The 1980s and 'The Edge Of Darkness'...

[The Last Word]

max_tranmere wrote:

> Their locations are still top secret and there
> is every likelihood that if you are out treking in the Breckon
> Beacons, Snowdonia, or some remote moorland in Yorkshire, that
> you may stumble across a door in a hillside that is the
> entrance to such a place.

Or a maintenance hatch for the drains perhaps. Pure nuclear war urban mythology, Max. But you're right - this sort of speculation was widely circulating during the late seventies and into the eighties.

> I know that some of the facilities where the Government would
> have relocated to and where people were supposed to go and live
> in the event of an attack have been revealed but not these huge
> secret facilities.

I recall one of the major rumours was where would they relocate the Royals to. This probably lead to the widely held belief (i.e. myth) that The Mall doubles as an emergency runway should the Monarchy come under significant threat.

[Flat_Eric]

max_tranmere wrote:

>>


If they're so secret and so few people know that they exist max, how come you're in on it?!

Is there something you're not telling us?

[Flat_Eric]

>>


Max old chap, if their locations are so "top secret" and meant to stay that way, you'd think that they'd be savvy enough NOT to site the entrance doors in places where there's "every likelihood" of you or me "stumbling across" them ...... wouldn't you?

[andy at handiwork]

It simply doesn't make sense. Other than in the special circumstances of wartime, it would be prohibitively expensive to construct 'numerous huge sites' and very hard to keep secret. What purpose would they serve that cant be achieved above ground? As I have said elsewhere in this thread, nuclear weapons are assembled in Burghfield, not in a man made Tracey Island-like facility beneath the Pennines. There are quite a few Regional Seats of Government, built during the height of the cold war, scattered around the country, the entrances to which are often disguised as mundane bricked up bungalows and the like, but these places, as can be seen now that they are being sold off, are generally not very big and are not fit for purpose.

[Flat_Eric]

>>>There are quite a few Regional Seats of Government, built during the height of the cold war, scattered around the country, the entrances to which are often disguised as mundane bricked up bungalows and the like, but these places, as can be seen now that they are being sold off, are generally not very big and are not fit for purpose.<<<

Indeed.

Quite recently, a disused Cold War-era nuclear fallout shelter in the Peak District was sold off on eBay, of all places. It even had an observation window, offering the prospective buyer glorious views across the rolling hills of Derbyshire.

I observed the auction just to see how much it went for, and I think in the end it fetched something like 28k or thereabouts.

All this "huge secret underground facilities" nonsense is the stuff of fantasy.

[max_tranmere]

Eric, I said 'apparently'. In other words it is said that there are such places.

[max_tranmere]

Quote: 'Other than in the special circumstances of wartime...'

Exactly. These facilities, apparently, were constructed during the Cold War.
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Quote: 'it would be prohibitively expensive to construct 'numerous huge sites...'

Do you remember back in the 1980's the Defence Budget was like one-quarter of all Government expenditure?
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Quote: 'a man made Tracey Island-like facility beneath the Pennines...'

Lol. I dont know. We and the Americans had to be in a position to 'strike back' during the height of the Cold War if attacked. The locations of the silos would obviously have been a secret and the 'Tracey Island' element would prevent them being seen by satelites.

[max_tranmere]

The entrances would have to be somewhere though, wouldn't they? Clearly disguised to look like something else.

[max_tranmere]

Do you remember the final scene in the 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' film, when the ark is taken to an underground storage facility? People have always said there are a few places like that in the UK, which few people know about. Huge, secret, well hidden, and underground. I love all this conspiracy stuff! lol.

[max_tranmere]

You know how certain papers are released from the archives, 30 years after the events which those papers cover occured? It will be interesting at the end of this decade, 30 years after things in the 1980's happened, are released.