Going Undergound (in Northumberland)

At the end of World War Two there was hope for a peaceful "brave new world", a move forward and lessons learned. Sadly, this optimism was betrayed by events, and 1945 saw the onset of the Cold War. This lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 under President Gorbachev, following the demolition of the Berlin wall in 1989 and reunification of East and West Germany.   

Or did it?
All very John le Carre and George Smiley.
Brief history lesson over.
Or is it?
Interestingly, far from over, because we still have remnants of that era present to this day in Northumberland in the form of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) bunkers.

Northumberland has a number of such bunkers. Not all have survived intact and those that have been badly damaged by the elements are no longer safe to visit (e.g. the bunker at Shilbottle). Others have been sold into private ownership and are therefore harder to access.
Those that can be accessed are subterranean time-capsules, an historic journey started via a thirty foot descent down inbuilt metal steps into a concrete chamber.
These bunkers were designed to act as regional military headquarters, from which to observe and record possible invasion and nuclear fall-out should any such weapons be deployed. They needed to be strategically located and hidden from public view, positioned thirty feet below ground level. They were equipped to house three or four personnel safe from conventional and nuclear attack, thankfully, never tested so far.
Each bunker comprised, for example, a telecommunications facility, basic furniture and cooking facilities, bunk beds, chemical toilet and ventilation shaft. Whilst being adequate they were not in any way luxurious. Cold War stark and Cold War cold. Life below ground could indeed be 'other worldly', the temperature always constant, the air still, no outside noise and only artificial light.

A word of warning for the curious. There is no mobile phone signal in a bunker and the hatch for entry and exit is at best a cause for concern.

Collin Burn