Site Records
Site Name: West Cross - 4 Group, 95 Brigade AAOR serving the Swansea
GDA
West Cross
Swansea
OS Grid Ref: SS615898
The
AAOR is adjacent to a TA Centre (SS
615 898). It is currently managed by the Joint Emergency Planning Unit which
serves Bridgend, Neath & Port Talbot and the City and County of Swansea. Externally
the building is still in its 1950's condition although the original roof has been
covered with an additional bitumen membrane and two original radar towers which
were condemned have been demolished and replaced by a single mast with space rented
to cellular phone operators. For many years the building was used as the 'War
Room' for the former West Glamorgan County Council and after Welsh local government
reorganisation in 1986 it was passed over to the City and County of Swansea where
it was used until recently as the 'Major Incident Command and Control Centre'.
It is now used as a training facility and is let out to appropriate bodies. With
the recent opening of a new major incident control room in the City the future
of the building is uncertain, its future is hopefully secure.
In common with
many AAOR's on the west side of the country, the two storey blockhouse is completely
above ground level with the entrance and emergency exit at the lower level. The
original ventilation plant remains in place but the generator had to be replaced
after it was started up without any oil and the boiler has been replaced. The
structure of the lower floor remains much as it was with RAYNET occupying one
of the rooms an original upright GPO switchboard still in place (although unused)
and a Faraday cage containing the BT exchange equipment. The main two storey control
room is intact with its balcony above. The curved Perspex windows at balcony level
are still in place on two sides although on the third side the balcony has been
boxed-in. One of the stairways to the upper level has been blocked of at the request
of the fire brigade.
On
the upper level the multitude of small rooms and winding corridors was condemned
as a fire hazard by the fire brigade and all the fibre board partition walls have
been removed giving three large rooms that have been laid out as conference rooms
with a canteen at the back. Visits organised by: Nick
Catford Present: Nick Catford, Tony
Page, Nick McCamley.
Ward Westwater, Caroline Westwater.
Home Page
Last updated 28th September 2003
© 1998-2003 Subterranea Britannica
|