Category: Blog

Here on TheTimeChamber, we have two obsessions.  Asylums and Cold War Bunkers. We love a good bunker.  They put our imagination right in the heart of a Hollywood blockbuster.  OK, we’ll admit it takes a little to get there as most of the ROTOR Bunkers we have visited are burnt out, flooded wrecks (excluding museums).

After World War 2 the system of Chain Home RADAR was run down as the threat of a new enemy was not recognised at the time.  When the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear weapon in 1949, Britain awoke to the dawn of a new enemy and hastily started constructing and reactivating a comprehensive network of RADAR stations.  The old Chain Home sites were reconditioned and a number of underground bunkers were built on the East coast of England, semi-sunken bunkers on the West coast, to provide accommodation to the main operations centre.  In a true Bond style design, the bunkers were accessed through a Bungalow that concealed a hidden entrance to the underground tunnel leading to the Bunker.  The only other clue that there was anything hidden in the area was an innocuous concrete out house for the emergency exit, where a door, and if it hasn’t been filled in, stairs leading down below. Zoom out from the site a little further and you will see a few extra buildings, and a whooping great RADAR set.  We suspect the Russians new exactly what was there, with it squarely in their gun sights.

Other than visiting ROTOR Bunkers that have been converted to Museums, we had yet to visit one that was not a ruin, excluding the few museums that exist.  Wartling is a ruin, Portland is a burnt out shell, Bempton is gutted.  However, this all changed when we found ourselves standing on the edge of a fenced compound, freezing our tits off, looking over at an old RAF military installation and the North Sea.  The Birth Place of RADAR was calling. Unlike the other bunkers we have snooped around, Bawdsey is different and was functional RAF station up until the end of the Cold War, around the 1990s, and was known to be in good condition (side note: the bunker was shut earlier). Comparatively, others we had visited such as Wartling closed in the mid-sixties and had suffered severe flood damage.

We have mentioned it before, but entering into an underground space normally requires finding, and then squeezing through, a very small gap.  This time was no different. After making our way across a large fenced compound, we stood looking at an impossibly small hole in the ground. Here we go again! Slithering and sliding through, we found ourselves standing at the top of the emergency exit stairs. Now picture Wartling, the same stairs exist, but the cabling has been stripped bare and the walls show signs of years of neglect. Bawdsey was the polar opposite, cables still resided in their hangers, the walls looked clean and the transformer was relatively intact. What a difference. As we moved through the bunker, concrete plinths we expected to be empty contained all manor of equipment, including the telephone exchange and communication gear.

We can remember when Bawdsey first popped up on the on various forums Radar over five years ago. It was dry, untouched and in mint condition. We wanted to go, but life and university got in the way and the chance slipped us by, with the bunker disappearing from view a while ago. Over the last few years it has opened and closed with the tides.  As seems to be the way with a lot of sites, it has started to go down hill. The community likes to say that posting sites across the internet doesn’t have an effect on them, but here on TheTimeChamber, we think it does. We don’t think that Bawdsey would have gone downhill if it wasn’t for the interest in the site by various exploring forums over the last few years. Looking back at past photos, there was no vandal damage and it looked like the land pirates hadn’t visited yet. We are more and more convinced that the more postings a site receives, the more attention it receives from people wanting to make a quick profit. It makes you think if it is worthwhile posting photos online at all, or if sharing it privately is a wiser move.  Food for thought.

Since visiting, we have managed to add a few more to the list – Hope Cove, Neatishead and Kelvedon Hatch have provided us with interesting places to see, all being relatively intact and good walk rounds. But nothing has quite matched stepping foot into an abandoned one that feels as if it could be restarted (after a little bit of work).

We’ll add a proper page soon, with more photos and history.

Open days for the restored Cuckfield ROC Post in West Sussex are now confirmed for 2016!

The restored Cuckfield Royal Observer Corps post in West Sussex is holding more open days this year.

