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Where are Sheffield's nuclear shelters?


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During a Civil Defence excercise in the 80s Sheffield's control centre was reported to be a broom cupboard in the Town Hall.

 

I came across this whilst looking up some other stuff - it's a declassified document that can be Googled.

 

Sheffield was (is??) a Nuclear Free Zone, and I assume the council expected the effects of weapons dropped around Sheffield to abide by this!

 

I believe that only Switzerland and China had set policies for getting large numbers of civiliians in to shelters during a nuclear exchange in the cold war. The USSR had some shelters, western cities with metro systems were expected to make use of them.

 

The US attitude was 'duck and cover' - kids went through drills in the 1950s and 1960s in which they dived under their school desks, although some cities and towns did implement a basic shelter programme.

 

The problem is how do you get umpteen million people in to shelters in less than half an hour max. warning? (More like several minutes) without causing widespread panic. This was a major issue to UK planners as there had been several times in WW2 where people panicked on the way to shelters and lots of folks got crushed to death in the stampede.

 

The 'Crewe Scenario' in 'Threads', where Crewe gets bombed to knock out the rail junctions - could easily have been applied to Doncaster, and as RAF Finningley and possibly Bawtry could have expected to have received attention from the Soviet Union, it's likely that shelters in Sheffield would have served to allow us to conveniently bury ourselves to save the powers that be the effort afterwards.

 

I remember in my early twenties (in the mid 1980s) considering that if the balloon went up whilst I was in Sheffield, my prospects of survivial were zilch. And that was before Threads...:-)

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dose anyone have a copy of 'Threds' i could buy/have, my nan's old house was used in the making along with other memrebilia from arround that time, it would be nice to own my own copy:)

i would prefer a DvD or DivX version as i dont have a vidio player:)

 

:thumbsup:

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oh' and just to get back to the topic

'Where are Sheffields Nuclear Shelters'

 

another one im not too sure is true, but i was told that there were some bunkers/shelters down by the two big gas reserves at the bottom of the ski village, close to the train lines on parkwood.

anyone else heard or know about them?

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Originally posted by Nu_Skillz

dose anyone have a copy of 'Threds' i could buy/have, my nan's old house was used in the making along with other memrebilia from arround that time, it would be nice to own my own copy:)

i would prefer a DvD or DivX version as i dont have a vidio player:)

 

:thumbsup:

 

Threads is on Amazon, going for £65 min which is just crazy.

 

Your pm points you to the cheapest place :thumbsup:

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  • 7 months later...

Found in a press cutting from 1966:

 

Reported on January 14 th. 1966

 

"Sheffield To Have BBC Fall Out Shelter"

 

The B.B.C reported today that they intend to build a nuclear fall out shelter on Broadfield Road. It will be one of several that are being built through-out the country.

 

"We require the shelters as transmitting sites to maintain broadcasting in time of war," said Mr. Roland Fox, one of the corporations press officers.

 

He could not elaborate on the construction of the shelter or the equipment it would contain. It appears however that it would house medium powered broadcasting facilities to give out news and goverment instructions over a 100 mile radius.

 

Until recently these shelters were on the secret list, but the secrecy veil has been partially lifted.

 

 

 

So did the shelter ever get built? If so where and more to the point is it still there.

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