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Hi All
Well on Saturday 3rd of April Subbrit arranged a day long visit to the now derelict cold war radar bunker at Wartling in east Sussex.
The bunker was home to the ROTOR radar program being built in 1953 when the system became out of date the bunker was sold off by
the MOD in 1976 the bunker was sealed but the entrance bungalow was turned in to a private house. But the bunker remained unused
and derelict below and filling up with water (one hell of a lot of water).
In 2004 Subbrit and it's members raised the money to have the now flooded bunker pumped out and opened back up.
The bunker is so big that with even 40 plus members of Subbrit and KURG down there no one got in anybodys way.
As usual Fluffy was there with me and we meet up with Godzilla73 so enough of this ramble and on with the pictures.
First off is the emergency exit shaft, this is now the only way in as all the others have be sealed.
Subbrit did install some lights in the bunker but on the day thought it would add more atmos if they were left OFF, so in to total darknes in we went.
OMG is this place big, no not just big it's ******g massive. some areas on the bottom floor are still under water, now you can wade in to this as
it was "Only 3 feet deep" so Mr Catford said but you don't know what else lurks below.
Looking down the top floor passage way
First off a few room and fetures on the upper floor.On the left is the WRAF rest room and on the right is the RAF rest room.
Next up (Left) is the GPO power room and (Right) The Track telling room looking towards the new ops room
The feature in the distance is the Kelvin Hughes projector well
The KH projector would of been in the round well, the shot on the right is looking back towards the "Tracking room"
OK sports fans its time to go down in to the lower level of the bunker, there are 2 stair wells one at each end of the bunker but this is the main one, which has no upper railings so
it's a straight drop to the floor below. The shot on the right is from the bottom and you can see where the water level in the bunker came too before it was pumped out in 2004.
This shot is about half way along the bottom floor passage way looking towards the second set of stairs with rooms off the the left and right, all these rooms are now flooded again.
But there are ways round this problem, if you like climing through cable runs and walking over air ducting. which I do and I think Godzilla has a few pictures to prove it.
The shot on the Left is in the Radar machine room and yes all the cable runns are full of water, the shot on the right is of the plant room as you can see water comes half way up
the door ways.
Round the back of the plant room is the chiller room where all the air chillers for the bunker are, this was reached by climing through an open air vent in the radar machine room wall
then climing over a fan unit and then along the side of one of the chiller units.
YIP-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DRY FEET
Ok now on to the star of the show, the main Ops room some of the shots are from the lower floor then
I moved back up to the top floor to get the last few shots.
Looking down in to the flooded Ops room from the top floor.
The next shot was taken from the far side of the Ops room looking back across to the intercept room (Left) and the Chief controllers room (right)
The picture on the left are the blast doors which protect the bunker along the main entrance way (now blocked) and
right next to the blast doors are these wire frame doors leading in to the former transformer room.
Well thats about it for the Wartling ROTOR bunker, very well done if you made it down this far.
Thanks must go to the land owners and the hard work from all the guys and girls from Subbrit if you want to know a
lot more about the history of the Wartling site you sould go to the Subbrit site.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/w/wartling/index.html
And as usual if you want to see more of my pictures go to my FlickR page at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157623642292035/
Any and all comments are most welcome.
Cheers Newage
Well on Saturday 3rd of April Subbrit arranged a day long visit to the now derelict cold war radar bunker at Wartling in east Sussex.
The bunker was home to the ROTOR radar program being built in 1953 when the system became out of date the bunker was sold off by
the MOD in 1976 the bunker was sealed but the entrance bungalow was turned in to a private house. But the bunker remained unused
and derelict below and filling up with water (one hell of a lot of water).
In 2004 Subbrit and it's members raised the money to have the now flooded bunker pumped out and opened back up.
The bunker is so big that with even 40 plus members of Subbrit and KURG down there no one got in anybodys way.
As usual Fluffy was there with me and we meet up with Godzilla73 so enough of this ramble and on with the pictures.
First off is the emergency exit shaft, this is now the only way in as all the others have be sealed.
Subbrit did install some lights in the bunker but on the day thought it would add more atmos if they were left OFF, so in to total darknes in we went.
OMG is this place big, no not just big it's ******g massive. some areas on the bottom floor are still under water, now you can wade in to this as
it was "Only 3 feet deep" so Mr Catford said but you don't know what else lurks below.
Looking down the top floor passage way
First off a few room and fetures on the upper floor.On the left is the WRAF rest room and on the right is the RAF rest room.
Next up (Left) is the GPO power room and (Right) The Track telling room looking towards the new ops room
The feature in the distance is the Kelvin Hughes projector well
The KH projector would of been in the round well, the shot on the right is looking back towards the "Tracking room"
OK sports fans its time to go down in to the lower level of the bunker, there are 2 stair wells one at each end of the bunker but this is the main one, which has no upper railings so
it's a straight drop to the floor below. The shot on the right is from the bottom and you can see where the water level in the bunker came too before it was pumped out in 2004.
This shot is about half way along the bottom floor passage way looking towards the second set of stairs with rooms off the the left and right, all these rooms are now flooded again.
But there are ways round this problem, if you like climing through cable runs and walking over air ducting. which I do and I think Godzilla has a few pictures to prove it.
The shot on the Left is in the Radar machine room and yes all the cable runns are full of water, the shot on the right is of the plant room as you can see water comes half way up
the door ways.
Round the back of the plant room is the chiller room where all the air chillers for the bunker are, this was reached by climing through an open air vent in the radar machine room wall
then climing over a fan unit and then along the side of one of the chiller units.
YIP-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DRY FEET
Ok now on to the star of the show, the main Ops room some of the shots are from the lower floor then
I moved back up to the top floor to get the last few shots.
Looking down in to the flooded Ops room from the top floor.
The next shot was taken from the far side of the Ops room looking back across to the intercept room (Left) and the Chief controllers room (right)
The picture on the left are the blast doors which protect the bunker along the main entrance way (now blocked) and
right next to the blast doors are these wire frame doors leading in to the former transformer room.
Well thats about it for the Wartling ROTOR bunker, very well done if you made it down this far.
Thanks must go to the land owners and the hard work from all the guys and girls from Subbrit if you want to know a
lot more about the history of the Wartling site you sould go to the Subbrit site.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/w/wartling/index.html
And as usual if you want to see more of my pictures go to my FlickR page at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157623642292035/
Any and all comments are most welcome.
Cheers Newage