 Site Records
Site Name: Warmley - GPO(BT) Protected PR2ST669735
High Street
Warmley, Bristol
RSG site visit 9th July 2000
The PR2 BT repeater station at Warmley near Bristol
was built around 1951 and is located in a residential area just off the A420.
It's a 2 storey building with one story below ground and the other on the surface.
The building is divided into 3 distinct parts: 1. Office section 2. Above ground
protected area 3. Below ground protected area Entry off the road is through
a pair of double wire mesh gates. On entering the site there is a large hole on
the right hand side approx. 125ft across. At the bottom of this hole you can see
the fuel tanks for the bunker. The site owner informed us that these were being
removed in a few days by a mobile crane in preparation for the building work that
will be taking place (more on that later). There is a small parking area to the
left of the main doors which are of traditional heavy wooden construction. Once
inside these you are standing in a small room. A doorway to the right leads to
2 small rooms which are completely empty apart from building materials and are
not re-enforced in any way. 
Going
back into the entrance room and turning left leads to a huge pair of yellow steel
blast doors approx 9ft tall on the right hand wall. The doors still swing easily
on their hinges. On the left is a crane well for lowering objects to the lower
floor. Passing through the blast doors doors you enter the bunker proper.
You
are now in a rectangular area. To the right are stairs down to the lower level
and a blast door that leads to the office area. Across to your left is another
set of yellow blast doors that lead into the upper floor. The bunker is very well
equipped with blast doors and the owner tells us that the walls are 2 feet thick.
The whole building has a very secure feel about it.
Let's turn right and pass
through the blast door into the office area. We are now standing at the end of
a short corridor. Passing along this corridor there are a couple of rooms on each side (all empty) and at the end we reach the ladies and gents toilets. This
was the scene of a forced entry by local kids last night and there is much broken
glass on the floor and the windows have been boarded up. The owner told us how
on a previous break-in, 3 children had become trapped in this section and in an
attempt to get out ended up in hospital due to injuries sustained. One of the
rooms off the corridor was a kitchen and had some worktop-type units left. This
room had been damaged by fire on a previous break-in.
We walk back past the
entrance blast doors and go through another set of yellow blast doors and into
the top floor of the bunker. We are now standing in a large room which contains
a number of power distribution boxes the size of large filing cabinets. The contactors
still have a reassuring 'chunk' to them when moved. 
Walking to our left we pass into another room which
has an emergency escape door at the back of it. There is evidence of vandalism
in this area with the partition wall showing holes where the local kids have practised
being Bruce Lee. The emergency exit leads through 2 security doors to the rear
of the bunker. The internal emergency exit door is blast proof and the short passage
to the outside world is a dog leg to reduce the force of the blast. We walk back
past the power distribution equipment and on the left hand side of the room is
a door which leads into the old battery room. All batteries have been removed
but the marvellous red tiled floor still remains. Notices on the doors confirm
that this was the back up power supply. Off the battery room were 2 smaller rooms
which were empty. Passing back into the room where we entered this section of
the bunker we turned right and entered the air plant room.
The scale of this
room has to be seen to be believed. The air intake ducts are large enough for
someone to walk through and contained all the damping shutters and draughting
fans still intact along with filtering. The fan turned gently in the draught
from the intake and the dampers still operated perfectly. This room showed minor
signs of vandalism with some broken glass on the floor but everything was in place
and intact. It is interesting to note that all rooms on this level, and indeed
throughout the bunker had massive amounts of power fed around the walls in heavy
duty steel conduit. Fuse boxes were sited every few feet on these conduits (fuses
still in place) and there was extensive labelling as to the supply available and
voltage etc. Two of the rooms had markings on the floor which led us to believe
that there may have been racks of telecomm equipment sited in them at one point.
We returned to the entrance room and descend the 3 flights of stairs to the
lower level. At the bottom of the stairs we are at the end of a short corridor.
On the left hand side of the corridor are 4 doorways. The first 2 lead into a
high voltage power room where the HV substation could be monitored. The Co2 fire
extinguisher system was still in place and appeared in working order.
The next
2 doorways (which were double with heavy steel doors) led into a small area that
contained 2 independent HV transformers that were the size of a small car and about
6 ft tall. They were very similar to the type normally found at small local electricity
substations. It was becoming obvious that there was a lot of power available at
this site.
At the end of this corridor on the left was a space where loads
could be lowered from the upper floor via a now-missing winch system which could
run along a beam in the upper level entrance room. 
On the right was another set of huge blast doors
- we entered into the final area of the bunker. We emerged into the plant room.
This contained 2 huge generators, power boards, control plant, air compressors,
distribution panels etc all in perfect condition and full working order so the
owner told us. The site had been shut in 1995 but there had been regular maintenance
until its recent sale and the generators could be started if needed.
The generators
were a 215KVA auto start and a 250KVA air start. The power distribution around
the building together with the battery back up meant that in the event of mains
power failure the batteries would take over whilst the generator ran up to speed
to power the telecom gear. A second generator provided back up and could be used
to run the housekeeping functions such as air con and lighting etc. The fuel tanks
outside held enough fuel to run in 'closed down' mode for around a month. At the
end of this room was a door leading to an emergency escape shaft with a steel
rung ladder leading to the surface. Close to this was a blast door into the air
intake which ran to the very top of the building and contained all the air cooling
gear etc. This was separated from the bunker by a blast door and all intakes to
the generators were fitted with dampers and filters.
Going back past the entrance
door we entered the largest room in the bunker. It's the size of 3 tennis courts
and obviously was the main equipment room. Marks on the wooden block floor showed
were a substantial number of racks had been sited and there was a colossal number
of ceiling lights and vents together with endless power ducting and fuse boxes.
There was some water on the floor here - how it entered the bunker is unknown
but it was being mopped up whilst we were there. At the end of this room to the
right was another escape shaft to the emergency exit for the floor above and then
at the end was a final room.
This is the room where the cables entered from
outside. It was flooded to a depth of 4 inches but still had a substantial amount
of rack and cable glands intact and had 2 sealable doors (one at either end)
connecting it into the main equipment room. The entire building has been extensively
photographed and a number of items have been recovered. Externally the building
is in average condition with the windows to the office section boarded up. It
is interesting to note that the protected areas did not have any toilets or showers.
We had a long chat with the owner who informed us that the site will soon be
developed for flats. He intends to retain the basement structure which will be
converted into underground car parking whilst everything above ground will be
flattened. All the plant will be removed and sold for scrap or donated to a museum.
The upper storey of the building was demolished in the summer of 2001. The
eight repeater stations are: Those taking
part in the visit were Nick Catford
and Andrew Smith
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