4+5th June
2+3rd July
27+28th August

The bunker is in a small village, it involves a pleasant walk down a small footpath approx 1/2 mile and also involves descending a fixed vertical ladder for around 15 feet.

Location is here, please note there is NO vehicular access to the post
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.004 … 1&t=h&z=19

and parking is here in the village, there are some really nice pubs and tea shops.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.006 … 1&t=h&z=19

Walk down behind the church, through the church yard and onto the lane that runs a long the bottom edge of the church yard. Follow it along and look for the signs!

For interest, here is the original condition of the post so you can see how we restored it.
https://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/roc/db/98 … 08001.html

For those that have noticed, we have been very silent for most of 2015 and very little exploring happened.  We haven’t meant to neglect the website, photography and exploring, but life took a turn we hadn’t expected.  But, we are back and new updates to the website should be following shortly.

 

We have been busy at work, but as you may have noticed, not on this website.  TheTimeChamber has been part of the team that has resurrected the old County Asylums website.  It was a lot of hard work over the past few years, but it is back!

Below is a copy of their welcome back blog post:

Welcome to county asylums.  If you remember the original site you’ll probably know what the old one was about. Maybe even remember what it looked like. If you don’t then maybe take a second to read the about page.  Here’s the old site, just for nostalgia purposes:

Sadly, the original website and domain name disappeared in early 2012.

The good news is, as you can see, we’re back and even better than before (well, we think so anyway.) – we’ve comprehensively covered all the county asylums and some more on top of that. We know the subject of the asylums can be a sensitive one. We’re not here to glamorise what they were because we know not all of it was good. However we shouldn’t just forget about these buildings because of what went on once built. From a purely architecture point of view these buildings ranked amongst some of the most impressive designs of the time and some of the logic behind the designs was ground breaking.

It’s been a project that started not long after the original site disappeared. 3 years work and we’ve finally made it.  Where as it was just Pete before we’re now a nicely sized team of 4 and we’ve enjoyed working together.

You’ll notice not everything has been finished. There is a history or two still add and some sites will have none or limited internal and external photos.  Obviously there will be locations where it simply will be impossible to obtain many internals (Broadmoor for starters) and others that were simply demolished before the turn of the 20th century (Hull).   However we felt we needed to get the site on-line and share what we’ve accomplished so far.   What we really hope is many of you reading this may have pictures, postcards, memories or interesting information you can contribute to this site.  We’ve already been helped by a great number of people already (you’ll find these names on the about page – thank you to all of you, once again) but if you can help us make this site even better then please drop us an email – info@countyasylums.co.uk

As time goes by we hope to continue to improve the details of the asylums listed and add additional institutions as we can. We’ve plenty of avenues, not least starting with the Scottish asylums.  So thanks for visiting and please keep an eye on the blog as we’ll post updates/interesting news as we go.

Thanks,

The County Asylum Team.

Every now and then, eBay throws up an unexpected gem and we snap them up in an instant.  This one was just the same, an article on Mental Hospitals from 1953 focusing on the Winson Green hospital in Birmingham, which is now a prison.  We can’t say much more, so we will let the images do the talking.

Having been in hibernation for quite some time now, we often find ourselves in a reminiscent mood. A number years ago, back when we first started exploring, a derelict piece of industry popped up right on our doorstep and we had to check it out. Having grown up in the south we were not used to this as we had the big old asylums to play in. Industry was a thing of the northern territories and old mills dating from the Victorian times were rare as hens teeth. Our proximity to London meant that any land within the major towns, and away from the green belt, was quickly repurposed. The industrial centres in the south of London such as The Docklands, Woolwich, Croydon and Hayes all quickly developed into commuter suburbs. Our local town, Woking, was famously linked with Vickers Aviation firm at the Brooklands circuit, and the large James Walker factory in the centre of town.

