Probably not Monty's Battle HQ, but still....

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godzilla73

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I've noticed that every so, often the marvellous DOB overlay for Google Earth prepared by CptPies (A thousand thankyous!) throws up some interesting conundrums. One such conundrum occurs at Reigate Hill, where in the vicinity of the Palmerston Fort there are two sites on the overlay. The first to the East of the fort at Nut Wood is described as Defence Works - probably ammo stores. To the West of the fort, mention is made of a battle HQ and there is, attached to the DOB entry, a map with some information stating that there was an underground HQ here. Anyway, all this is by way of introducing some photos of these structures, which are quite close to the Fort. In a previous thread Foz101 described them as "air raid shelters" but the large one of the two has window holes in it and the smaller one is, well, too small for that, so I think they are probably both observation posts of some kind. They are at the location suggested for the Battle HQ rather than the Defence Works (though I've not been down to Nut Wood yet to check out whats there - it is about a half mile east of where these pics were taken). If anyone can shed any light on this that would be great, and if anyone wants to do a further explore there that would be great. It's quite hilly and very overgrown but I suspect that there is more here.

First the smaller structure, the closer of the two to the fort
paul4008.jpg

paul4007.jpg

paul4012.jpg


The inside of the smaller structure - what is that hole at the back?
paul4011.jpg


Next the large structure
IMG_8420.jpg

And inside - some of this was flooded after the recent snow
IMG_8423.jpg

IMG_8424.jpg

IMG_8427.jpg

Finally, there is a War Department Marker near here, but you can't quite work out what it says
paul4019.jpg


Comments anyone?
GDZ :)
 
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I agree with graybags, it's identical to all the decoy control bunkers I've seen.
 
Q Decoy

Thanks Bud, and very similar to the one visited by me along with Badoosh and Theterrorwheel (Wembury)

Hope all is well

G
 
They were always just 'air raid shelters' to us when we were kids and didn't know how much more complicated it was :D

I don't know if I mentioned it before (probably several times, so apologies), but there is something approx here: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.25286&lon=-0.209284&z=18.5&r=0&src=msl the FE map is a bit skewed but the Google map shows it better - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=51.25283,-0.209427&spn=0.002464,0.006968&t=h&z=18

Walk down towards the chalk path that leads down the hill. There are railings on the left, there's a gap in one. Walk in and you come across an old driveway. Follow it round, there's a smashed up old house/building in the middle of the woods there.

I should take another trip to see mother really :eek:
 
It's worth noting that although I recognise it as a decoy control bunker their function was actually to house a standby generator set so it could also have served that function and have nothing to do with decoys.
 
Fascinating stuff people - thank you so much for all your comments and links. Sorry Foz - didn't mean to sound insulting about your comments. I just remembered that you'd mentioned them in the other thread. The site you gave the FlashEarth link for is down the hill a bit, and I will probably get down to it in a couple of weeks. The day I took the above photos was extremely muddy with a lot of snow still on the ground. Didn't fancy a mudslide as I had the kids with me and I thought their mother might object!:mrgreen:
When I get to there and Nut Wood though, I'll post what I find.
GDZ
 
Thinking about it the Decoy site makes sense, as Montgomery was based in Reigate for a while, and there were also important quarries and explosive stores nearby - so this might have been to draw attention away from these?
 
lol, it's ok godzilla I know what you meant :p

From what I've read about the subject online (including a brief mention on Subbrit about a long tunnel to the Yew Tree pub on Reigate Hill) it's poo-poo'ed as malicious rumour and not true. But there's something there.
 
Ah, only just noticed this report! It's an interesting site, GDZ. A couple of things...the square base on the floor. Any idea what that might have been for? I thought it might have been for a stove, but it's a different shape to the ones I've seen previously. The other thing...the circular hole. What was on the floor beneath it? It looks like bits of piping and I wondered if they may have fitted into the hole at one time.
Cheers. :)
 
Hmmm...not sure about the square shape in the floor, but it transpires that the circular hole in the smaller struccture could be a vent for a generator. If anyone has any thoughts about the square bit please pass them on!
 

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