COR" sham! I worked for BT for a while in 1973 and spent a week in Portsmouth learning how what was then the country's largest manual trunk exchange worked. Compared to the board in Corsham it was tiny...
Quality vid - Cheers for sharing !!! :)
Great video loved every minute of it.
I live on a council estate all the grim on the walls and windows would protect me from a nuke so I am not worried at all.
+ The piss in the hallways would neutralise the radiation. All you need is a box-room full of Pot Noodles and your laughing mate.
Ok
I wish you could enjoy the freedom of owning your own 30 acres wood lot here where I live.
So, because you live in a council house, you don't bother cleaning?
You too 🥤 popa’ a
I'd dare say, that the more seed banks we, as a species build, the better chance we have of not fouling it up for ourselves; it is a very good idea, but might be far less than what could be done, and what would be needed by a long shot.
There is hope then :3
I remember the time the wall came down . But it was just some minutes on a news broadcast . The Bunkers and Corsham blow my mind how set up they were prepared for . Old telecoms like that were sitting idle in exchanges where I work so it is familiar
A couple freinds and I came across an old private bunker/fallout shelter while hiking near Talladega national forest. It was near an abandoned home that had partially collapsed. The entrance was a thick metal hatch that was made to hold soil, assuming it was so vegetation would grow to conceal it. My friend noticed how the growth was in a perfect square, different from the surrounding growth. We poked around and located a metal ring partially buried in the dirt and the hatch opened partially when he pulled it. It creaked open revealing a set of steps leading down into the darkness. We had no 🔦 torches so we weren't about to go down into the thing. We definately returned the next day armed with lanterns, torches and a couple pistols. 😁
It was damp but no standing water.
There were 3 rooms and they all appeared to have been wired for electricity. If there was a generator somewhere we never located it.
There appeared to be sleeping quarters with a small niche that had a drain in its corner (no idea where it drained to), a large storage room and an area with a sink and also had a sheet metal overhang that appeared to be a vent. We looked aboveground but never found where the vent came up. I suppose it's still out there in the forest, unless it's since been reclaimed. At the time the woods were in the process of reclaiming it for itself. We stayed long enough to explore a bit and burn a big fat tater.
We realized most of it was covered in black mold so we left and never returned. Looking back we should have went in armed with large pumps full of Clorox and made ourselves a clubhouse bunker.
Would have been cool to have found a generator and got the lights and all to work.
I was based at a ROC monitoring post at Donington on Bain, Lincolnshire for 5 years until disbandment in 1991. Damp and horrid place. In the event of a nuclear attack, I'd have rather taken my chances outside than down there. I also served at the ops room in Fiskerton, Lincolnshire; A large bunker complex.
I grew up in Newark upon Trent 👍
you probably would have covered and monitored
Staythope etc - Kilowatt valley from Fiskerton ?!
These places should be saved and maintained for future use, I am sure they could be used today for hospital and safe areas (COVID-19).
Not really known sites are long abandoned and very run down i.e. not suitable for occupations. Also entrances are small with limited access for defensive purposes.
Cool doc. Really enjoyed it thanks
Kelvedon Hatch is about 5 miles from me. Fascinating place. I have also been to the Scottish one. Great places to visit.
My dad fitted these bunkers out in the 60s and 70s as a GPO telephone engineer under the official secrets act and just before he died in 2013 I asked him about these bunkers and he said it was all very hush at the time and that careless talk cost lives! He took what he did and the official secrets act that he signed very seriously even after all that time [or he didn't trust me his only son] I hope it was the former!
Good documentary, well presented. Would love to tour them myself!
Err.
The bunkers or war rooms as you describe them were actually designated as Regional Seats of Government (RSGs). As a serving police officer I attended a days training, on a regular basis at RSG Bawburgh, just outside Norwich. This training was never to be discussed with anyone outside the force. The buildings were almost identical to the bunkers found on RAF radar sites, such as RAF Neatishead. They all had the "bungalow" at the head of the entrance.
Sounds identical to Keldon hatch. From afar its almost passable as a 50s bungalow, but the various vents and huge foundations the bungalow is on must have been a give away to any aeroflot pilot doing aerial photography.
Great Video👍🏻
Cheers for this upload
Excellent video.
Brilliant video
If I had the money I would definitely buy one instead of a house.
They are freezing cold and damp spooky places
Your going to need a lot of cash .
I agree but realistically they aren't at all practical for everyday living.
@@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR Bit like my bedroom...
I've visited Kelvedon Hatch. I'd thoroughly recommend a visit, if cold war bunkers are your 'thing'. Wonderful experience.
