The Secrets of Underground Britain - MODERN MYSTERIES

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!

[BrotherInArms]

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.

[YEWC]

Time to clean up Corsham we may need it in the next few months 👌

[mrstephenthomas]

Fantastically interesting and well put together programme.

[lulumiller]

Absolutely awesome, as they say you never know what is under your feet, totally interesting, thank you for sharing x

[CompetitiveAudio]

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.

[mattynipps]

What a really well put together programme. I found it very interesting. Thank you.

[ThePyrogenica]

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

[peterbustin]

Love it at 7:52 with the lady using a bit of string to pull up a message!

[geoffbarry]

"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...

[hunter]

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. 

[TUMBLINJEST]

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

[petergriffiths]

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.

[Rusty_Gold]

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

[sadelsor]

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.

[sampointau]

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.

[StarOneau]

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.

[christophercrutcher]

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!

[ianbeedles]

There used to be a ROC Observation Post on the western outskirts of Bedford. When serving in the RAF I recall having to deliver supplies on at least two occasions. There was rumors that the Regional Command Center was directly under the country council office in center of the town.

[sfss]

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.

[lilmike]

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.