A smaller firm existed called the Unwin Brother’s Printers in Old Woking, had held a presence in the town since 1896 and were the countries oldest printing company. The company had merged with another local printers in 2007 and closed their Old Woking site in order to move down the road to Chessington. At the time, we had no idea that the company even existed. When we did eventually figure out where it was, we were not surprised by this. The firm was located bang in the middle of a field on the outskirts of town. We had driven past it many many times and not even seen it!

Imagine our surprise when it popped up out of the blue on one of the forums, we only thought Old Woking had a AAOR to look at, if you were bored. Some explorers post about epic 500km trips into Europe and back, this isn’t one of those posts, we drove about 3 miles. The explore wasn’t particularly eventful, but the building was scattered with a few good piles to rummage through. We happily meandered around for and hour or two until we turned a corner to spy the back of a security guard making their way down a corridor. Following a hasty retreat back up the stairs, we made legs and left, setting off a pair of dogs in residing in the back of a van.

Two weeks later some other explorers succumbed to the security guard, who let their dogs loose on them.  After that, Unwins was given a wide berth and forgotten about.  We only went back when we heard demolition had finished. We learnt a valuable lesson from this explore, – look local, there is more than you realised (which is why we have a very large google earth file of leads).

Every explorer has them, those that say they don’t are probably lying. Furthermore, many of the exploring blogs that inhabit the web appear to be epic success after epic success. Failure doesn’t generate interest, no one wants to hear about hours of trudging about in the undergrowth and fruitless leads, or standing looking forlornly at a building that is just out of reach.  So why are we writing this? Well, we have had our fair share of failures over the years, it is part of the process. We have turned up to sites more times than we like to admit only to be thwarted by fresh new hoarding, security making a sudden appearance or land pirates stripping anything that is or isn’t nailed down. Our favourite is well timed a passer-by who walks by at the very moment you wish they hadn’t, shattering the confidence of the moment.

So here it is, a brief catalogue of our most memorable failures whilst exploring.

Pyestock, our very first. Having visited Pyestock on a number of occasions, we were the cock of the walk and decided to take some of our university friends along with us. Having barely even made it into the first building before we encountered another soul walking about snapping away from the gantries around a test cell. We thought we had lost him when he walked off and out of view from where we stood in Test Cell 3. Only to have him suddenly bear down upon us in a high vis, talking into his radio saying “Got ’em”. Game Over. Startled. Unsure how this had happened. Looking back it was a rookie move, one of the forums (28Dayslater) had organised a mass invasion for the same weekend. Being seen by the site owners, they were compelled to act. We had walked into it with out realising. A quick murmur from one of our friends asking if 28 Days Later was a film left them wondering what was what and let us on our way.

Roll on a few years later to one of Europes largest brickworks, Stewartby Brickworks.  As it was derelict, we decided to pay it a visit. A vast piece of industry in Bedfordshire that was responsible for building half of London with its London Stock yellow bricks, now lay derelict, arms thrown open to intrepid explorers. With the introduction of emissions regulations by the EU and the subsequent closure, we decided to head up and have a look with a fellow explorer, KingRat. We were prepared, we had information that said to cut through the bushes.In our wisdom, we entirely ignored this and instead we sprinted to an old workshop in the middle of open ground. We should have followed the advice given. One jumpy security guard later and we had the old bill roll past, stop and asking to look in our bags.

London. There have been many a successful explorers in London, a small group cracked the city like a nut and feasted on the inside a few years ago. We will freely admit that we don’t have to cart our balls around in a wheel barrow, they aren’t big enough to see us climb down into the guts of the underground.  However, we have had a few good explores in London. We have also had many failures. A few years ago, one half of TheTimeChamber found themselves dropping down the inside of the wall of Lots Road Power Station only to land next to a security van with a sleeping guard in it. Cause and effect. We scrambled back over the wall and a quietly sauntered off into the distance as if nothing had happened. Comparatively, there is always a slight sense of fun when you drop over a wall, startle a few passersby and disappear into the Underground.