The presentation is both professional and articulate, very well done. You're great on camera with a very good meter in your narration. The camera work is also great combined with very good editing. Thank you for a great video I really enjoyed it.
love the guy from the water board
I was part of the RoC many moons ago when i was about 18/19 I loved it, i discovered I was good at writing backwards! lol
Ah, you guys had it relatively easy! I was stuck in a post! No.4 GRP Colchester & No.23 GRP Durham. Seeing the post again brought back memories.
Me too! I was 16 when I joined in 1969.
So interesting. Corsham was amazing.
It IS good to know that civil servants would get their perfectly shaped and portioned pat of butter everyday. How comforting!
The last operation was quite seedy. There's a lot of room for growth.
I wonder how many bunkers have gone undiscovered to this day?
xboxboff .....Quite a few in England . And a lot of new ones in the U.S.
@roman sepiol they reckon there is over 1100 cold war ROC Posts that still exist but some people don't know about some of them because to the untrained eye they look like manhole covers for drainage
,, that information is classified if I told you I'd have to shoot you"
Most the old ones are flooded or vandalised set fire to and falling apart . There's a lot moved by farmers just plowed over even the gun box as well it's criminal really to have such history distroyed!. ? Some bunkers haven't been able to be demolished but there not bunkers there just blast bunkers to prevent a domino effect if one building went up the seroundng blast mound and blast bunkers material would stop the flaming material from damaging the building next to it!. It's quite a site to see 30 bunkers long 4 wide but it every building far enough to not damage the serouningd bunkers they where making bombs so if one Hut or bunkerblew up up it was refitted pretty quickly because of the war effort, bullets where of dire need.as were bomb. If one bunker blew up you thanked your graces,. And got on with it it was all mecanicanicsed , a_b_c_d_e__f_g_h_i ect ect...smooth as a lump of grease. !?
Not many, I’ve been involved with the UK bunkers for almost 40 years and the days of hiding them are gone and the info is readily available just need to know where to look (support services plans are a good start most bunkers have large water and electricity supplies). Folly books have a selection of books that cover most of the older ones plus Nick is a great one for subtle hints about the ones still in use. Saying that I live in one that was only known very locally and doesn’t even appear on the map of associated sites to do with the system it was part of. Good luck with your hunting.
Hello from the future of 2022. We would like to recommend Veryan be modernized and put back into service. We are having a little bit of a scare from our dear friend in Russia and wouldn't you know it, it's possible Cold War 2.0 is around the corner...
Seriously, excellent video!🙂
Bit of a scare is nothing compared to the living breathing walking nightmare from our powers that be.
we did enter into the 2nd cold War. 😔
Keep them up!!! They prove valuable. Always there. Just in need of upgrade's. From the shelters of the London undergrounds in world war two, to more modern bunkers, now obsolete.
I would play the hell out of "Fallout 5: Vault Corsham"
a very interesting video
45 years ago when i was working for us company in the uk in the midlands we came across one and 200feet above were shops and town yet the so called council had no plan of it so who was for ......its bit like Dudley where old town and streets are still there underground streets shops just were left in 18 hundreds
dude your so underated
Interesting video. I know the Corsham bunker quite well, it doesn’t look like that now especially the telephone exchange which is rotting away now. If you study the conversion of Burlington closely the whole place isn’t very well built (the original Spring quarry conversion was done very well) leading to the conclusion that the contractors involved were using it as a cash cow and, if you think about it, if it was in use and it failed in use who are they going to claim off? It is and always was a white elephant, it’s just a shame the powers that be can’t sort themselves out and convert it into a museum.
Near me in a village called Wawne near hull. there was a nuclear bunker for the local council to use in case of war. Very nearby there is a council estate called bransholme and the guards had orders to shoot people trying to get in if war started. I wonder how much corsham cost to build it's vast so it must be hundreds of millions.
That’s right. Money that could have been spent on fluffy bunny rabbits or snowflake workshops.
“The secrets you weren’t supposed to know”
Umm... yes well, thats kind of what a secret is 🙄
Old sites in their time were secret. Todays sites even more secret
probably over 30 years old so can be released to public so no longer governed by the secrecy act
Amazing facilities.
Been to kelvdon hatch bunker 4 times, great place, kids loved it.
I do like the no-nonsense style of signs and labels they used - "Government property. Use both sides" stamped on every piece of toilet roll...
…and nowhere else can you have as much of a first hands experience of the benefits of savings as with the both sides use of toilet paper indeed! ^^)
Nah that's just standard jewish toilet roll fella.
@@theshamanarchist5441 what the hell are you talking about???
