Snooping around Nantwich (16/8)

As a complete change from yesterday, we went to look for Hack Green which was a “secret” Nuclear Bunker created during the Cold War. We eventually found it down a number of winding lanes which were well sign-posted, emphasising that it was a "secret" bunker. When we arrived we found a large concrete blockhouse surrounded by barbed wire with signs all around telling us that it was a secret site and authorised personnel only were permitted, etc. but still obviously open to the public!  Also I thought that sign meant that it contained radioactive material rather than protecting someone from it.

Very functional - unlike the stately homes we have seen

The site has been used by the military for quite some time. During World War II initially as a radar site and then to interfere with German radar so that they would have more difficulty finding their targets in the Manchester/Liverpool areas. It was then abandoned after the war, but pressed into service again after Russia detonated their first nuclear weapon in 1948 to spy on Russian military air traffic. It was then abandoned again until the 1908's when the Cold War was at its height.

It was then refurbished at a cost of £32,000,000 to become one of 17 centres of Regional Government in the UK which could take over running the country should a nuclear attack eventuate.

The canteen was full of
tongue-in-the-cheek signs

Each of these bunkers was designed to protect about 130 people for at least 2 months by cutting them off from the outside world except for communication with similar bunkers.

The top government official who made it into the bunker would take over as controller and would direct activities depending on information coming in from other sites as well as from monitoring equipment.

None of these sites was adequate to protect any of the rest of the population. Civilians and military would essentially have to fend for themselves. If you remember, people in this part of the world were sent educational material giving advice on how to identify radiation poisoning and very basic instructions on how to minimise contact with contamination – from our current viewpoint they seem quite cosmetic!! The best the bunker could provide would be monitoring where the nuclear fallout was originating from and where the winds were likely to send it so that both civilians and emergencies services outside the bunker would know where and where not to go. The facilities for warning the public included a broadcast studio.

So this is what all the fuss is about.
Their size is not impressive, but obviously the impact is!

The girls were perturbed by all this preparation and wondered how much of a real threat it was and how much was the government and the armed forces responding to their own propaganda. They were quite unnerved by the visit. I guess I was more fatalistic.

The displays throughout the complex were quite interesting. Not only were many of the rooms left as they would have been during the Crisis, but other displayed uniforms equipment and materials used by both sides during this time. I was interested to see just how small a nuclear weapon was given the amount of destruction it can cause.

The Cheshire Cat - ducking to get in

On the way back to Chester we stopped in Nantwich at the Cheshire Cat, a pub we had noted on the way in. It was a lovely black and white building built in the early 17^th century and converted into almshouses in 1676. No doubt it has had many incarnations since then but a lot of the structure in the front part of the building is still in place. Indeed even I had to duck my head to pass through.

Inside the Cheshire Cat, the beams were
 a challenge even for Christine and Jill

 Out the back, however, is very modern and between the two it is obvious where the old structure has been directly replaced and where it has been modernised. The whole building blended together quite well despite the diversity of styles (or perhaps because of it?). We all had the Ploughman's lunch of bread cheese, pickled onion and ham (a meal designed to attract people back into pubs in the UK).

The town of Whitchurch where we stopped on our way back is a well-preserved but mixed town of medieval to modern buildings, although the mostly modern civic centre is poorly maintained and unsympathetic with its surrounding black and white Tudor, Regency and Georgian buildings. We have never walked along a Main Street with so many arched gateways which would in the past have allowed carriages to access the stables behind. We went into St Alkmund's church at the top of the hill because of its unusually large windows of rounded Regency style with very narrow walls between. It was very light and airy compared to any of the others we had seen, partly because only a couple of the windows had been replaced with stained glass.

Inside St Alkmund's