Report - ROC Post Crowborough : April 2014

[Grumpy Pops]

Apologies for the size of pics but were they were resized before I found this site. . . ROC Post in Crowborough, Sussex. Over 1,500 of these small bunkers were built at various points around the country during the Cold War. They were designed to house three members of the Royal Observer Corps, whose job it would be to use supplied equipment to gauge the bomb power and ground zero of a nuclear blast and report back to a group H.Q. It is well hidden by trees and still in a fairly good condition with its original flaky green paint. Explored with wander1er.

Thanks For Peeping

 

[Electric_Orange]

No need for apologies mate, your pics are fine...

 

[wellingtonian]

Like to see these documented. That one's like the Ritz compared with my local one!

 

[REEF]

I don't recall ever seeing springs on a hatch before. It's normally that counter weight which smacks you on the head...

Good work.

 

[Lenston]

Looks a good post this

 

[Grumpy Pops]

Looking at the pic again, I see what you mean and the springs are a nice shiny red. I was down another hatch a couple of weeks before and that had a counter weight thing attached without springs and this one did not and made roughly the same time. So I`m guessing that there is somebody out there wanting to keep it accessible and fairly safe.

 

[Old Git]

Looking at the pic again, I see what you mean and the springs are a nice shiny red. I was down another hatch a couple of weeks before and that had a counter weight thing attached without springs and this one did not and made roughly the same time. So I`m guessing that there is somebody out there wanting to keep it accessible and fairly safe.

They look pretty but dont actually DO anything!Love to know who fitted them and who owns it.Probably the Golf club at a
guess.

 

[Grumpy Pops]

Cert didnt get my juices going either and I reckon it was a H.S.E knob that retro fitted the hatch.

 

[Isiah_Sheepworrier]

The hatch is known as a Torlift. They were fitted to a few posts where there was a risk or history of a breakins. Torlift hatches were used in places such as prisons and were secured with a removable brass plug and used a key different to a T-bar. When I last visited the post in 2008 it look like someone had been tidying it and wondered whether it was going to be restored. That doesn't look like it has happened and the exterior has deteriorated. This might be due to the post being overgrown and protected from the elements before.
Crowborough was also one of the posts fitted with rubber matting in an attempt to provide insulation. They were originally intended for coal mines as conveyor belts, but were made surplus when the mines closed under the Thatcher government in the 1980's.
Was there a metal grate down there by any chance? The Torlift hatch came with a removable metal hatch that fitted below the hatch for added security. The crew could also reinstall in use the prevent the rotting masses getting after a nuclear attack. When I went down there last it was behind the door to the monitoring room according to my pictures.