Burrows Bridge, Shropshire Union – Thursday 19 July 2012
Today was a non-canal day as I’ve only travelled about two miles and moored up at Burrows Bridge then went off to see the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker.  Some secret now as it shows up in guide books and on street maps!  This started out in 1941 as a Royal Air Force RADAR station during the Second World War, then became a top secret post from 1952 looking out for Soviet missiles, in 1960 it doubled as part of the UK’s Air Traffic Control and in 1966 was reduced to a standby station.  After a major re-build it was run by the Home Office as a Regional Government Headquarters (for use should a nuclear attack take place destroying Central government) when the Commissioner with his staff would then “lead the reconstruction of a post-war Britain from the ashes of a thermo-nuclear conflict”.  It was declassified in 1993 and has been turned into a sort of ‘Cold War’ museum that is well worth a visit, although depending on your viewpoint it could be chilling (listing the expected numbers killed or injured) or frivolous (instructions from Central Government to make an inner refuge from a door and some sandbags).  The ‘canteen’ is decorated like a services NAAFI, but the canteen staff were friendlier than I remember.