COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

UKWMO underground monitoring post, which opened in 1964. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1394695
Date first listed:: 18-Oct-2010
List Entry Name:: COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION
Statutory Address:: COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1394695
Date first listed:: 18-Oct-2010
List Entry Name:: COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION
Statutory Address 1:: COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: COLD WAR UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Derbyshire
District:: Derbyshire Dales (District Authority)
Parish:: Brassington
National Grid Reference:: SK 22779 55226

Reasons for Designation

The UKWMO underground monitoring post at Brassington is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural Interest: An example of a standard design, which is an architectural representation of the changing threats to national security. * Historical interest: The juxtaposition of the UKWMO monitoring station with the adjacent WWII ROC post reflects the continuity and change in the role of the ROC, and changes in the types, and levels, of potential threat on a national and international scale. * Intactness and Alteration: The building survives structurally intact with the rare survival of internal fittings. * Group Value: The significance is considerably enhanced by association with the WWII ROC post.

Details

BRASSINGTON

74/0/10003 Cold War Underground Monitoring Station 18-OCT-10

GV II UKWMO underground monitoring post, which opened in 1964.

MATERIALS, PLAN, EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR: The subterranean building is constructed entirely of concrete. The ROC post is visible on the surface as a grassy mound with a concrete ventilation shaft with two louvered vents at each end. That to the southern end is adjacent to an entrance shaft. A vertical pipe extending above ground between the two ventilation shafts would have been the base plate for a Bomb Power Indicator, an instrument introduced to these monitoring posts around 1958 when inadequacies of the earlier monitoring instruments were identified.

The monitoring posts were built to a standard design. The single entrance shaft is approximately 4.5m deep and gives access to two rooms, one containing a chemical toilet and the larger operations room which measures approximately 4.5m by 2.25m. In 2001 it was recorded that within the Brassington UKWMO post a number of items survive including; beds, mattresses, shelving, an instrument table, a WB1401 carrier receiver, WB1410 filter unit, BT connection boxes and wiring, posters, and original folding canvas chair. Telephones and other mechanical equipment had been removed.

HISTORY: Following the end of World War II, the ROC had a brief period of stand-down before it was reactivated in 1947 in response to the increased tension with the Eastern Block. By the 1950s the threat of nuclear attack persuaded the Government to set up the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO). The Royal Observer Corps was given the job of collecting information on the locations of nuclear bombs, information on weapon sizes, fallout information, and basic weather information. In 1968 nearly 700 posts were closed.

The UKWMO underground post at Brassington came into use in 1965 when the main role of the ROC became nuclear reporting. The monitoring station was decommissioned in 1991 when the ROC was finally stood down.

SOURCES: Cocroft, W 'Cold War Monuments:an assessment by the Monuments Protection Programme' (English Heritage 2001) Military Buildings Selection Guide. (English Heritage 2007) 12-13 www.subterranea brittanica.org.uk (accessed April 2010).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The UKWMO underground monitoring post at Brassington is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons;

* Architectural Interest: An example of a standard functional design which is an architectural representation of the changing threats to national security. * Historical interest: The juxtaposition of the UKWMO monitoring station with the adjacent WWII ROC post reflects the continuity and change in the role of the ROC, and changes in the types, and levels, of potential threat on a national and international scale. * Intactness and Alteration: The building survives structurally intact with the rare survival of internal fittings. * Group Value: The significance is enhanced by association with the WWII ROC post.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 508494
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.