Former Aaor and County Emergency HQ

Details

MISTLEY

1252/0/10019 SHRUBLAND ROAD
22-MAY-07 (Off)
FORMER AAOR AND COUNTY EMERGENCY HQ

II
Cold War Bunker, Anti-Aircraft Operations Room. 1951. Reinforced concrete construction.

PLAN: Square 2-storey semi-sunken structure with a central operations/plotting room surrounded by circulating passage, offices, plant room and control cabins.

EXTERIOR: Plain elevations with a flat roof and protruding ventilation/exhaust structure on the roof above the plant rooms. An associated tall aerial is situated immediately to the south west of the bunker. The two entrances are protected by heavy blast walls with twin double outer blast doors of steel.

INTERIOR: The double height semi-sunken central planning room is overlooked by viewing galleries on the first floor which retain their characteristic curving perspex fronts. These galleries, which are supported on columns, connect to the suite of surrounding rooms chiefly offices, latrines and rest rooms. Those on the ground floor were mainly for ancillary equipment, plant, batteries and communications. The original and ancilliary stairs remain in position. Most of the surrounding rooms leading off the main corridor retain their original wooden doors. Most of the rooms retain original fittings including floor tiles over concrete floors and light switches; the original box ducting for the ventilation system remains intact throughout. The air conditioning system is intact and operational as is the filtration system. The RN diesel engine and Crompton Parkinson generator system was installed in 1951 and remains virtually intact as does a hoist for mechanical goods.

HISTORY: Anti Aircraft Operations Rooms (AAOR's) formed an integral part of the United Kingdom's anti-aircraft defences during the early 1950s, and are a physical representation of early Cold War defence strategy which looked back to the Second World War for its inspiration. It was a system designed to counter the perceived contemporary Soviet nuclear threat, comprising manned turboprop bombers carrying atomic bombs to attack major conurbations and airfields. By the mid-1950s advancing technology, in the form of fast jet bombers, the development of the hydrogen bomb, and the threat of long-range rockets, rendered the system obsolete. The former Anti Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR) at Furze Hill was constructed in 1951 for the Royal artillery under the command of 1 Group, 6 Brigade. The AAOR's were the command centres for 32 gun-defended areas in the United Kingdom, of which 23 were in England, usually placed around major conurbations and centres of armament production. They were intended to receive information of the approach of hostile aircraft from the Master Radar Stations and allocate targets to the gun batteries within their area. The bunker at Furze Hill, Mistley was responsible for controlling Anti-Aircraft Batteries in the Harwich Defended Area. This role was short lived as Anti-Aircraft Command was abolished in 1956 and the bunker was sold to Essex County Council in 1963. It later became one of 4 sub-controls reporting to the County Control at Chelmsford, and by 1966 it had become the County Emergency HQ for Essex County Council. From 1968 until the early 1980's it was placed on care and maintenance, and in 1984 it became the county standby when a new control centre was opened in County Hall. The bunker remained operational until 1993 when it was de-commissioned. In 1995, it was leased to the Bunker Preservation Trust and opened to the public as a museum in 1996 until its closure in 2002.

SOURCES: Cold War Monuments: an assessment by the Monuments Protection Programme English Heritage. http://www.subbrit.org.uk: Mistley accessed on 2 November 2006

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:
This Anti-Aircraft Operations Room, constructed in the early 1950s, is a rare example of its type and one of the best-preserved remaining examples surviving in England. Its intact exterior is complemented by the relatively unaltered interior, which retains its original configuration of rooms, notably the central operations room with its first floor viewing platforms, as well as the original air filtration plant and numerous original fittings. The importance of this structure is acknowledged at an international level, which is supported by the thematic survey of Cold War buildings and structures in England, undertaken by English Heritage.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

496241

Legacy System:

LBS

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