Brackla Munitions Factory & Nuclear Bunkers | RGHQ
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- Опубликовано: 25 сен 2021
- In this Vlog, I set out to discover Brackla RGHQ. This site on the hillside of Bridgend has its origins in an extensive pre-war ordnance factory, most of which is now an industrial estate.
At some time after the 1960s, two of the tunnels were taken over by the Home Office and converted to become SRHQ 8.2 and later RGHQ 8.2. In the absence of a bunker for North Wales, Brackla covered the whole of Wales in the event of a Nuclear attack.
The site was extensively re-fitted in the early 1980s. The accommodation comprised two adjacent tunnels, each consisting of two parallel passageways 8ft wide and 250ft long, lined with metal sections like the London tube tunnels. The site was sold in 1995 and is still used to this today while much of the Magazine Tunnels are now abandoned and flooded.
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Played inside these as a kid.
I've heard a few people say the same thing! Braver than me as a kid ha!
Same here!
Lived and grown up around these bunkers all my life incredible video and what an amazing history 👏
Thanks Nathan 👌
I went to the bunker yesterday. Liking how professional your video is. I'm definitely taking tips from you.
Glad I came across your channel 😊, Im new to exploring so it's great seeing these type of videos and to pick up great tips to help me along the way. I just liked and subscribed x
Great to have you on board and very kind of you to say! Thanks 😊
Love this kind of history and exploring. More of these please Jay.
Very kind thank you! Got a great little trip coming up this week. Can't wait to share soon!
These tunnels are still very active. There is an entrance behind the vets, where groups of vehicles are often seen going in and out, especially late of night.
I have also had a few people mention strange nighttime activity to me recently so your not the first to suggest it. All very strange!
I walk by the vets frequently and haven’t seen an entrance, where by is it?
Nice video Jay, love these hidden away places and wish we could see inside them! Nice to see you over that 1k subscriber mark too, keep it up!
Thanks mate very kind. Love exploring these hidden places.
Another top video !
Very kind
On my doorstep used to play in these as kids before the council blocked them up. Very cool 😎
They are very cool!
In the late 60’s early 70’s I was an apprentice with what was then the Post Office Engineering Department, soon to become BT. I was based in North Rd in the industrial estate, parallel to the main railway line. Many of the older men I worked with were ex-forces veterans or national service lads. One of the things I maintained were the Civil Defence bunkers, in particular for me the bunker on a hilltop near Maesteg.
One of my colleagues had a fault report for the big bunker in Brackla. He was driving his green Morris van looking for the site. A young kid stopped him and said “Hey Mister are you looking for the Secret Bunker? The local kids knew where it was, not much of a secret?
At my bunker in Maesteg they were due to run an exercise one Sunday. We were always asked to test it a few days before. When I got there, we held keys in the exchange, I was met by a worker. The bunker had been broken into and the apparatus had been damaged. I managed to get a spare on loan provided I took it to the site. Great Sunday overtime and I get to take the van home!
When parts of the industrial estate were extended and some of the old arsenal were demolished there were some big blast walls to take down, they took days and heavy machines to complete, a couple of the last ones I recall were at the eastern exit to Coychurch village.
Wow this is amazing 😮💞
Thank you
Not a secret to locals, never has been! 😀 It's still in use for secure document storage. The company who owns it is called Lloyd Associates Limited.
So true everyone here knows about it,good memories as a youth going around the area with friends.ive always wanted to know what it looked like inside so seeing the few still shots from the dr.who footage is cool and typing this only a couple mins away if driving of course little longer of having to stroll
Used to play in these tunnels and bunkers as a kid in the early 80s before they filled them in, there were 8 in total but 2 were still in use as nuke bunkers and fenced off. Have no idea if they are still in use.
My old dad use to work there occasionally, he was employed by the Property services agency so when the watchman at the tunnels was away on their hols dad use to do shifts minding the shop. It's extensive inside, all ready for the Council nabobs to retreat to in time of national emergency.
OMG! Brilliant film- caught my eye as I was looking to see what was left of our ‘playground’. Us townie kids spent days upon days’playing’ up here circa 1984/5. I see that 8x 3&4 are still ‘in use’ . Our hang out was 8x1- the whole place was open, complete with all the automated control rooms just left. I see there are all houses there now!! I wonder if the residents know what’s under their feet! We had ‘full access’ back then, including the basements and attics! - you could just walk right in and sit with feet dangling off the old platform! Couldn’t get down to the other end though, it was all bricked up about 100 yds in- we did try! How do you get on the site these days, we never went via bricklayer industrial estate- we went under the Charles street railway bridge , then walk the long way up through old tracks, pillboxes and well grass- seems to be yet more houses again. I wonder who ‘owns’ it now-someone obviously does- I’d love to go back in there!
