Ever wondered how electricity is made to come to your home? Ever wondered how beer is brewed? Ever wondered how trains operate? Ever wondered how “things are made?”

With the “Behind the Scenes” Group, we will endeavour to answer some of these questions and maybe more. We will endeavour to have a visit once a month to an interesting facility. The visits will be on an “ad hoc” basis when we can gain entry, and this means a certain flexibility of timing will be required, and not a “specific day and not a set day of the week or month”. Some visits may have a cost implications, some visits may be free, only getting to and fro by Group members cars will be costs of “petrol” to bear. It would be nice to combine with a “pub lunch” when possible, but we will have to see about individual visit timings and enthusiasm of the members. Some visits will be easy access, some may be more “challenging” so we will have a pre-briefing when the visit is announced by e-mail.

For more information or to join please contact Chris Jewell by the link below.

Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear proof Secret Bunker

On Friday 10th January, the Behind the Scenes Group visited the Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear
proof Secret Bunker, constructed in 1952 as a facility to be a command centre for the UK in
the event of a nuclear holocaust.
The bunker really was a secret, a farm area was surrounded by twelve foot solid fences, and
only then did the bull dozers and excavators move in and excavate a three storey deep hole
that was then lined by ten foot thick floors, walls and roof, all the concrete poured in one cast
to prevent any fissures. The earth spoil was mounded to produce a large hill which further
obscured the activities of the construction.
In the event of a nuclear attack the bunker was capable of supporting 600 personnel for
three months, from the Prime Minister and various critical ministry departments, agriculture,
military judiciary, etc all of which could have been critical to any future life after a nuclear
holocaust.
Several interesting facts:-

• The entrance to the bunker is via the front door of a bungalow
• 2,500 telephone lines were installed for telephones, telexes and other communication
  modes,
• Two electrical generators would drive electric power, air conditioning and air filtration
  facilities
• Water pumping and distribution.
• After 1982 the facility was turned over to civil defence, and the site decommissioned
  in 1992.
  Several thoughts after the visit:-
• The site was constructed and operational in 7 months. How long would that take
  today?
• If after three months, the outside were still radiation contaminated. How many people
  would have taken the cyanide pills locked in a safe?
• The families of personnel in the bunker would be outside and subject to the atrocities
  of nuclear flash, destruction and radiation, that emotional thought must have been
  sickening!
• Finally, would you want to live in a desolate area with little of no other people and no
  immediate food or clean water?