# Coleshill auxiliary unit bunker, Oxfordshire, Aug '08



## batroy (Aug 31, 2008)

I am guessing that readers of this post will know what an auxiliary unit was, if not here's the Wikipedia page for auxiliary units for a bit of background. 

The Coleshill estate lies in countryside near the small town of Highworth, which though now in Oxfordshire was part of Berkshire prior to 1974. In WW2 it played host to the training centre for the auxiliary units, a secret organisation set up to form the British Resistance in the event of a German invasion of the UK. After the war it was given to the National Trust, and though the house was destroyed in an unfortunate fire in 1953 it has been run by them ever since.

The subject of this report is one of the bunkers that was used to train the auxiliary units and which served as the blueprint for all the other auxiliary unit bunkers built around the country, a small underground chamber made from corrugated iron, brick and concrete with an entrance hatchway and ladder behind a blast wall at one end and an escape tunnel at the other end. Today the escape tunnel which used to emerge in a bank a short distance away has collapsed, and the National Trust have created a new entrance with a locked gate in the void it leaves. The original entrance which would once have been covered by a camouflaged trapdoor has been replaced by the trust in a similar fashion with a locked manhole cover.

This site visit was as part of an official guided walking tour of the WW2 history of the Coleshill estate in the company of several National Trust members and in the capable hands of a National Trust historian, for whose informed commentary I was very grateful.

Here's the view down the hatch:





And once inside the view towards the blast walls at the bottom of the ladder.




In the opposite direction the modern day entrance, formerly the escape tunnel. Visible on the left is a bed frame. Originally the concrete floor was covered with wooden floorboards.




As always there's a bit more info on my web site.

This site is not open to the public, it is a fragile heritage site kept securely locked and people are not encouraged to visit it. For that reason I am not giving any details that could give clues to its location. Happily though the National Trust do run guided tours from time to time and if you wish to find out when the next one is then I suggest you do what I did and ask nicely at the Coleshill and Buscot estate office.


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## Foxylady (Sep 1, 2008)

Ah, that's the first time I've seen an Auxiliary Unit bunker. I wondered what they looked like inside. Cheers, Batroy, that;s really interesting.


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## Urban Mole (Sep 1, 2008)

Nice find matey, was there a tree ariel nearby?

Im still trying to find atleast one of the fourteen here on the island, and its proving damn hard


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## Neosea (Sep 1, 2008)

Nice one! Thanks for the photo's.


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## krela (Sep 1, 2008)

Nice one!

It looks like a modified anderson shelter, do you have any shots from the outside?


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## batroy (Sep 2, 2008)

Thanks everyone, glad you like it.

Mole, there was no aerial in a tree here. This was a training bunker. The NT historian mentioned field telephone cable so my guess is that the instructors used that to simulate a radio net instead. It's only a guess though, IANAH.

Krela, it does have similar construction to an Anderson shelter, though it is considerably larger than the domestic Anderson shelters and its sides curve all the way to the floor rather than being straight down. Externally it's changed from how it would have been in wartime as the NT have changed the entrances for security purposes.


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## Urban Mole (Sep 2, 2008)

krela said:


> It looks like a modified anderson shelter, do you have any shots from the outside?



Are you aware its underground? 

These were made never to be found, by the germans that is, if the UK ever got invaded and taken control of.
The resistance would sneak out of these hidaways and sabotage the germans, then disappear again without a trace


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## krela (Sep 2, 2008)

Urban Mole said:


> Are you aware its underground?
> 
> These were made never to be found, by the germans that is, if the UK ever got invaded and taken control of.
> The resistance would sneak out of these hidaways and sabotage the germans, then disappear again without a trace



So were some anderson shelters, depends how dedicated the person putting it up was. We had one in our back garden when I was a kid and some of the other houses on our road did too.

They weren't supposed to be, only 12 inches of soil over the top (not that it would stick), but ironically if you didn't then they were more a deathtrap than a shelter as the pressure waves inside them would kill you if a bomb went off in the near vicinity.

Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say it looks like a modified cross between an anderson shelter and a stanton shelter, it has elements of both.


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## BigLoada (Sep 2, 2008)

Brilliant! Me an Sauasge are well into these bunkers. We found one near us but it was not intact. Great to see an intact one, well done!


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## Sabtr (Sep 3, 2008)

Lithium said:


> Brilliant! Me an Sauasge are well into these bunkers. We found one near us but it was not intact. Great to see an intact one, well done!



Every one we have found (one!) has been blown up. It's good to see a complete one mind!


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## numpty (Jan 21, 2009)

ooooh!

I was gobsmacked to find out last year that my Dad was in an aux unit! Unfortunately he died when I was young, so I never got the chance to find out about it. I found out completely by accident googling his full name and profession. My mam just thought he was in the home guard.

I'll be watching the next part of the Real Dad's Army on Channel4 this Saturday.

BigLoada and Sausage have kindly offered to show Tappanga and me where the remains of my dad's auxunit bunker are.


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## coleshill_house (Jun 30, 2009)

*Coleshill House Website*

I have just built a website called www.coleshillhouse.com and would love to use any info people have including pictures on the website. 

Please check out the site and email me soon.


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## jonney (Jul 2, 2009)

There's a one a few miles from me but it has been destroyed. Great to see what it would have looked like. Cheers


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