Apr 18

Apr 18 Beauchief Royal Observer Corps Post

Nestled into deliberately overgrown shrubs in the back corner of the Abbeydale Golf Club car park, there’s a strange bit of Cold War history: Sheffield’s only Royal Observer Corps post.

The post’s second ventilation shaft, almost lost in shrubs, and the fixed survey meter probe in the foreground.

Despite efforts to hide the remnants from would-be explorers, including dumping a huge mound of detritus right in front of it, there is still much left above ground: the concrete entrance shaft, another ventilation shaft, a probe, and the original gate and fencing to gain the interest of passers-by. Passers-by in an overflow car park? Yes! A footpath goes right past the post, and the Ordnance Survey even helpfully points out where you can find it.

The ‘Obs Post’ is located just to the left of the ‘T’ of Totley, right where the footpath turns ninety degrees.

The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation set up in 1925. It was mainly staffed by volunteers who were trained to identify, track and report aircraft over Great Britain. In 1955, the ROC’s remit changed, and it was given the task of recording and reporting nuclear explosions and fallout.

In 1958, a nationwide building programme began, resulting in 1563 underground, blast-proof and radiation-proof monitoring posts, which were equipped for one to three weeks’ worth of food and water supplies. The Beauchief post was opened in 1959.

A map of the ROC posts, taken from Subterranea Britannica, where you can find your nearest bit of Cold War history.

The posts were spread across the country, roughly eight miles apart from each other, and built identically at a cost of about £5,000 each. A 15 foot shaft with a steel ladder led to a 15 by 7.5 foot room where the three observers would live and work. Another smaller room contained a chemical toilet.

The now closed-off entrance to the post with its louvred ventilation shaft

The post was finally closed and its staff stood down at the end of the Cold War in 1991. The Royal Observer Corps itself ceased its operations at the end of 1995.

Since then, the post has been extensively explored and vandalised, and is now nailed shut. Until around 2014, explorers were still able to get down into the underground rooms, but sadly the shaft has been badly damaged (perhaps in an aborted attempt to destory it) with a lot of the top hacked off before being sealed.

Happily, you can still see images of what it used to look like and what you can find in the rooms below at Picture Sheffield and 28 Days Later. Some other posts have been restored and turned into museums. I doubt there’s any chance of Beauchief’s post ever having such an afterlife.

Looking down the damaged, exposed primary ventilation shaft. No doubt the room below is now water logged and damaged.

The post’s original wooden gate, behind a mound of building debris.

Links

Neolithic Sea has some great information of ROC posts in general, as well as a gallery of images of Beauchief ROC post from 2008.

Subterranea Britannica is where you can find that excellent UK-wide map of ROC posts, as well as a bit of info on Beauchief.

Picture Sheffield is a brilliant resource, and here are some images of the ROC post from 2013.

Yes, of course there is a 28 Days Later report on it.

ROC post observers during a Cold War training exercise. Click the image for technical details.

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