Longcross Barracks. This is probably our finest moment. We were wet behind the ears and after Pyestock we thought we knew what we were doing and that life was easy. After arriving, we set off around the perimeter fence looking for a way through the razor wire tangle. We walked and walked. Even walking a little too close to a motorway looking for a way in. Becoming dark we called it a night, petrol burnt and legs scratched for nothing.  It was only when a friend showed us around did he make it look so simple, we had come within feet of entry.

We don’t want to admit how many miles we have wasted following a lead. It is all part of the fun. There are many more stories, we have hidden in cupboards, beneath floors and around corners because an unexpected noise has reached down into a primitive part of the hind brain and made us have a rethink.  Embarrassingly, some of these noises have been dripping rain water from a roof collapse and onto a metal surface.

On a cold a blustery January evening a few years ago we found ourselves parking up in suburbia.  News had broken that there had been a partial collapse in a local park and a hole had opened up to reveal a series of tunnels.  Rumours quickly spread that a forgotten World War II air raid shelter had caused the collapse and that the Council were already onsite to repair the damage and prevent any further access.  As both halves of TheTimeChamber were ringing each other to see if we could get over in time, other locals were also ringing around to see who was free to head over and see Carshalton Park Air Raid Shelter.

Prior to World War II, the central government commissioned local authorities to undertake a survey of their area to ascertain if there were premises in shopping, business and other areas where the public were likely to congregate more than seven minutes’ walk from their homes. The result of this led to a series of buried trenches being dug in numerous boroughs throughout the country to provide protection to the local population. Carshalton was no different and set about constructing accommodation for a total of 7000 people in various parks throughout their borough.

Park Location

St Helier – 3000
Carshalton Par – 1000
Wrythe Green – 1000
Stanley Park – 100
Banstead Road – 400
Harold Road (in conjunction with Sutton & Cheam Council) – 500

After the war, many of the shelters across the country were simply bricked up, covered over and forgotten. With their nature and the their true location forgotten, access to an old Air Raid Shelter is not always possible.  But from time to time, they do become accessible and we do try and head over to see them (local ones at least).  Upon arriving at Carshalton and knowing that others were going to be joining us, we headed off into the park to try and find the access. We found that the workmen had temporarily sealed access by dropping a skip over the collapse. Simple and effective.  A little creativity and we found a way down and dropped into the bunker.

The bunker was in a very good condition; there we no graffiti or signs that the local kids had accessed it at all.  Light fixtures, wiring, the rotting heaps of benches and other artefacts where still in situ. It wasn’t a huge bunker, so we didn’t spent a great deal of time down there and we decided it was time to climb back out and make a move.  The shelter was sealed back up a few days after we had visited, presumably because ITN paid the site a visit and featured it on the local news.

We were searching for a new beach on the Island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas when we found ourselves idly turning down one of the side roads off the Queens Highway. We didn’t know it at the time, but we had turned into an old US Naval Facilities Engineering Command & US AuxiliaryAir Force base (NAVFAC Eleuthera) that had helped to develop the SOSUS system and track missiles during the 1950’s. Eleuthera is a long, thin and sparsely populated island that sits on the boundary between the Caribbean and the North Atlantic Oceans; the island is filled with stunning beaches that are found at the end of unlikely dirt tracks and a 4×4 is essential. We hadn’t expected anything different as we drove down an road that was being reclaimed by the bush.

Driving onwards, we passed an old gate house and a handful of derelict wooden buildings hiding in the bush. We thought nothing of it initially as we passed similar buildings when exploring Cotton Bay earlier in the week. We only begun to realise we had stumbled somewhere different to what we expected when, rather than park up next to a beach, we found ourselves edging out onto a crumbling apron of tarmac and concrete. It seemed to large to be a car park for an island of less that 10,000 people. It turned out to be a simple way of collecting rain water.

