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We're just mooring up at Hack 
Green on the Shropshire Union 

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Canal in Cheshire, and the 
reason we're stopping here is 

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that just a couple of minutes 
walk from the bridge is the Hack

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Green secret nuclear bunker, a 
relic from the Cold War era. 

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There are brown tourist signs 
for it all over the place now, 

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so it's hardly a secret anymore,
but as we've not been there 

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before, that's what we'll be 
doing in this episode of the 

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Water Rd. 
So I'm here at the secret 

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nuclear bunker with Jason, who's
the general manager. 

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So just tell me, what is the 
bunker and what can people see 

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here? 
It's a historical museum about 

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the Cold War. 
The. 

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Soviet Union. 
About what it calls. 

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Dangerous provocations by 
American warships in the Gulf of

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Oman. 
We started off as a radar 

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station during the sort of the 
early years of the Cold War, the

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1940s, Nineteen 50s. 
We're still a radar station in 

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the 1960s, but by that time we 
were sort of dealt with. 

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Air traffic control closed for a
long time, 15 to 20 year period 

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until the early 1980s. 
The government spent a huge sums

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of money in 1980s terms, 
millions of pounds £32,000,000, 

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and kitted out the bunker to 
become effectively a command 

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centre in the event of a nuclear
war. 

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So we would have become the 
capital wielding for the 

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northwest of England from here. 
So we would have decided how to 

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deal with survivors in 
Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, 

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Preston, Lancaster, basically 
that whole strip going all the 

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way up to Scotland. 
So why is it actually here in 

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this spot? 
Because we're kind of in the 

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middle of nowhere. 
We are as far back as World War 

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Two. 
There was a site here which was 

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called a Starfish site, which is
basically a decoy for a crew 

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station. 
So the idea was that hopefully 

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it would fool German bombers 
trying to bomb crew station and 

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they would fly here and drop 
their bombs here. 

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Hopefully in World War 2 when 
they were developing radar, they

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realised that this site here is 
is a very nice flat area in the 

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Cheshire Plain. 
And so they sited a radar 

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station here after that which 
watched the skies over the 

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Liverpool docks area in the 
northwest Manchester and so on 

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and so on. 
And the stuff was mounted on the

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back of trucks in those days 
rather than being a permanent 

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site so it could be moved around
if necessary. 

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After World War 2, then we, we 
became a permanent Cold War 

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radar station, a rota radar 
station, which was built at 

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again, great expense. 
And they, they literally threw 

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money at the project to get it 
built once the Soviets had 

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developed their own nuclear 
weapons. 

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So that's why the building was 
here originally. 

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Once it had been decommissioned 
as a radar station, you're left 

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with a concrete bunk head 
basically you're not really sure

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what to do with. 
But in the event that it had 

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become useful in the future, 
they never like to throw those, 

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you know, sort of completely 
demolish these kinds of 

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buildings. 
So effectively it's just reused 

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and repurposed. 
And was it always secret or was 

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it not a secret when it was a 
radar station? 

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It it was critical 
infrastructure. 

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So you would have, if you were 
posted here, doing your national

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service, you're working in A at 
a top secret site during the 

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1980s, though you're a reserve 
building for the running of the 

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country. 
So you can't get a whole lot 

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more secret than that, really. 
And in those days when it was 

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secret, was there a staff here 
the whole time or was it just a 

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a building that was waiting to 
be staffed if the need? 

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So there was. 
There was a cadre of people 

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working here all the time, sort 
of the the the day-to-day 

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running of the building. 
There would be war games taking 

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place here to plan around the 
best way to deal with a a 

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scenario like that. 
Other people had come in and to 

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put their skills from time to 
time, coming in once or twice a 

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week perhaps if it was say the 
the local BT engineers making 

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looking at their equipment. 
This is a routine British 

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Telecom emergency communications
network test message for 

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regional government headquarters
Station 10. 

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Two test message begins AQK2. 
Standby. 

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FDB8. 
They were very rarely fully 

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staffed. 
I think there was one situation 

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when it was fully staffed, which
was during the minor strike, 

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which is when basically they 
decided the situation was so 

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dire that they needed to 
potentially move to disaster 

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planning. 
And you mentioned disaster 

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because when you go around the 
museum, there's the disaster is 

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quite a a theme, isn't it? 
It's quite frightening. 

