AN UNDERGROUND bunker that’s hidden in plain sight and has been forgotten by time for more than 70 years is going up for auction.
The shelter was originally built as an observation point, designed to accommodate three observers in the event of a nuclear attack.
Pictures show how the bunker is practically hidden on the landscape at its site, which lies less than 10 miles away from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Inside, the bunker is a little worse for wear and certainly shows its age, having been built many decades ago.
A ladder leads down from the top hatch into the bunker itself which features some cupboards and a table.
The living space is littered with debris and appears to have been vandalised with graffiti, with the paint on the walls also showing signs of peeling off.
The bunker, which is set for auction, is located in Church Road, Repps with Bastwick, a village home to around just 400 people.
Auctioneers Brown & Co have advertised the one bedroom build as a unique conversion opportunity although it does not have any bathroom facilities on site.
The land in which the bunker sits is owned by a local farmer.
The listing reads: “Rare opportunity to purchase a piece of British post-war history.
“This particular site was one of many observation posts built during the 1950’s and was designed to provide protective, but extremely limited accommodation, for three observers in the event of a nuclear attack.”
Many shelters were built across the UK from the late 1950s as Royal Observer Corps (ROC) Underground Monitoring Posts.
Construction of the system of these posts was largely complete by 1965, although some new posts continued to be built into the 1970s.
However, a large number of the early underground posts were decommissioned in 1968, with the last posts abandoned when the ROC was stood down in 1991 following the end of the Cold War.
Individual posts were formed into clusters of three or four sites providing co-ordinated raid reports via a master post to the group headquarters.
Posts were usually built at the sites of earlier ROC observation posts and used the existing nationwide reporting system already established by the ROC, according to Historic England.
The particular shelter on auction in Norfolk has a guide price of £10,000 – £20,000, with the buyer also being required to pay a range of fees and taxes on top of the initial cost.
It comes as one underground bunker manufacturer reported a “huge uplift” in construction requests this year.
Charles Hardman, 68, said how his company, Subterranean Spaces, has seen demand increase by around 30 per cent in just the past four months alone.
Charles, who owns the specialist basement construction company, said “Putin’s aggression” in recent weeks is responsible for the massive uptick.
“Fears” of a total wipe-out of life and WW3 have terrified Brits into requesting nuclear bunkers, he said.
He added: “Of course people are worried.
“Every time you get a little whisper of something happening in Russia, our phone starts ringing.
“It’s going to worry people and worry their families.”
Charles described how his sales had been “steady” before the Russian President’s actions in recent weeks, which have included threats of a nuclear strike across Europe, including Britain.
