Down the hatch - Royal Observer Corps Post

On a journey into the middle of nowhere we stumble on a shaft that runs down into the ground. This underground room is the derelict remains of a Royal Observer Corps Post or ROC Post situated in Sutton, Cambridgeshire, UK which would have housed 3 people on 8 hour shifts monitoring for impending nuclear attacks and fallout. It was these posts that were the eyes and ears of the Emergency Warning System, that sounded the Civil Defence or Air Raid Sirens in the UK. At the time of filming, it appeared that the welds had rusted apart on the hatch allowing access. In our investigation, it seems that the room had sustained damage through fire, leaving the walls painted with black carbon. The remains in the room consisted of the primary work bench where instruments would have been located, the two doors; Toilet and control room both in tact, the bed frame, some kind of cupboard and loose debris scattered on the floor. As you can see from this video, there is not much that remains of the post, and has been stripped and destroyed.

The site, also know as old Sutton quarry, is owned by the Dickerson Group. In a later visit we found that the hatch had been aggressively welded shut.

This video was shot on an LG KU990 video phone

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• hatch
• underground room
• air raid
• fallout
• shelter
• nuclear
• attack

[carbonrocket]

Damn friend, did you go down there without a gas monitor? Excellent footage but if there was toxic or oxygen low/high, maybe even flammable air you could have died.

Stay safe guys!

[1987xenovarocker]

@carbonrocket We were pretty careful when we went down there, we didn't stay long as we weren't equipped with a gas sensor or rebreather equipment. Although it has to be said although the post had been burnt out, the only smell was damp/stale air and carbon, but did look "lived in". I know someone who had asphyxiation from low o2 on an exploration to an underground air raid shelter a while back as they failed to carry a gas monitor, so I'm pretty careful with going subterranean.

[TrousersDPM]

There's one of these in Horsham W.Sussex. It's in good condition with stuff still inside.

[DeltaFalcon77]

What's the title of the music you used, my friend?

It's a pity they destroyed the post, rather than preserved it. Would have been awesome if they had have left little goodies like old radio gear or even radmeters.

[elfynwilliams]

Did you know we might die in there, while our families died outside U invader