The Cold War Comes to York

On Sunday, Kevin and I decided to spend the morning visiting another English Heritage attraction quite different from the normal castle and crumbling ruin. A short distance outside the city center sits the York Cold War Bunker. Part of a collection of 29 bunkers built in 1961, it was designed to hold a crew of 60 Royal Observer Corps volunteers who, in the event of a nuclear attack on the United Kingdom, would gather data and coordinate with the other posts to determine the bombs location and predicted radiation fallout in order to warn the public. It remained in commission until 1991.

Along with the 29 bunkers were a huge number of “listening posts” dug into the ground throughout the country that would have been manned by a crew of three volunteers, also part of the ROC. The posts would communicate with other posts and with the listening station by telephone and radio. While this all seems a bit dramatic to an American, you have to remember that England was hit hard during World War II, so the threat of a bomb attack was still fresh in many people’s minds.

An example of the sheer devastation during WWII – St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

The Bunker is a guided tour, which was really quite informative as our guide was very knowledgeable and went through how the post actually worked from how they got information that a bomb had been dropped to how they triangulated its position, determined the expected radiation fall out and tracked the actual falling radiation. Luckily, the Bunker never had to be put to full use but full scale drills were completed by the crew 4 times a year for the 30 years it was functioning.

My favorite part – the board where they mapped the radiation fallout on the left and the ever changing predicted fallout on the right. Looks like it came straight out of a movie.

In all, the York Cold War Bunker should be a definite stop on anyone’s tour of York. What started out as a free way to waste the morning before we drove back to Ulverston turned out to be one of our favorite things in York.