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Summary

Description

1962. Underground nuclear bunker (sited beneath gymnasium) accessed via steel blast door and 40ft concrete corridor (adjacent to gymnasium). Low flat-roofed structure of flat-coped pink and grey squared granite rubble with recessed blast door to S.

INTERIOR: 6 steps at end of corridor lead down to decontamination area, 2 further blast doors lead to main corridor and various rooms including 2 generator rooms (1 with small Lister generator), ventilation plant, Scientific Adviser's Room, Operations Room, dormitory (formerly with 18 triple bunks) with small blast door leading to escape hatch, and communications system.

Statement of Special Interest

In an A-Group with Tertowie House, Walled Garden and Stable Courtyard, all listed separately. Known as the Blackburn Centre, the Grampian Regional Council Emergency Centre was opened in 1962, the bunker was the North East Sector Civil Defence Corps Group Control and is significant in terms of rarity, defence interest and regional contribution. During the 1950s and 1960s, in the event of a nuclear attack, Britain's civil defence structure programme envisaged government by regionally-based commissioners, local authorities and the Civil Defence Corps. The bunker, situated beneath the gymnasium to the west of Tertowie House, is a largely intact example of the control centres and emergency accommodation provided for councillors and officials throughout the country during the Cold War. The bunker was in use until 1968 when the Civil Defence Corps ceased to exist, but was reactivated and modernised in 1987, it was subsequently closed in 1998.

References

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