Great to hear your story and fascinating times inside. It’s privately owned these days but they don’t seem keen on letting anyone inside. Yep mad to think what’s underneath the houses so much was just covered over. Much has since been filled in since my video as the industrial estate entrance seems to have been covered over recently. Not experienced your route but I think it’s become to dangerous to venture further in now as it’s falling down in many places. Great to know Whats inside the hills side though
Hey- thanx for coming back. Interesting to know who ‘privately’ owns it. Someone must know as film companies use old 8x3&4. I think you are filming the run in to 8x3 or 4. That’s how 8x1 used to look and where you climb up the ladder that door was the entrance in, 8x1 was just wide open 😉. The way we used to get into 8x1 = go up to Charles street and between there and vernon road is a garage/ alley way go to the top and bingo cross the field (now houses it think) and pick up the track that linked with the end of the road that goes past Chorleywood in Brackla. It was a dead end / end of the road and if you swung right, again across the bushes/ field bingo. Also a way in was to go down high fields in Brackla - but that route involved bushes and fences- we did do it though😂😂. I have not lived in the ‘old town’ for over 25 years-but when the Weather dries up , I’m gonna go up to ‘investigate’. We were real ‘investigators’ in those days😉- when we had a ‘free period’ ! at school where better to spend the time than Island farm (German pow camp) just across the A48 from school. All just open then, quite derelict, but the roofs of the old ‘huts’ were good for look outs, sunbathing and smoking😉. Do post if you go ‘investigating’- as I will if I find any ‘old’ places of interest.
@@virgilhilts8241 that’s good know. Let me know how you get on when you go and investigate keen to know of any other entrances. Yea your right it seems money talks they do open up the bunker for TV firms and films it’s being used for this purpose on a regular basis, but despite 2 or 3 people telling me they would allow me in as they were close with the owners thus far they have still not returned to me. But I think it’s secretive nature and storage of police documents are gone from my understanding it’s now simply a giant empty bunker complex used for private storage and filming. Hopefully they’ll allow me in soon be interested to see inside.
I knew of this area and the bunkers many years ago as I used to be a lorry driver and delivered to certain house building companies, amongst other customers. One such site, run by Persimmon Homes, is now known as Maes Dewi Pritchard (visible on Google Maps), and it was doing a delivery to that site one day when I collided with a contractor's parked van (oops). All was good though, I tracked him down and owned up, so if that chap is reading this...Sorry. I hope your van got repaired. At that time you could see some of the bricked-off entrances to the old tunnels, but I wish I had known about the area a few years earlier, as I would probably have tried to do a bit of sightseeing for myself.
3:24 that reminds me of a half-life 2 level. They deffo built this place to protect people of Bridgend from the Merthyr folk
SW police still use it. The entrance is from inside police headquarters. They use it for storage.
Thanks Chris. A few people say they moved out at the end of last year.
These buildings are from the 2nd world War period and were used for the construction of ammunition and bombs. My now deceased mother and her best friend (from Rhonda and Maesteg) used to work in these making the munitions for the war. they developed lung disease from working with the explosives. Never compensated by the MOD. Thus the railway track is present at one of the entrances for moving the munitions out when completed. Any nuclear bunker component came after this.
Good to hear about your connection to them.
I think there is many places that look abandoned, that are still probably available for use.
We had a munitions place near Leyland, all I know it was called the “ROF”
It covered a huge area so big it’s since been flattened and now it’s it’s own new built village called “buckshaw village”
I lived nearby at the time they were taking it down so I went in and got a few “trinkets”
But you could hear the concrete breaking machines going on for months at the same spot.
ROF = Royal Ordinance Factory
Last I heard it was used as a document storage facility
Yep I think your right. A few people have suggested it's used for secure file storage for organisations.
Where exactly are the buildings ? Went for a short walk today but just looped from cafe and ended up at vets can someone give a better idea of where I can see the buildings. Great video BTW love a bit of an adventure myself.
Thanks mate their up on the side of the mountain by the industrial estate but a few people have informed me bulldozers have now been on site and covered some of these. The bunker is up in the trees above the industrial estate but only accessible from above
I think they play airsoft there. Kicking mustang has a video of them playing.
parked up by the entrance some guy just unlocked the gate and a works transit van followed in shortly after 🤔
How did u get on? It seems to be used a lot for television and film now even as recent as this month so I have a feeling it’s quite empty inside lately
How do I live right here but have never been 😂
😛
When I was a child in the 50’s my mum and dad told me about the ammunition works. It was reputed to be never bombed because there was always a cloudy fog that concealed the site. How true that was I don’t know. Was this just a story or not I’m not sure.
I was told the same story
im going down the still open tunnels you can crouch into tonight hope there's no clowns down there that kept chasing after us like last year
Visiting on Halloween... your braver than me! 😃 🎃
@@JayCurtis thought I was going to die last year when me and my friends were being chased after the clowns we saw
@@fazekoosh6187 ha that's crazy! Safe journey
....we'll never get to see the bunkers they have 'now' 😉
If i told you well you know the rest
This is how 90% of Bridgend looks so nothing special to someone who's lived there for so long
Well I guess it’s more for those who don’t live there.
@@JayCurtis yes, agreed. Bridgend is such a run down town there wouldn't be much else to see here. It's a dump
Kinda pointless given that you can’t take us inside….ANYTHING! All we get to see are few exteriors of over built sheds with train tracks linking them.
what’s next, Fort Knox? Ok folks, heres the building. It’s loaded with gold, but we can’t go inside and see…….nothing……again! Here’s a couple old archive pics though, enjoy what you could’ve found on the web yourselves. Lol.
I did try to get inside and was told several times they would allow me in but they changed their mind at the last minute. If you don't like the video Pete you don't have to watch 👌