C O N T E X T 1 0 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 35 DEVON DECELLES Remembering the cold war Initiatives relating to structures from the cold war could lead to the documentation, management and even reuse of some of the era’s most characteristic physical remains. Defensive fortifications form a significant part of the layered history of the British landscape. They range from iron age hill forts and brochs to the familiar second world war concrete bunkers and pill-boxes which pepper our coastline. As cold war defences now emerge from the constraints of the 30-year rule, there is an increasing awareness of the vulnerability of these buildings and their potential loss to the building record. Twentieth century military sites and structures present practical and philosophical challenges to those concerned with their management and possible reuse. This is largely due to the huge variety of sites, which reflects the changing nature of the threats to national security during this time. Military structures are built for very specific reasons, with their architecture directly linked to their use. Arguably the humblest of the cold war structures and potentially the most redundant are the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring posts. These were designed to supplement radar coverage for the military during the cold war. In the event of nuclear fallout, they would have been able to plot the direction of a nuclear burst, determine its size and predict the direction of its fallout. The network of underground monitoring posts traces its origins to a ragtag band of volunteers who worked under canvas awnings, in wooden huts, local telephone exchanges and post offices, and eventually in pre-fabricated concrete shelters. This continued until changes and improvements to aircraft control, monitoring and reporting systems in the 1950s required the ROC to evolve. The formation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) demanded the use of standard military geographic grid systems and the mass reorganisation of the ROC. This led to the positions being rearranged into clusters of three or four to simplify communication. Of these, one was designated as a master post, which passed information through fighter group and sector operation rooms to fighter command, where scientists forecast which areas would be in danger from nuclear fallout. This allowed civilian and military authorities to decide what services (such as ports, railways and airfields) could remain operational. This was soon too sluggish for the jet age, with the hydrogen bomb, and the threat of fast jet aircraft bombers and missiles). The Air Ministry collaborated with the National Trust to decide how to prevent nuclear intrusion on the landscape. It was decided that the national system of ROC groups and posts would be extended and given new physical structures to act as the military’s field force. The result was the construction of more than 1,500 radar rooms, built underground to provide protection. These were all single-storey blocks with a minimal number of projections, and no roof tanks. Each painted in ‘Caen stone’ colour. Their number makes them the most frequent cold war structures dotting the UK landscape. The first post was built at Farnham in Surrey. Tests conducted at this location between 1956 and 1959 laid the groundwork for ROC life underground from the beginning of the 1960s until stand-down in 1991. The process of building the 1,563 underground monitoring posts began in 1957. They were constructed adjacent to former visual reporting posts wherever possible. This was partly to avoid delays in acquiring land and in establishing communication links. Located at intervals of 7–10 miles apart, all had to be readily accessible by lanes, tracks or public footpaths and rights of way. The underground posts were reinforced concrete structures, cast on site. They were surrounded by a simple post and wire fence, with the only distinguishable difference being the aerial attachments on master posts. Accessed by a ladder down a two-by-two foot, 15-foot Ground Zero Indicator Fixed Survey Meter probe Bomb Power Indicator Telephone link 1 2 3 4 Cut-away drawing of the standard design of Royal Observer Corps underground monitoring post. (Image: English Heritage/NMR) Tarland Post, next to Historic Scotland’s Tomnaverie Stone Circle near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring posts were designed to plot the direction of a nuclear burst, determine its size and predict the direction of its fallout. Since the ROC’s disbandment in 1991, fewer than half the posts have been cleared, with the majority abandoned.
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