One of the major purposes of our recent visit to the Isle of Portland was to coincide with the SB jaunt to the ROTOR bunker at the back of the Verne. ROTOR stations are something that lots of people on here will be familiar with (The Mad Farmer of St. Twynells, The unholy Gunk of Wartling etc etc) but for people who are slightly more normal than the usual bunker nerd, a little intro maybe worthwhile.
ROTOR was an early warning radar project developed in the 1950's as a replacement for the CHEL (Chain Home Extra Low) radar that the UK had used during the back end of WW2. It was a combination of the existing early warning and Control Ground Intercept radar designed to pick up the imminent arrival of nuke carrying Soviet bombers such as the Tupolev- Tu4 (US Codename Bull) . For protection these radars were controlled from huge underground bunkers, which were in some cases two or three storey buildings built into a hole in the ground and covered over. At the top of the bunker would be a guard house, usually disguised as a fairly innocuous looking bungalow, but beyond this would be a slopeshaft down to the bunker. Interestingly, the bunkers on the east coast of the country are completely submerged below ground (like this one at Portland, Kelvedon Hatch and Wartling) whereas the ones on the West coast usually have one level above ground and one below (such as St Twynells and Hack Green). This is because the government thought the ones on the East coast were more at risk, because the Russians would have invaded from the East.
Portland is quite unique amongst ROTOR installations because instead of the slopeshaft being at Bunker level, it is at the bottom of a 70ft drop. There used to be a lift, but not anymore! So we started our visit with a trip down this bad boy - 70 ft of slippery, cold access ladder down an old liftshaft!
And so finally, to the slopeshaft itself
Once you are in the main bunker, there's a long corridor with a number of rooms on it all on one level. I think I was expecting with two levels connected by a staircase but there's just one.
There are a number of rooms here: These first shots are of the main tracking room.
This is the CFP room (Combined Filter Plot), which is now filled with about 10ft of water.
Also, there is lots of lovely old plant and machinery around everywhere too!
And, of course the obligatory bogs shot. There's no HDR on these. They actually were that dirty......
This was a properly organised visit. Permission sought etc etc. (Just in case anyone thinks I've turned into Steve McQueen or anything) Thanks for looking!
Godzy
ROTOR was an early warning radar project developed in the 1950's as a replacement for the CHEL (Chain Home Extra Low) radar that the UK had used during the back end of WW2. It was a combination of the existing early warning and Control Ground Intercept radar designed to pick up the imminent arrival of nuke carrying Soviet bombers such as the Tupolev- Tu4 (US Codename Bull) . For protection these radars were controlled from huge underground bunkers, which were in some cases two or three storey buildings built into a hole in the ground and covered over. At the top of the bunker would be a guard house, usually disguised as a fairly innocuous looking bungalow, but beyond this would be a slopeshaft down to the bunker. Interestingly, the bunkers on the east coast of the country are completely submerged below ground (like this one at Portland, Kelvedon Hatch and Wartling) whereas the ones on the West coast usually have one level above ground and one below (such as St Twynells and Hack Green). This is because the government thought the ones on the East coast were more at risk, because the Russians would have invaded from the East.
Portland is quite unique amongst ROTOR installations because instead of the slopeshaft being at Bunker level, it is at the bottom of a 70ft drop. There used to be a lift, but not anymore! So we started our visit with a trip down this bad boy - 70 ft of slippery, cold access ladder down an old liftshaft!
And so finally, to the slopeshaft itself
Once you are in the main bunker, there's a long corridor with a number of rooms on it all on one level. I think I was expecting with two levels connected by a staircase but there's just one.
There are a number of rooms here: These first shots are of the main tracking room.
This is the CFP room (Combined Filter Plot), which is now filled with about 10ft of water.
Also, there is lots of lovely old plant and machinery around everywhere too!
And, of course the obligatory bogs shot. There's no HDR on these. They actually were that dirty......
This was a properly organised visit. Permission sought etc etc. (Just in case anyone thinks I've turned into Steve McQueen or anything) Thanks for looking!
Godzy
