Exploring A Hidden Gem | Civil Defence Bunker
Constructed in 1954 and became abandoned in the early 2000s.
The bunker could produce its own power, using diesel engines and generating sets, and had its own store of water. Never used for its intended purpose, in 1956 the space provided temporary shelter to refugees who had fled the Hungarian Uprising.
The mansion and surrounding land, including the bunker, was sold by Sandwell Metropolitan Council, for the West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority, in 1990. The council made it a rather insane condition of the sale that, if nuclear war had not broken out by 2003, the bunker was to be demolished. It’s still there.
