Greetings all;
Welcome to a little photographic underground walk of The Grove air raid shelters at Sarratt near Watford.The site was formally the WWII HQ of the LMS Railway and was built during 1939 in order to keep the day to day operations of the busy railway running smoothly and its headquarters staff safe during any bombing raids.Prior to this date the HQ was at Euston Stn London-an obvious target for a bombing raid.
First off is a map of the area as it was in 1941.With the air raid shelters in question being outlined in red near to top right.Thanx for the map must go to Outkast and it has been shamelesssly lifted from his posting on Adam H's thread from 6 weeks ago. !!
If you look on Google Earth you can still see the scars of some of the original buildings -its now a golf course !!
AND in case you havent noticed before at the top of the screen on Google Earth click on the clock image and this will allow you to select an earlier Sat image to display and if you go back as far as you can -i think its 1999 you can bring the past back to life !!GOOD EH !!
Right now on with the phots they are all very samey as basically what you have down there are thirteen individual shelters all connected by a passageway.Each shelter is allocated a letter from A to M and each letter is divided into four areas (i think !!)
This is an entry passage looking towards shelter A.
Here is Shelter C4 showing the remains of the wooden seating and the fixings for the lighting.
Another entrance passageway for Shelter D showing the remains of an electrical distribution and fuse box .
More seating and at the rear is the remains of a toilet area.
Seating remains in G3.
...and G4.
And finally entrance to L2.
Hopefully Newage will post his selection of bits n pieces provided he can wade thru the phots he took of EVERY stencilled area number on site !! Must be the train spotter in him !! But while youre waiting think of getting yourself down here and have a look for yerself.Its completely walk in and is in excellent condition and is just down the road from the GCI station that was RAF Chenies.!!!
PS Thanx again to Adam H for the Gen and all the cuddly spiders that lurk here !!!
Welcome to a little photographic underground walk of The Grove air raid shelters at Sarratt near Watford.The site was formally the WWII HQ of the LMS Railway and was built during 1939 in order to keep the day to day operations of the busy railway running smoothly and its headquarters staff safe during any bombing raids.Prior to this date the HQ was at Euston Stn London-an obvious target for a bombing raid.
First off is a map of the area as it was in 1941.With the air raid shelters in question being outlined in red near to top right.Thanx for the map must go to Outkast and it has been shamelesssly lifted from his posting on Adam H's thread from 6 weeks ago. !!
If you look on Google Earth you can still see the scars of some of the original buildings -its now a golf course !!
AND in case you havent noticed before at the top of the screen on Google Earth click on the clock image and this will allow you to select an earlier Sat image to display and if you go back as far as you can -i think its 1999 you can bring the past back to life !!GOOD EH !!
Right now on with the phots they are all very samey as basically what you have down there are thirteen individual shelters all connected by a passageway.Each shelter is allocated a letter from A to M and each letter is divided into four areas (i think !!)
This is an entry passage looking towards shelter A.
Here is Shelter C4 showing the remains of the wooden seating and the fixings for the lighting.
Another entrance passageway for Shelter D showing the remains of an electrical distribution and fuse box .
More seating and at the rear is the remains of a toilet area.
Seating remains in G3.
...and G4.
And finally entrance to L2.
Hopefully Newage will post his selection of bits n pieces provided he can wade thru the phots he took of EVERY stencilled area number on site !! Must be the train spotter in him !! But while youre waiting think of getting yourself down here and have a look for yerself.Its completely walk in and is in excellent condition and is just down the road from the GCI station that was RAF Chenies.!!!
PS Thanx again to Adam H for the Gen and all the cuddly spiders that lurk here !!!