@@jeshkam I'm talking about YOU boyeee.
As soon as something would happen our government MP,s etc would just pull the ladder up and say I'm alright jack. Leaving us all to face the disaster
Probably a good thing, we'd all likely do a better job all together in a few months than all the toffs achieve in a decade... :D
Interesting
Every time u see a man hole or entrance to the side of a hill just imagine what could be in there ? Any main place with water or telecommunications could be one really even if u get the plans of the building doesn't mean they are not there we have been deceived thinking they are just utility buildings when they very well may or may not be that's elite street for u
I calibrated fuel tank instruments under the chalk hills or known as 'The South Downs' near Micheldever in Sussex (?). Could be Hampshire?. Very quiet village and the tanks were loaded by rail--a small spur line of the main London to Brighton rail line. It was very claustrophobic and I was always happy to finish!
Micheldever Station, Hampshire has fuel tanks next to it under the hill.
hidden in plain sight...26 miles of underground best place for hide and seek
There is a former ROC Command Post near here, it's used as a studio these days.
My grandfather built the Humber suspension bridge. Died behind could meet him. My loss . . .
Had actually heard of one being in Manchester city centre, was surprised but, thought location-wise, you could have easily hidden some shelter under the same spot, during the wars. It was supposedly left for a piece of green space, that's why I thought if people had Adersons they'd probably would have tried to take advantage of open spaces like that in a centeral location- especially if cellars or canals wern't an option.
There is one under Manchester, I've been down it..
@@petergrimshaw9248 All the bunker information to has been public knowledge since the 1990s. Would be nice know about their replacements since, however these are the new secrets.
The problem with bunkers is that the concrete/steel is flipping hard to demolish when you are finished with using them. In berlin for example they had to bury the remains of an AA tower under a hill made out of rubble to hide it.
@@petergrimshaw9248 Yeah, sure you have.
@@stevelomas4119 Certainly have.
Wonder if they consulted Windscale/Cellafield for the air-filters, even if it was how not to do them.
This is quite interesting. I'm sure there are similar bases in the US. My question of it all is...at what continuing cost to the American and British tax-payers to maintain and probably upgrade? It's got to be enormously expensive.
No, dude, the rest of the world would say 30 billion looooool!!!
Yeah, there are, Mount Cheyenne complex is one of them. Mount Weather is another. There's probably more as well.
30secondstomarsMBH mount cheyenne isnt disused, they still have the stargate there.
there is raven rock mountain complex south east of the mountain i live on... The bunker is under the mountain an it is massive and a military communications facility it's off limits to the public its protected by armed forces 365 days a year it is said to be a backup for the pentagon.. and they have out posts all over the top of raven rock mountain too big fences with barb wire pointing out so nobody can climb over the fences
Why do you think London is undergoing the biggest engineering project in a generation, Cross Rail - Its MASSIVE!
So they can slip Q Whitehalls's extension into things without being noticed :)
Coincidentally New York subway is being expanded for first time in over a generation as well. Nice timing, makes one wonder if the good friends and allies know something we don't? The new shelter ,errr, subway is perfectly located to evacuate billionaires row who practically live above it.
JR - To transport Morloks
top film
I do remember this stuff...
Ive seen on a couple of urbex channels that there’s a few of these still about you can explore.
"Use both sides"... hilarious.
Wartime bonkers ? Agreed, some crazy shit , indeed.
i still have one of those nuclear fallout computers. the little round discs in the background. im guessing the UK doesnt have fallout shelters all over? in the us, almost every post office, highschool, or public building is a shelter.
I wonder what facilities they have now?
10:26 Apple II- E computer! I learned to code on one of those back in the day
C64 and Spectrum here mate :) I thought it back then and i think it now...fuck apple! Haha :D
That would actually be an upgrade, that computer is an Apple II or Apple II Plus.
How would the government have arrived in Corsham? Was there a train station? A secret branch line from the GWR ?
@@brianoutten834 he died in 1859, before all this was going on.
@@brittonnick There was a tunnel built at the side of the GWR mainline tunnel at Box (East end) which led into the series of mines Corsham was attached to....still visible today. Old pic below showing the single line on the right.
photos.francisfrith.com/frith/corsham-box-tunnel-1904_51493m_large.jpg
That bloke err, err, err, err , err, err! i thought there was a glitch in the Matrix!
i checked the comments to see if anybody mentioned it lol!
@@shantimeowmeow Hehe, me too. :)
Err
He p'd me off too mr err err err err err
Has anyone paid a visit to the Semi Sunk bunker in Nantwich Cheshire?
