Uncovering Worcestershire's underground nuclear secrets

The bomb would have been dropped on Evesham, but that wouldn’t have mattered much, because most of the county, along with a good part of neighbouring Gloucestershire, would have been flattened, while radiation would have covered many hundreds of square miles more.

The area was in the cross hairs of the Soviets because it contained the Government’s hidden communications centre in the event of nuclear war.

The specific location was Wood Norton Hall, the Jacobean style mansion just outside the town, which had served in a similar role during the Second World War.

Indeed it was the extensive additions and alterations made to the property by the BBC and government services during the late 1930s and 40s, which made it ideal for continued use when the so-called Cold War between the USSR and the West gripped Europe for more than 40 years, until Russian president Gorbachev and American president and former western movie star Ronald Regan smoked a peace pipe in 1987.

However, if this use of the former glittering home of the Duc d’Orleans was supposed to be a secret, it wasn’t a very well kept one, because as late as 1984, Evesham Nuclear Disarmament and West Midlands CND joined forces to issue a leaflet which read: “Today a group of BBC senior staff  is being evacuated from Broadcasting House in London to the BBC Central control bunker at Wood Norton, near Evesham.

“Originally meant to be secret, news  of the rehearsal for nuclear war was given on Tuesday by the Daily Telegraph, which claimed ‘these key staff would broadcast a skeleton news service for survivors of the holocaust’.”

So if a national newspaper knew about Wood Norton, it’s a fair assumption the Russians weren’t far behind and more likely a long way in front.

The two authors of Top Secret Worcestershire II, Stephen Burrows (left) and Michael Layton

The reminder of these scary days comes in a new book by Stephen Burrows and Michael Layton, two former West Midlands police officers, who have turned  prolific authors in their retirement. Among their considerable output, they published Top Secret Worcestershire in 2018, which covered the county’s vital role in the technology side of the Second World War, the development of radar and other systems that contributed to the defeat of the Nazis.

Now they have taken the story on from 1945 through to the end of the Cold War in Top Secret Worcestershire II (Bostin Books). With more than 200 photographs, the book continues the saga with a welter of more fascinating facts, strange tales and eye witness accounts.

Among the gems is a lid-lifting account of the goings-on at Summerfield Research Station, where in 1950, in a quiet village near Kidderminster, a facility was developed to build and test rocket motors.

Surrounded by a high metal fence and with its own fire service and police presence, the station had very much its own community and over the years worked on numerous types of anti-tank weapons and surface to air missiles, as well as naval weapons such as the Sea Cat, Sea Dart and Sea Wolf.

There is also a tour around a Second World War facility that can still be visited today. On the top of Fish Hill, on the Worcestershire-Gloucestershire border, stands Broadway Observation Post at Broadway Tower, where members of the Royal Observer Corps kept a weather eye out for danger.

The Broadway Tower underground nuclear bunker is intact and has been accurately restored to its original condition with the help of local ex-ROC staff and is open for guided tours on certain days listed on the Broadway Tower website.

So that bit of Top Secret Worcestershire is a secret no longer. For the rest you may have to rely on the detailed narrative of this book.

Top Secret Worcestershire II by Stephen Burrows and Michael Layton is available through WH Smith, Coach House Books, Pershore, and Amazon at £14.95.