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Indeed, as soon as you walk in 
through the building there are 

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decommissioned nuclear weapons 
completely safe to look at 

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nowadays. 
But yeah, the the sort of things

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that were many, many, many more 
times powerful than the bombs 

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dropped on Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki. 

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They were the nuclear deterrent 
basically for, for the UK in the

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60s, seventies, 80s, 90s. 
We work with the atomic weapons 

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establishment at Oldham Mast and
they loan us the decommissioned 

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warheads and we work with them 
to show the public the dangers 

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and the, the skills that are 
needed And you know, and 

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hopefully making people 
understand just how awful a 

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nuclear war could be in many 
ways. 

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It's not just the, the initial 
damage which is the problem. 

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It's all it's everything which 
comes after, up to and including

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potentially the the total 
collapse of society. 

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We. 
Interrupt regular programming to

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bring you a message from Her 
Majesty's Government. 

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Please stand by and await 
further information. 

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This is an emergency warning 
from the BBC. 

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Information of a possible 
nuclear strike against this 

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country has been received. 
And I think those of us who grew

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up in the 80s and 90s probably 
remember that we all feared a 

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nuclear war, didn't we? 
That? 

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00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,000
But that seems to have. 
That's gone away a bit, hasn't 

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it? 
Really? 

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It did. 
And then I started working here 

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just after COVID. 
And at the time, we used to make

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a, you know, a little joke with 
the public about aren't we lucky

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that the, you know, the nuclear 
war apocalypse never happened. 

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And basically we're dealing with
with little germs, staying at 

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home, watching box sets on TV, 
trying not to be bored out of 

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our minds. 
But then, you know, as, as these

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things often do, the world 
changed again and we had a 

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little war going on in the 
Ukraine, which has brought 

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everything back to very, very 
sharp focus for. 

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And it seems remarkable that 
we're so close to the canal and 

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yet the whole place was secret 
and people didn't really know it

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was here. 
Indeed, apparently the personnel

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posted here in the 50s and 60s 
during their their free time 

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would climb up onto the roof of 
the building. 

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There was a sort of an area 
where they could relax and have 

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a few minutes outside and wave 
to the boaters. 

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But not when it was probably. 
No, no. 

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So they must have known 
something was going on here. 

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But as to exactly what that was,
I think they were they, you 

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know, they would be blissfully 
unaware. 

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And now everyone is blissfully 
aware because there's signs 

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about the secret you'd. 
Indeed, it's one of the little 

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00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:02,760
jokes, isn't it? 
We get people coming in from a 

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00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,080
far and wide who like to tell us
about how it's not such a secret

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00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,560
bunker anymore because they 
followed the signs to get here. 

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Well, after that brief visit to 
reality, we're back on the move 

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in the world of the canals and 
just north of the bridge where 

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you can walk to the nuclear 
bunker from there are the 2 hack

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green locks. 
Now we're in the Cheshire Plain 

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00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:51,040
here, so the two locks only go 
down 12 feet between them, and 

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in fact the next lock on the 
Shropshire Union mainline is 

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almost 9 miles further on. 
Now at the top lock there's a 

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00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:21,400
former stables and that's a 
reminder of when the horse drawn

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00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:23,480
fly boats used to operate on the
canal. 

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They were often carrying 
perishable cargoes and they used

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00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:29,320
to run 24 hours a day. 
And there were regular stables 

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00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,440
all along the route so that the 
horses could be changed. 

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And if you just look behind the 
stables, you can see the site of

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00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:38,600
the nuclear bunker. 
You can't actually see the 

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bunker itself because the trees 
have grown up. 

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But you can see one of the big 
radars and you can certainly see

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the massive great communications
tower, which is one of the 

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00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:48,520
reasons that the mobile signal 
is so good. 

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Even though we're in the middle 
of nowhere, 

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00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,000
we're down the locks. 
And that means that's all for 

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00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,480
this episode of The Water Rd. 
The podcast is produced and 

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00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,960
presented by me, Adam Porter. 
If you want to find out more 

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00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,360
about the Hack Green Secret 
Nuclear bunker, there's a link 

159
00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:18,680
in the episode description. 
Thank you to everyone who's 

160
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