Originally known as the “US Navy Experimental Facility, Eleuthera”, the base originated in November 1950 when Western Electric was selected to construct a demonstration SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) installation on the island. This was part of the larger Project Hartwell initiated by the Americans and MIT.  Initially, the base consisted of a wooden Generator Building, a wooden Western Electric Laboratory building and a Communications Center which was little more than a tent. Six hydrophones were also installed at sea as part of the project. A few years later the US navy sent over a construction battalion, The Seabees, to established a more permanent base and five green huts consisting of administration, a galley and barracks were built.

In 1957 the Eleuthera Auxiliary Air Force Base (AAFB) begun operations as part of the Atlantic Ballistic Missile Test Range,  The Eleuthera AAFB was part of the Air Force Missile Test Center’s Atlantic Missile Range, which was used for long-range monitoring of rocket and guided missile launches, controlled targets, drones, satellites, and lunar probes for the Air Force, Army, and Navy.  The Eleuthera AAFB was the fourth tracking station in along the length of the test range and formed part of there MISTRAM system.

The base was supported by twenty contractor employees of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) (the primary contractor for operation and maintenance of the site’s instrumentation, including the MISTRAM system) and Pan American Airways (PAA) (the primary contractor for management, engineering, operations, and maintenance) during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and Western Electric in the 1950’s.  Pan Am employed the support staff, whilst RCA employed the electronic technicians, engineers, and related equipment operators.  At its peak, 45 Bahamian employees also worked at the base.  The MISTRAM facility was part of Eleuthera AAFB.  The Air Force Base Commander was evidently the only military officer assigned to the AAFB.  The top PanAm employee had the title of Base Operations Manager, and the top RCA employee was the Instrumentation Manager. The MISTRAM system was superseded in the 1970’s and the AAFB was taken over by the NAVFAC.

Having discovered the concrete aprons and spotting more derelict wooden buildings hiding in the undergrowth, we decided to explore further. The quiet of the surroundings and the density of the bush were reminiscent of Pripyat in Chernobyl, as hidden around the edges and just out of sight were old fire hydrants, walkways and other signs of life. We scrapped the car around the heavily overgrown roads (we decided against walking because of poison wood and mosquitos) and came into another concrete apron in the middle of a cluster of buildings.  We still did not have any clue as to where we were, but we later found out that we had discovered the old Maintenance sheds, Weather Station, Diesel Generating Station and Control Centre for the AAFB. Our first clue to the what the previous life was, was the discovery of some paper work stating Pan-Am Guided Missile Range Division.

It was clearly evident that the metal fairies had descended and cleared the lot since the base closed. Every building was trashed, weathered and beautiful to photograph.  Still laying in place in the generator station were eight 200kW diesel generators and their associated electric switchgear. Half supplied by Westinghouse and the other half supplied by General Electric, their guts strewn across the floor.  Surely 1.6MW of power would have been useful to the islanders?

We decided not to hang around any longer as we could hear some heavy grinding from workers at the still functional water plant close by and we didn’t want to unexpectedly meet them. We did drive through a few days later to grab a few more photos as we were passing and stumbled upon a pile of forgotten telephone switchgear.

 

So, this airbase is a pretty big place and there are some cool relics. Including the control centre which has some very cryptic numbers and letters on various boards around the walls. We were curious as to what they were so set about decoding the designations to try find out what they had been upto.

Turns out one board is the names of the crews that flew the missions in Operation Desert Storm,  from UH during its final days as an operation airbase. Read more about the Gulf War here.

Thats all interesting, but what ordnance did they actually have at Upper Heyford? We know they had nukes, but what else? This board gives some tantalising clues.

Lets find out what they are:

B-57 –  Tactical Nuclear Weapon (5-20 Kiloton depending on variant)*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B57_nuclear_bomb

B-61 – Variable Yield (0.3 to 340kilotons) Thermonuclear Weapon* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb (*NB The Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 16kilotons and the Fatman Bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21Kilotons.)

