Today I saw...

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
In my younger (single) days I met some scottish army lads in the Grapes. They were here for a few weeks doing a neuclear attack training exercise somewhere by Eccleshall. I joked that they could let me into their bunker if there was attack......they replied that their strict instructions were to shoot any civilian survivors approaching their bunkers

Ok, more there than I thought. Thought it might have something to do with the old Royal Ordnance Factory & it looks as though it did, indirectly. ROF Swynnerton was massive, stretched from Swynnerton down to where Raleigh Hall Industrial Estate now is, round Cold Meece to Yarnfield with buildings which are now alongside the M6 and across to Cotes. One of the most dangerous of ROFs, a filling factory so lots of small buildings surrounded by blast walls. Also had storage bunkers and residential hostels, houses and flats for workers. At its peak 18,000 people worked there. It had two rail lines, one off the main Norton Junction to Crewe line for goods in & out and one from the Norton Junction to Stone line to bring workers in from the Potteries & surrounding areas. The latter had 18 trains a day at peak, carrying 8000 people. There was a play put on in recent years about the women workers there but I can't remember the details.

Built 1939-1941 and remained in use until 1958. There was also a training camp for WRNS (HMS Fledgling) training in aircraft maintenance 1943-46 and for a while American Airforce personnel were housed in one of the hostels. It became an Army Training Camp in 1960. Also in 1960 two of the magazines were converted as the Civil Defence Group Control for North Staffordshire and Stoke Borough Council areas, In 1964 Group Control were abolished and it became Staffordshire County Council Control and County Training Centre. In 1968 this was transferred to the basement of the County Building in Stafford and the bunker put on care & maintenance. In the early 1980s it was reactivated as SRSG9.1 and in 1988 was refitted as RGHQ 9.1. The entire system was regarded as redundant after 1992 and the various RGHQs and other bunkers were closed down and disposed of from the mid 1990s onwards (although undoubtedly a replacement system now exists somewhere.)

Odd bits might remain. Of the hostels, Drake Hall became a prison, Raleigh Hall an industrial estate, Beatty Hall and Howard Hall became the BT Training Centre, Frobisher Hall, Duncan Hall and Nelson Hall were demolished. Other odd buildings may remain. I suspect a communications bunker existed on the site at some time but it remains elusive.
 
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