Hawthorn, Wiltshire

Hawthorn is the location of a number of defence related underground facilities in the vicinity of Corsham, Wiltshire. Specifically Hawthorn site was the location of an above ground bunker used for the planning of satellite communications support to UK armed forced worldwide. These facilities have been built in quarries cleared through the excavation of Bath stone. The quarries have variously been used for Military Command & Control, storage and a fallback seat of national government. Some areas of the quarry complex were hardened and provided with support measures to ensure resilience in the event of a nuclear attack.

Central Ammunition Depot

During the 1930s there was a recognition of a need to provide secure storage for munitions in the south of the United Kingdom, a large area of the quarries around the Corsham area was renovated by the Royal Engineers as one of three major stockpiles. This ammunition depot was serviced by a spur railway line from the main London to Bristol line, breaking away just outside the eastern entrance to Box Tunnel. This spur line led to double platform inside the tunnel complex used to deliver and remove munitions.

The Central Ammunition Depot was intended to be complemented by two further depots, one in Wales and one in the North of England, neither of these was developed to the same scale as CAD.

The construction meant that an explosive incident or accident inside any one of the stores would not propagate throughout the ammunition store.

CAD was decommissioned after World War II.

Aircraft Engine Factory

A portion of the quarry complex was developed as an aircraft engine factory, to act as a fallback should the Bristol Engine company Factory at Filton should be taken out of action by hostile bombing. In practice this factory was never used.

Royal Air Force Rudloe Manor

In another area of the quarry Royal Air Force Box was established as the Headquarters of No10 Fighter Group, Royal Air Force. RAF Box was later renamed RAF Rudloe Manor and expanded to encompass a number of communications functions including No1 Signal Unit, Controller Defence Communications Network, No1001 Signal Unit Detachment and Headquarters RAF Provost & Security Service.

No1SU and CDCN were both housed in bunkers within the quarry complex, which also included an RAF Regional Command Centre for the South West of England.

Adjacent Defence Establishments

In the vicinity of Hawthorn were Basil Hill Barracks, a Royal Signals establishment, HMS Royal Arthur, a Royal Navy training establishment and the Royal Naval Stores Depot Copenacre which used the quarries as a storage facility. Corsham Computer Centre was bult into Hudswell Quarry during the 1980s.

The Army Welfare Service Cotswold Families Centre is to the south.

eat of national government

British defence doctrine during the early Cold War period indicated a requirement for a fallback location for central government outside London, to assume national control in the event of London being destroyed. The quarry complex at Corsham was chosen for this location and development of the site commenced in the 1950s. In the event of imminent nuclear attack, it was assumed that the government would be evacuated from London by rail or helicopter. The facility would provide a safe haven for the Prime Minister, the Cabinet), commanders of the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and British Army and supporting civil servants and military personnel

The site had a number of codenames during its lifetime: STOCKWELL, TURNSTILE and BURLINGTON.

Facilities inside the complex included accommodation and catering for nearly 4,000 people, including a hospital, organic electrical generation and the ability to seal the complex from the outside environment, contaminated by radiation or other threat.

In practice the use of the facility would have required planning and a controlled migration since the warning times of an unannounced nuclear attack preclude mobilisation out of London.

The site was decommissioned and placed in a state of care & maintenance in the mid 1990s following the fragmentation of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war.

Disposal

The site has been offered for sale, conditional on a Private Finance Initiative for the continued use of above ground facilities. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1849406,00.html For sale: Britain’s underground city] ] [http://news.mod.uk/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3049]

References

Further reading

*Peter Hennessy, "The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War". Penguin Books, London, 2002.
*McCamley, Nick (2000) "Secret underground cities : an account of some of Britain's subterranean defence, factory and storage sites in the Second World War", Pen & Sword Books Ltd, ISBN 0-85052-733-3

External links

* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/ Subterranea Britannica]
* [http://www.chocolatechipdesign.co.uk/nettleden/burlington/index.shtml Nettleden site ] - good info site with many pictures
* [http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/ UK Secret Bases] Full features (April 2007) on
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/underground_city/ BBC Wiltshire "Wiltshire's Underground City"]
*mmuk phoetc|384600|169040|10
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070819142805/www.corshamtown.co.uk/burlington.html 1999 article by Hugh Collins at former CorshamNet]