Wargrave WW2 Shadow Factory & Armed Forces HQ, Henley On Thames - Oxfordshire

Built as a WWII shadow factory, which manufactured aircraft components.

At one time it was the AFHQ for London.

The bunker is currently being used for archive storage.

The Underground Factory ran by Sir George Godfrey and Partners making hydraulics and gearbox assemblies for the Phillips Master trainer. 30'000 sq ft of manufacturing space. Surface buildings ran as a private engineering works until early 1980's. Underground space became a covert Army Communication Centre during Cold War.

The Wargrave Road, Henley site, I believe it was tied in as a aircraft factory with Vincent's Motor Works on Station Road in Reading. Where the subways and underground space were used to make parts which were then sent to this place for assembly.


Main Entrance

Other Entrance




Main Entrance in 1995 (Credit: Keith Ward)

One of the corridors inside taken in 1995 (Credit: Keith Ward)

Vincents used to beuild an repair Spitfires in WWII. I remember the place from when I was at school seeing the showrooms full of BMC cars. The road that lead to the lower levels is Gerrard street and used as a taxi rank. I'd love to have seen inside the place. I never knew what happend there till recent years
This link shows how I remember the station and Vincents as a kid and also shows the demolition of the showrooms
Never knew of the shadow factory at Henley either

callumcrom00 said:

Built as a WWII shadow factory, which manufactured aircraft components.

At one time it was the AFHQ for London.

The bunker is currently being used for archive storage.

The Underground Factory ran by Sir George Godfrey and Partners making hydraulics and gearbox assemblies for the Phillips Master trainer. 30'000 sq ft of manufacturing space. Surface buildings ran as a private engineering works until early 1980's. Underground space became a covert Army Communication Centre during Cold War.

The Wargrave Road, Henley site, I believe it was tied in as a aircraft factory with Vincent's Motor Works on Station Road in Reading. Where the subways and underground space were used to make parts which were then sent to this place for assembly.

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Main Entrance
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Other Entrance
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Main Entrance in 1995 (Credit: Keith Ward)
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One of the corridors inside taken in 1995 (Credit: Keith Ward)

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What was the Phillips Master trainer?

Hayman said:

What was the Phillips Master trainer?

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If memory serves, it was a Ground Based aircraft fuselage that allowed a trainee pilot with absolutely no aircraft experience at all, to practise the fundamentals of Bank and Turn. No chance of instructors or airworthy aircraft being killed or destroyed, whilst one gained fundamental knowledge - I think the Link Trainer was another type of basic training device also.

Very interesting place that

Dirus_Strictus said:

If memory serves, it was a Ground Based aircraft fuselage that allowed a trainee pilot with absolutely no aircraft experience at all, to practise the fundamentals of Bank and Turn. No chance of instructors or airworthy aircraft being killed or destroyed, whilst one gained fundamental knowledge - I think the Link Trainer was another type of basic training device also.

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Many thanks for the info. Yes, a lot safer - and cheaper - than the real thing.

I stumbled across this page and registered. Thanks for the pics, I used to explore this place loads in the 90's when it still had the telephone exchange, some maps, signage, beds, a safe etc. Thanks for the pics, great to see the place again.

I have some plans of the place somewhere that I'll try to find and upload.

Just one question as I remember the place really well. The photo with the documents being stored looks more like Warren Row rather than Henley/Wargrave, could I be right?

Dirus_Strictus said:

- I think the Link Trainer was another type of basic training device also.

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Yes, it was an early flight simulator used on the WW2 airfields alongside the bomber trainer.

Nice find and photos, Callumcrom00. And love the map, RobbyJ. Nice one.

From memory (a long time ago) I can add some detail to some of the letters in the first map I posted.

X/Z - Electrical rooms with big transformers
Y - Air conditioning/boiler room
R/T - Was a big metal turntable you could turn a vehicle round on so it could drive back out of the entrance tunnel
E/T - Is the emergency exit. A long 100-150M upward sloping tunnel that leads to the exit in the 2nd photo at the start of the thread
Bay 1/2 - I think were full of beds, bedside tables and some storage cabinets
G - Looked like the office for whoever the commander of the site was. Had a big desk and a big locked safe
H - Bedroom with a double bed for the commander
Briefing Room - Big planning room with lots of desks, bakerlite phones and a huge OS map on the end walls

The thing I never understood in retrospect was how the air system worked, it looked like a closed loop with no external vent shafts that I ever found despite walking the entire hill above the site. I also couldn't find any antennas or mountings of where antennas may have been.

There was an over ground facility that was about 50-75 years from the emergency exit where the big house that you can see on Google Maps now is. This had quite a large medical facility with quite a lot of beds, circa 20. It's also where the cafeteria area was with quite a big kitchen. There were no obvious cooking facilities underground. It's weird that there were significant sleeping facilities, toilets etc yet no eating facilities, no real storage, water storage or air filtration, no gas tight doors or anything apparently that could maintain an overpressure like a real bunker. I guess the beds must have been there more for training purposes to simulate what it would have been like while running exercises?

I went to school in Wargrave and never knew this place existed (Hardly surprising really as it was the Cold War at the time!) I also just about remember Vincents in Reading.

DarkHorse said:

I went to school in Wargrave and never knew this place existed (Hardly surprising really as it was the Cold War at the time!) I also just about remember Vincents in Reading.

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You remember Vincent's then you are old like me because it was demolished in the late 1960's

RobbyJ said:

I stumbled across this page and registered. Thanks for the pics, I used to explore this place loads in the 90's when it still had the telephone exchange, some maps, signage, beds, a safe etc. Thanks for the pics, great to see the place again.

