Kingstanding

In December 2013 I posted a blog about the WW2 Bunker at Kingstanding on the Ashdown Forest little knowing that just over a year later I would be working there. My new position is as a Facilities Assistant for Sussex Police who now own the bunker and surrounding buildings set within a fifty five acre fenced compound. The site is used for storage and as a training facility for police officers but we also allow paramedics and fire and rescue personnel to use it occasionally.

I started work here in the depths of winter and now six months later I am getting to grips with the job which is a cross between a caretaker and security officer. They even gave me a Landrover to patrol and check the security of the site and perimeter fence with.  Every day brings a different challenge but the first job each morning is unlocking the bunker. In the early days in the pitch dark and with the wind blowing through the trees it felt very creepy up here as most of the supporting buildings are deserted and derelict. The perfect location for filming a zombie apocalypse movie.

Being at one of the highest points on the forest, Kingstanding has it's own weather system. The sun can be shining brightly five miles away at home but up here you can be in low cloud even in what we laughingly call summer in these parts. When the wind and rain are lashing against the windows of the gatehouse it can feel like you are on the bridge of a small boat in a storm. On hot sunny days I can't think of a better place to work, however the sun tends to bring out the adders so you have to be careful where you tread.

The complex was originally constructed by the Canadian Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to house a radio transmitter code named 'Aspidistra' which purported to be a German station based in Calais transmitting light entertainment programmes to the U-boat crews. In between the music and rants against our Royal Family and Government we inserted disinformation to demoralise and cause confusion to the German armed forces. Although the German High command was aware of the station they never discovered it's location.

When it was built there was only one entrance to the bunker but during the nineteen eighties at the hight of the cold war it was converted into a nuclear proof bunker and a second entrance was constructed. In the eventuality of a nuclear attack on this country Kingstanding was to be the seat of local government, however what there would be left to govern is any bodies guess. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the thawing of the cold war the role of the bunker became defunct so the site was sold to Sussex Police.

If anybody reading this article is concerned that I may be giving away state secrets don't worry, as everything that I have written and photographs similar to those shown above are freely available on the internet. We even conduct tours of the site occasionally.