Wednesday 18 January 2012

WW2 Bunker Explore...Berwickshire...

Friend Ped asked if i wanted to take a look at a Bunker he stumbled/fell across when out wandering about 3 years ago down the coast in Berwickshire.
From his description it sounded like a WW2 Air Raid shelter but i still wanted to go explore and have a look just in case it was something else from WW2 i have been researching lately-more of that in the future...
He only had to ask me once and we drove down on Saturday to have a look,
With the car parked in a lay by and `Fly` his very active collie in tow we walked through woods and up and down a few steep ravines and it felt like the middle of nowhere but we were quite near the East Coast Rail Line and in the distance you could hear the rumble of traffic on the A1 road..."If i hear banjo`s playing Ped I'm out of here!" i said as we plodded through tight trees and undergrowth until we reached it,
Visible in the winter with the vegetation died back you would miss this in summer or fall in and hurt yourself,
Before i could see the entrance i could see the raised area sticking out in the surrounding area...



I was nearly on top of the entrance before i saw it despite the died back vegetation...



With another entrance under that small tree it looked like a WW2 Air Raid shelter and this looked like the vertical entrance with its foot rungs...



Half filled with soil it looked like it had once been filled at both ends to seal it off but someone else had reopened it-don't blame them...
I too wanted to go in for a look, Ped went first then i slid down on my backside into the room with a small torch in my mouth and camera in my jacket...
Fly busied herself with a stick up top...



It was indeed a WW2 Air Raid Shelter, one of several designs at the far end was the door to the ground level exit/entrance...



They had one vertical,one ground entrance/exit in case they were hit direct from a bomb on either end, this ground exit/entrance was filled in...



These look like a type of air vent,the vertical entrance/exit would have had a metal cover as the side exit had a door...



Wasn't much inside,no sign of beds or bunks but the holes in the walls show where they went...




There was some old rusty tins...



The bricks were made in East Lothian at Prestonpans-seems all war sites i visit have bricks from here...



And this i think is an ink bottle?...



But what puzzled me was these things...




Anyone any idea what they are?, they look like some sort of angle measuring instrument,there were about 6 of them lying there,they had a wooden base-now rotten...




Time to head out into daylight...



Fresh Air!...



That was a nice wee explore,
Now the question is why was there an Air Raid Shelter there where it is not near any buildings?, there isn't any remains of any nearby or of a Home Gaurd lookout or defence buildings like pill boxes etc. Nearest thing is the railway, maybe there was a Signal Box nearby once and it was for that?, a look at an old map may give the answer.
Here is a wee film of the Shelter...





Meanwhile my friend Al had phoned from John Muir Park having seen my Pugsley sand bike tyre tracks and thought i was there-but they were from the day before.
He was down searching an area where he has already found his own WW2 artifacts uncovered by currents...
And today he had found this lot...



A mortar fin, .303 shells and bullets and two 20mm ispan Cannon shells- there from an aircraft, a beaufighter, Mustang, Hurricane or Spitfire, need to have a search myself there in the future for some souvenirs...

11 comments:

  1. Where about was this Air riad shelter/bunker?? I have alot of ww2 mapping/os maps of east lothian/North england, might be able to shed some light on it??

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  2. Hi, Its at Penmanshiel, beside the Railwayline which was moved after the tinnel collapse there,

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    1. Hi coastkid,
      Any chance you could e-mail me at aux201@btinternet.com ? I have information relating to your find.

      Kind regards,

      Dave

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  3. More likely a ROC post than an air raid shelter, the angle thing im going to guess was for messuring the height of incomming aircraft

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    1. Yup have to agree with you there. In later days similar tools were issued for measuring the height of nuclear clouds.

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    2. Looks like the very same for measuring height. Later (post 60's) ROC equipment also consisted of similar objects used to measure the height of nuclear clouds and radiation levels. The bunker team also had periscopes out of the roof of the bunker.

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  4. Agreed, it looks more like ROC then air raid shelter, and i agree with the angle things being for messuring aircraft heights

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  5. do you organise group ride outs or is it mostly youself and friends?..cheers

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  6. Hi paul, i do not do organised ride outs, just riding with mates nad anyone else who wants to come out, if your local email me and i will get in touch, cheers, Bruce

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  7. It's an auxiliary stay-behind shelter - look it up!

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  8. Agreed. A stay-behind group base. If Jerry invaded this group, who had been secretly trained would leave home telling no-one and hide in there. They were to kill traitors and do other nasty things. The small alcove looked like it was a toilet (Just a bucket) There should be a hole at one end where the chimney was. Normally there would only be two vertical exits. and they would be stocked with every type of weapon there was. They were called "Churchills Secret Army".

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