I have some plans of the place somewhere that I'll try to find and upload.

Just one question as I remember the place really well. The photo with the documents being stored looks more like Warren Row rather than Henley/Wargrave, could I be right?

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Actually looking at that photo of the interior again, that is Henley. That's the main entrance tunnel. I'm just surprised to see they are using that for storage too. That stair case on the left leads to the little guard room above and to the left of the main entrance.

The site must be absolutely bursting at the seams if they have to fill the entrance tunnel with docs too. That makes getting boxes to the far end of the tunnels quite a manual exercise.

RobbyJ said:

I stumbled across this page and registered. Thanks for the pics, I used to explore this place loads in the 90's when it still had the telephone exchange, some maps, signage, beds, a safe etc. Thanks for the pics, great to see the place again.

I have some plans of the place somewhere that I'll try to find and upload.

Just one question as I remember the place really well. The photo with the documents being stored looks more like Warren Row rather than Henley/Wargrave, could I be right?

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Defo all Wargrave pictures, the Warren Row Site was closed down by my company quite a while ago and sold to the neighboring wine company

Dirus_Strictus said:

If memory serves, it was a Ground Based aircraft fuselage that allowed a trainee pilot with absolutely no aircraft experience at all, to practise the fundamentals of Bank and Turn. No chance of instructors or airworthy aircraft being killed or destroyed, whilst one gained fundamental knowledge - I think the Link Trainer was another type of basic training device also.

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The Miles Master ( built in quantity by Phillips & PowIis) at Woodley near Reading was an advanced trainig aircraft, NOT a ground based trainer. There were two versions,the mark 1 withi an inline engine and the mark 2 wiith a radial engine.

Mearing said:

The Miles Master ( built in quantity by Phillips & PowIis) at Woodley near Reading was an advanced trainig aircraft, NOT a ground based trainer. There were two versions,the mark 1 withi an inline engine and the mark 2 wiith a radial engine.

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Looking online, it seems Miles was one of those British types with a lot of enthusiasm and technical ability but not enough commercial sense. Operating between 1943 and 1947, the firm went bankrupt just after the end of WWII. "The aviation assets were purchased by Handley Page as Handley Page Reading Ltd. Handley Page produced the Miles-designed M.60 Marathon as the H.P.R. 1 Marathon." If the Miles family had concentrated on the aircraft - and not dabbled in so many other fields - they might have produced a range of good, small commercial planes; perhaps competing with Auster.

Hayman said:

Looking online, it seems Miles was one of those British types with a lot of enthusiasm and technical ability but not enough commercial sense. Operating between 1943 and 1947, the firm went bankrupt just after the end of WWII. "The aviation assets were purchased by Handley Page as Handley Page Reading Ltd. Handley Page produced the Miles-designed M.60 Marathon as the H.P.R. 1 Marathon." If the Miles family had concentrated on the aircraft - and not dabbled in so many other fields - they might have produced a range of good, small commercial planes; perhaps competing with Auster.

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What other fields are you thinking of? Miles went under because being accustomed to lage amounts of government cash during the war they did not adjust their finances to the reduced circumstances until finally a creditor foreclosed on them. Their range of light aircraft was very good including theMessenge used by Montgomery as his personal aircraft, The Gemini a light twin is still desirable. They were also well ahead with the design of a supersonic aircraft until govrernment pulled out, After they closed I went to Woodley and the mock up of the supersonic aircraft was on the dump with lots of other aircraft including for some reason a Ju 52!
incidentally And not really relevant I had my first flight in a Tiger Moth at Woodley in 1946. Never to be forgotten!

Mearing said:

What other fields are you thinking of? Miles went under because being accustomed to lage amounts of government cash during the war they did not adjust their finances to the reduced circumstances until finally a creditor foreclosed on them. Their range of light aircraft was very good including theMessenge used by Montgomery as his personal aircraft, The Gemini a light twin is still desirable. They were also well ahead with the design of a supersonic aircraft until govrernment pulled out, After they closed I went to Woodley and the mock up of the supersonic aircraft was on the dump with lots of other aircraft including for some reason a Ju 52!
incidentally And not really relevant I had my first flight in a Tiger Moth at Woodley in 1946. Never to be forgotten!

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I wrote "other fields" because of this in Wiipedia:

"Frederick George Miles (22 March 1903 – 15 August 1976) was a British aircraft designer and manufacturer who designed numerous light civil and military aircraft and a range of prototypes. The name "Miles" is associated with two distinct companies that Miles was involved in and is also attached to many non-aviation products such as the Biro pen, photocopiers and book binding machinery."

My first flight was in an Auster from Robrough, outside Plymouth, about 1955. Never to be forgotten because I was horribly airsick, and the joyride to Torbay and back was aborted because of the heavy low cloud cover!

Hayman said:

I wrote "other fields" because of this in Wiipedia:

"Frederick George Miles (22 March 1903 – 15 August 1976) was a British aircraft designer and manufacturer who designed numerous light civil and military aircraft and a range of prototypes. The name "Miles" is associated with two distinct companies that Miles was involved in and is also attached to many non-aviation products such as the Biro pen, photocopiers and book binding machinery."

My first flight was in an Auster from Robrough, outside Plymouth, about 1955. Never to be forgotten because I was horribly airsick, and the joyride to Torbay and back was aborted because of the heavy low cloud cover!

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Fair play, but I think they were not instrumental in the firms demise, they just needed better accountants!

I was lucky in that the Tiger Moth pilot did a loop and a slow roll at my request and that inoculated me against air sickness, shame that your flight was unpleasant.
To my regret I don't fly now having survived to 92 years!

I appreciated your input,keeps me thinking!