BDU-38 – Practice Nuclear Bomb for training https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/bdu-38.htm

MK-20 – Anti-Armour Rockeye Cluster Bomb https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/mk20.htm

MK-82 – General Purpose Bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_82_bomb

MK-84 – Heavy General Purpose Bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_84_bomb

Durandal – Runway Penetration Bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-runway_penetration_bomb

CBU-52 – Anti-Personnel Cluster Bomb https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/cbu-52.htm

CBU-58 – Cluster Bomb useful against flammable targets https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/cbu-58.htm

CBU-71 – Cluster Bomb with incendiary and fragmentation action https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/cbu-71.htm

Quite a selection of weapons available then!

Recently, Subbrit released a whole wealth of photos from their archives and it made us think, wouldn’t it be useful to have one place where we can list out other archives we have found.

Firstly, the Subbrit Collection:

https://collection.subbrit.org.uk/

A Flickr Collection from Herrison Hosiptal (Asylum) before it was converted:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nowawildlife_lover/sets/72157629448251164/

A huge Flickr collection of Victorian Hospital Postcards:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/backmanmal/

A Flickr Collection of Warlingham Hospital, Croydon, before demoltion:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashenbury/sets/72157611132209493/

The Essex County Photo Archive, try searching for photos from Severalls, Warley and Runwell Hospitals:

https://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/uep/custom_pages/freetext_search.asp?content_page_id=80&content_parents=61

USAF Upper Heyford – photos from the 80’s:

https://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=heyford&t=0

Geograph – a great photo resource for old places.  Try searching for Barnsley Hall, Powick and St Mary’s:

https://www.geograph.org.uk

Photobox is always a good place for collections:

Whittingham Hospital

Do you have any websites that you use for Archive images, if so, let us know in the comments box below and we will add them (with a credit)

It’s is funny how there is always a song that fits the moment.  We feel that if we ever made a film about our trips down anything below the surface, Jamiroquai would possibly fit the bill.  Possibly not.  It would be clichéd, but we would be compelled to do it.  Probably a good thing we don’t make videos.  We wrote last year on how we got started and our memories of the gigantic asylums we adored; this time we thought we would talk about the world of derelict underground structures.  We may even admit to belonging to a society, or two.

We were introduced to the world underground structures right from the beginning.  The second site we ever visited, after our introduction to Pyestock, was the Shorts Brothers Tunnels in Rochester.  A mile long air raid shelter and factory on banks of the Medway.  Looking back, we should have been more prepared and taken something other than a dim AA rated Maglite.  Hindsight always raises a few laughs towards our newbish tendencies.  Since then, underground places have always drawn us in like a sink hole and we often find ourselves in the car racing the next destination that has just opened up.  Going underground is not something that everyone enjoys and actively seeks out, but we just happen to like it.

Above all, going underground relies on shear luck, timing and tenacity.  With access being limited to one or two entrance points it is very easy for an underground structure to be sealed up, or be buried over and forgotten.  Having only one access point is always a risky and you have to chance that you were not spotted going in.  We narrowly avoided contractors bricking up an air raid shelter in Portsmouth.  There are times when an underground site may be accessible for only a handful of days; when this happens the it is not uncommon for the entire urban exploration world to pass through and plaster photos over the Net.  Sometimes it is wise to keep a site off the Radar and to a handful of trusted friends to preserve for the future.  Too many places have been lost to careless talk and wanton forum whoring.  We only managed to see the Vickers Deep Shelter in Weybridge because of a chance encounter as we passed by in the car.

On the flipside, trying to locate an underground site can be very frustrating.  You can find yourself searching through the woods for a two foot square hole in the ground with nothing more accurate than a OS Grid Square, a fuzzy photo of a brown smudge and your own sense of direction.  Something which we have lacked on occasion, losing us an entire afternoon in the woods.  It is also very easy to become disorientated underground, especially if you stop paying attention to your surroundings.  Or reading the map wrong.  Or confusing your lefts and rights.  There is a strong possibility that we led a group of people astray down Box Quarry near Bath, only one of the UK’s largest underground spaces, because we turned right and not left.  But it is all part of the fun, if slightly agitated.