Dave Hill Staffordshire
Hack Green? Yes. It's a great visit so please do it!!
There is one in Epping forest???? Where is that? Any directions? I feel a socially distanced walk coming on.
The areas that were “free from fallout” were the same areas where the observer crews were already dead. “Any fallout readings from post 734 Smithers.?”
Re millennium seed bank.. one of the main culprits are GMO’s (Monsanto)
Im scared...
Dose anyone know if there is a documentaries of How these Bunkers were Built
"ADULT WANDS. PRESS II THEN PLAY"
Adult wands, eh?...
It's an walking tour guild. Mind out of the gutter 😅
@@CaptainDominic well it's technically well/far below the gutter 🤣😁
In the early 2000 used to belong to Subterranea Britannica" , great site
Cold War 2 has been started... They might want to update them!
New bunkers already exist whilst families with money and land have built them too
What he said at the end is not true anymore, as there are more new bunkers being built now than ever before, both civil and military.
Just not much in the UK, but I have been in a military medium-sized deep one in Devon that is up to date and was built-in 96-98.
10:33 Please use your toilet paper on both sides, brave nuclear warrier. In such hard times everyone has to take matters in his own hands!
+Jim Simpson
They might have a special clerk folding technique down there?
..or, and this is what I believe. It's good old British humour, the best, the driest and blackest in the world. It's kind of a motivating message for those few poor bastards, who had been given another four weeks to suffer through:
"They could bomb our cities, factories and farms to ashes, but our humour will survive!"
The benefit of this action lays clearly in the bunker dweller's hand, at least if taken seriously.
The Mayor of London is a skinny cow ?
Howard Fortyfive they had sinks with running water and carbolic soap just on the way back from the privy.....but in truth, its a cheeky joke.🖤🇨🇦
That was a shit joke. Literally.
Corsham: Wot no nurseries?
Here in 2022. The sad part of all these bunkers unlike our European neighbors not much was built to protect the public. Although we had "Protect and Survive"!
20:52, "the ordinary sort of nuclear blast" Oh shit, it's ordinary is it?
Yep, depleted uranium bullet fired into another lump of uranium.. :) EMP nuke and Hydrogen Fusion bomb to name some of the not-so-ordinary!
Does anyone else think that as these large bunkers have been decommissioned they have been replaced with more remote and deeper secret bunkers to house the government and military leaders
For the few you are allowed to see, you can be quite sure many many more exist that are deeper, larger, and well protected.
Remember this, government places itself many levels above that of the common man. Always has, always will.
They will have the best, everyone else gets what is left over. After all how could anyone get along without the stick up the ass stuffe dshirts anyways. Right ? Must maintain the class structure all the way down the line.....
10:26
Five inch floppy hahahaha
that's ancient there's more a lot more elsewhere.
Lister diesels, all over the world, even on the biggest oil rigs, a Lister in the corner for cold start when all else dies.
Does anyone have the knowledge on how to obtain details of bunkers, unused buildings etc?
Oddly enough, I came across this list only about an hour ago, there's a few listed in my area, might be worth a look - 209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/873564/posts
It's a list of Cold War nuclear bunkers in the British Isles. 👍
@@KumaBean awesome link dude, many thanks for that. Maybe make a mini team together and go exploring
David Gregory
No worries Man, I'd be keen on hooking up for explorations but I'm not on the mainland, I'm in the Channel Islands, if you enjoy exploring bunkers and fortifications you'd love it over here man, we're surrounded by the things 🤙🏻
David Gregory I'm sorry for the late reply buddy, I completely forgot to get back, I'd actually be pretty keen on that but I'm actually in the Channel Islands.
You'd love exploring around here if you're into exploring, we have tons of German bunkers and gun emplacements left over from the occupation, an urban explorers wet-dream in some places 👌 🤓
Pretty well all the Bunkers are listed here. Its a massive list, put the coffee on before attempting to read :)
books.google.co.uk/books?id=DhzOAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA283&lpg=PA283&dq=uklf+bunker&source=bl&ots=UwPaslZuKA&sig=ACfU3U0rQ4D6oGZU49DkFVi_qfUueNh1Dg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPov7graziAhVEXRUIHe_tAmoQ6AEwA3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=uklf%20bunker&f=false
British Government retire to in case of a nuclear war. I don't think normal people would have a place to retire to :(
What happens to the units above the bunkers in peace time, do anyone live in them.?
Worth noting the UK and USA governments never built one shelter for the general public that could withstand a nuclear blast, for those you must travel to Europe, they built them for their people.
9:30, anyone know where to find the original footage ?