High in the hills, a group of ROC personnel survey the scene from the head of the shaft leading to the bunker. In a dimly lit, reinforced concrete bunker 20 feet below the surface of the windswept Ickornshaw Moor at Cowling. Lord Street school teacher Mr Fred Melling adjusted a complicated piece of equipment. At his right, the manager of a local tailoring business listened intently into headphones. The air was chilly in this bleak, underground room containing rations and sleeping accommodation for four men. The scene was the local headquarters of Britain’s underground army – a little publicised army of volunteers like Mr Melling, ready to spring into action at an hour’s notice should war break out.
Representatives of this newspaper were among the first Pressmen in the country to see inside, what was until very recently, a top secret scheme. In bunkers like this throughout the country, members of the Royal Observer Corps can batten themselves down to report atomic explosions and nuclear fallout. An unusual and challenging job. “It certainly is, and very interesting too,” said Mr Melling, a wartime RAF navigator and now group officer commanding 50 similar posts throughout the area.
Three years ago there was little out of the ordinary on this exposed site above Cowling. And then, a few yards from Cowling pinnacle, the Air Ministry moved in. The bunker, with walls of three feet thick reinforced concrete – was blasted out of the rock and a disused observation post above ground was brought back into use. The district’s own early warning station was in being. Chief observer Dan Carradice, a cashier at a local mill, broke off his vigil on the outside observation post to talk about his job. “It can get very cold up here in winter, and it sometimes can be boring work. But it’s a worthwhile job and very enjoyable.” he said.
Mr Melling explained the working of the post. “It is furnished and stocked with rations and, with an air filtration plant and water for six weeks, there is complete cover from radiation for the men on the job. With special instruments we