N 51.67196°, E 00.25748°
From the church we made our way to Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker.
This is the bunker that was intended to house all of the most 'important' individuals in the UK in the event of the big bang, and from which the country would theoretically have been run. Photos weren't allowed after the entrance (pictured).
The scale and engineering are awesome. 600 people could thrive for 3 months deep underground using filtered air supplies and tanked water in the hope that by the end of that period they could re-emerge and re-establish some kind of order (optimistic in hindsight perhaps - but then those were the days when idiotic "human rights" farces didn't trump morality).
People housed would have included the PM, key ministers, MoD officers, Police chiefs, scientists, broadcasters, and a few other carefully selected individuals with the capability of picking up the pieces. (Not personally sure about the wisdom of leaving out all the people that could actually make stuff rather than just sharpen pencils).
It's hard to convey the brilliance of the engineering expertise (that is now over 60 years old) employed in creating a fully self-contained nuclear-bomb-proof living cell capable of subterranean communication with military and European-wide political agencies; suffice to say it's pretty extraordinary and well worth a visit.
The owner is truly eccentric but has been good enough to allow us to kip in his (gated) car park for the night so we're probably - all things considered - as strategically safe as it's ever possible to be.
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