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It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

HER Number:TQ 75 NE 422
Type of record:Monument
Name:Site of County Emergency Centre, Springfield, Maidstone

Summary

This underground bunker was beneath the staff canteen of Kent County Council’s Springfield offices. It originated in 1964 as the county control for Civil Defence in the event of a war involving a conventional, nuclear, chemical or biological attack. It succeeded earlier controls at Springfield House and County Hall. It is now believed to have been destroyed.


Grid Reference:TQ 75526 56974
Map Sheet:TQ75NE
Parish:MAIDSTONE, MAIDSTONE, KENT

Monument Types

  • EMERGENCY PLANNING CENTRE (Modern - 1964 AD to 1990 AD?)

Full description

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This underground bunker was beneath the staff canteen of Kent County Council’s Springfield offices. It originated in 1964 as the county control for Civil Defence in the event of a war involving a conventional, nuclear, chemical or biological attack. It succeeded earlier controls at Springfield House and County Hall.

Its role was to receive information about the extent of casualties and damage or disruption to property, public services and transport and to liase with the emergency services and local council controls to use whatever resources existed to try to ameliorate the worst effects of an attack.

Up to 50 staff were to be employed in the bunker, including scientific advisers who were to assess the spread of radiation and its effects as well as communications officers operating radios and telephones to receive and send information. There was a radio mast outside.

As well as being at the head of a county communications chain down to the control centres of individual local authorities, there was also a communications link with the Regional Seat of Government at Dover Castle.

It was intended to be self-sustaining and had its own power plant, water and food supplies and could be sealed against radioactive contamination for a lengthy period.

The bunker was refurbished in 1984 and was retained as a control centre for the protection of the population in the event of a civil emergency. Its functions are to be transferred to another site.


The bunker was a concrete structure with brick elements. It consisted of a rectangular suite of 21 rooms, all on one level, reached down an internal staircase on the northern side of the staff canteen. A blast door protects its entrance. There was an emergency exit into a car park on its eastern side where air intake and venting structures could be seen. The steel radio mast was adjacent.

The core of the bunker was an Operations Centre, around which the other rooms are ranged. These are: north side; scientific advisers, co-ordination and stores, east; larder, kitchen, toilets, telephone room, switchboard and radio room, south; generator, fuel store, engineers room and services liaison and, west, a room for water storage.

Refurbishment in 1984 did not appear to have structurally altered the bunker but lighting and some furniture were also upgraded and telecommunications replaced. At the date of visit, the bunker was fully equipped for civil emergencies, with an operating diesel generator, radios and fax machine, furniture, maps and telephones. Many of the intrinsically ‘Cold war’ fittings have been removed.

The site was visited in 1997 (1) but is now thought to be destroyed.


<1> Victor Smith and Andrew Saunders, 2001, Kent's Defence Heritage (Unpublished document). SKE6956.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>Unpublished document: Victor Smith and Andrew Saunders. 2001. Kent's Defence Heritage.