hello and welcome to today's edition of through the hedge
we're very excited by
today's destination yes it's top secret so we're not going
to tell you yet where we're going but you said secret so that's your clue yep
we will tell you however... nothing we tell you nothing!
the coordinates of our secret
mission today is well a secret but I can tell you that if you're traveling on the
Shropshire Union Canal you need to moor your boat from near to bridge 85
there's a sign there that gives away the secret
Shall I show them? yeah
due to the automatic number plate recognition we're on foot so we can slip
into the location undetected
here we are at the secret nuclear bunker which is kind of in the middle of
nowhere at a place called Hack Green which is kind of what you'd expect
because it's used to be a very well-kept secret and the
approach to the bunker from the canal is really beautiful and really peaceful and
it's a lovely walk
peaceful is the last thing that Hack Green was in World War two
in 1941 Hack Green was chosen to become the new RAF site its job was to protect
the land between Birmingham and Liverpool from enemy attack
This was known as the fixed radar station
so Hack Green was set up with searchlights and a
radar and this room shows you everything it's really fascinating can't wait to
have a look around
the radar network of world war ii was replaced by rotor -R O T O R
rotor was the code name given to the plan to replace the radars with bunkers
after World War two a renewed look at the radar system at Hack Green showed
that it would not stand up to a nuclear threat wouldn't be able to detect a
nuclear threat
so we are in a semi sunk bunker called r6
there's no mobile phone signal
raf hack green was equipped to protect Britain
against Soviet threat conventional and nuclear
advance warning of approaching Russian bombers would allow the RAF to launch
fighter aircraft or bloodhound ground-to-air missiles
We are just having a discussion about whether or not we are going to enter the nuclear shelter experience
I'm just wondering if there is a door down the other end and a passage that loops round
Well no, it says...
Let's go in!
It's horrible
We have to stay here for 5 minutes
So its going to show you what a detonation and a
bomb of a nuclear thingy would be like I don't want to stay in here
We have to. It says!
Wait for 5 minutes
Do you wanna stay in here?
Do you want to see what it's like?
What about if I wait outside?
I think that was the flash then.
[big bang]
I guess that was it. Thats horrible.
we found a morse code machine
we're in the central point of the basement in the commissioner's office
and the Commissioner was one of only two people to have a bed in their room
I guess sleeping on the job was okay for some people
especially this lady
Tell them why. Kath's had this joke for the whole tour which you will probably enjoy also
if you come to the bunker
it looks like they may have got a job lot of
mannequins from maybe a clothing department store and you may notice
as you go around the museum that a lot of the officers are women a
disproportionate amount it's a lot of women working here which they could have
been as well but there's a lot of Soviet women also
we're here in the ladies dorm
room this room slept 15 female officers and there were two male
dormitories as well. In total there was 40 staff here. Wow.
so this was where you wouldn't actually
get a bed assigned you would kind of just sleep a night he just kind of sleep
[the lights went off because we were too still!]
You would just kind of sleep in the bed that was unoccupied yeah so someone going off shift going on shift
would free a bed and you take it
In 1958 Hack green became part of the United
Kingdom air traffic control system look they have their badges
and so do I! Available now online
and this station was closed down in 1966 when did
it open to the public I think in 2004. Okay.
in 2004 the bunker opened up a
viewing to a real thermonuclear weapon viewing a weapon like this really brings
home just what a threat there was and also that England really had the means
to defend itself that must have been a really scary time a weapons so dangerous
that one blinding flash of a detonation would mean the instant death of millions
so it cost us I think just over nine nine pounds ish to get in a ticket lasts
all year and so if you're local it's well worth it if you're just passing by
it's also worth it it's really interesting there's quite a lot to see
there's a video that runs for forty-five minutes [its a bit gruesome] if you so sit thought
leave a comment below and let us know what happens no it's just gruesome as a
kid warning on it as well actually quite family-friendly here educationally
there's a little mouse hunt you can do for a mouse spy. It might be just not all the time
I'm pretty sure it's all the time they've got certificates there's a
little gift shop there's a little cafe yeah so it's really close to the canal
and if you are passing by on the Shropshire Union in either direction we
recommend that you do call in. we do
this view of history through the hedge and so close to the canal is an
important and interesting stop on your travels
We're all cold again thank you
for watching today's episode hopefully you have enjoyed it we wanted to review
the bunker because it's not cheap and it just let you know whether or not it was
a valuable place to go and so hopefully you found that helpful if you're not in
the UK we also wanted to show it to you because it's really interesting so we've
had a nice day out and we hope you've enjoyed taking a look around hack green
nuclear bunker with us secret if you haven't already please do subscribe to
be notified when we release future vlogs thanks thanks for watching bye
I left the fire on. I hope so, I'm freezing. No heating in that bunker. actually there
wasn't I want to find to. and even though we're walking along the canal
right now pass some moorings Anna made us moor up 20 minutes away. well you do have a 20-minute walk but that's because
I wasn't sure that there'd be any space at the moorings. Because in winter is peak time for mooring at a bunker. such as London
psychology