The final thing we have to say on going underground?  Sometimes a permission visit is the only possible way due to the ‘one entry nature’ of underground places.  There have been a number of old bunkers that we have only been able to visit because a kindly soul opened the door for us, or ex-LU employees who were feeling generous.

So, its more or less then end of the summer and the end of another great year of open days at Cuckfield Royal Observer Corps bunker. This has been our best year so far. We had over 250 visitors spread over 3 open weekends. The furthest visitor was from Spain, and the oldest visitor was 89 (she went up and down the ladder unaided and was genuinely a joy to meet). Most visitors were individuals and families but other visitors this year included the Mens group from St Wilfreds Church, who visited us twice, and the Lads from Haywards Heath Fire Station who came down for a morning visit. We also raised a small amount of money, more of that later!

Thanks and shout-outs

Opening the bunker for visits is hard work and takes much behind the scenes effort and we wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of a number of people or organisations, you have our thanks and gratitude. If we have missed anyone off this list, we are sorry, please let us know. (The list is in no particular order)

• Cuckfield Parish Council – https://www.cuckfield.gov.uk for their ongoing support, especially Sue
• Cuckfield Village Museum – http://cuckfieldmuseum.org/ for their help in organising the open days, especially Phillipa for her invaluable help and encouragement
• Cuckfield Life Magazine –  https://cuckfieldlife.co.uk/ for the article that generated LOADS of visitors this year
• Subbrit – https://www.subbrit.org.uk/ for their support and advice
• Dick, the groundsman for the Church who mows our grass and acts as security and has helped with some tools/maintenance over the past few years. Cheers
• John of Penshurst ROC Post who has lent us some rare equipment for our open days. It really proved to be the icing on the cake. Thanks a lot.
• Richard for his fabrication skills and advising how to repair the hatch, and drawing up plans
• The farmer who keeps his sheep in the field!
• All our visitors who came and appreciated the post

and last but by no means least, our partners who have to put up with endless amounts of bunker stuff in the garage/shed/loft/bedroom and do so without (much) comment. Thanks, Chloe and Claudine, for your support 🙂

Looking towards next year

Now the thanks are out of the way, what are plans for the bunker for next year apart from open days? Well we raised through donations a small amount of money which has enabled us to do and plan the following:

• make a monetary donation to the Cuckfield Village Museum in Queens Hall as thanks for their support during 2013
• donate some items from our collection that are too fragile to display in the bunker, again to Cuckfield Village Museum
• to re-wire the lighting in the post to run off of 2 x 12v batteries, and to purchase secondhand UPS batteries and new low power LED lighting to save everyone bringing torches/us using 5484889 AA batteries each year! This will also make it easier for people to see.

• to repair the hatch and manufacture a locking bar from sheet steel and buy some new padlocks
• to help us maintain the surface structures and paintwork as they will need repair/repainting in 2014

• to print out and laminate a load of archive photos and other photos for some new surface display/interpretation boards for next year, as not everyone can go down the ladder. The first display board is finished already though!

• thanks also to the Wealden Cave and Mine Society members who visited on the last day who helped strip the bunker for the closed season. Lots of carrying of stuff, thanks gents!

Plans for open days next year haven’t been finalised yet but will probably be over the summer months again and probably 3 or 4 days/weekends. When we have worked out when we will update https://www.rocremembered.com/ and our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Cuckfieldnuclearbunker) with details. Alternatively the museum in Queens Hall in Cuckfield will have the dates.

We also hope to show some school groups around next year for educational purposes, and as always we can open at special request (by prior arrangement only) for interested groups/societies.

Also we saw something cool on a restored post in Scotland (https://www.facebook.com/28Group36post) which we may do next year rather than our unprofessional looking handwritten and laminated access sign held down with a brick that keeps going missing.

(For details of the sign above, or to make your own signs, visit https://www.signomatic.co.uk)

So plenty to look forward to in 2014, hope to see some more visitors next year!

Mark and Ed