Cold War Structures

The cold war is a really cool thing to look at.  It is literally the closest that the earth got to nuclear apocalypse and had some of the most coolest technology that the world has ever seen.  In fact most of the things that you are using in your day to day life are based upon things that were made during the cold war.  Look at the computer that you are using.  Cold war. Passenger Planes?  Cold war. Satellite systems?  Cold war.

So what does this have to do with you?  Why would even the FoI help in this situation?   Well it can help because maybe the council's know where they are, or know someone who does?  Well, wouldn't it be fun to find out… So I did!  Now I will be honest there are LOADS of professional people who do this sort  of thing, but I am just a burke who like to test the boundaries.

So what should I ask? Well the question asked was:

Please can you give me a list of all cold war structures that you are aware of in your borough that were used for civil defence.

So who can we ask for more information on this?   Well how about the ministry of defence?  Surely they had some idea of what bunkers that were made?  I mean they were responsible stated that it was not their responsibility to create bunkers for civil defence.  So who's responsible for it?  Well, the MoD refered me to Cabinet office.  Well the Cabinet office said that the request was WAY to big.  I should have read my own blog about being specific!

So this got me thinking, what else could I do to find this information?  Well, let's have a think.  The Welsh office was the precursor to the Welsh Assembly Government and dealt with a lot less issues that the WAG did.  Now the question is, do the WAG hold files on local government within wales?  The short answer is no.  Does that mean that this is the end of the story?  Not as such.

For those of you that didn't read the above post, the WAG that “each local authority can provide contact details of their archives”.  They should have it in their archives?  Hmmm…  Well time to roll up the sleeves and do some digging.   So a FoI request to ALL welsh councils was made, and the results were correlated.

Caerphilly	Two.
Cardiff
Camarthenshire	3 Spilman Street, Carmarthen.  This was constructed during the period known as the Cold War.
Ceredigion	None
Conway
Denbighshire	Two One in Llangollen and one in Rhewl/Llanynys
Flintshire	None
Gwynedd	None
Anglesey	None
Merthyr Tydfil	None
Monmouth	None
Neath Port Talbot	None
Newport	None
Pembroke	See Below
Powys	No response
RCT	No Response
Swansea	No Response
Caerphilly	Two.
Cardiff	No Response but there are
Carmarthenshire	3 Spilman Street, Carmarthen.  This was constructed during the period known as the Cold War.

Torfaen	None
Vale Of Glamorgan	None
Wrexham	No Response

Now a few of them have yet to get back in touch with me (which is fine.  I will update the blog when I get the answers), but I should make a few special mentions.

The Vale of Glamorgan (as stated) said none.  They did, however, send me a list of ALL local listed buildings (Which was a nice touch) and was appreciated.

The big shout goes to Pembroke council which basically directed me to this website.  They also gave me this website too, but I havent looked at it as much!   Now, a little digging found the section on military bases.  Huge amounts of structures there.  May even save me time looking with the other council.  Isn't it fun to know that you can have this information, kids!