Henley in Arden Royal Observer Corps Underground Monitoring Post

Description of this historic site

Royal Observer Corps Underground Monitoring Post at Beaudesert. Monitoring posts were to be used for the reporting nuclear bursts and monitoring fall-out in the modern period. The post was demolished some time after it closed in 1968.

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Notes about this historic site

1 The primary role of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was the recognition and identification of hostile aircraft. With the start of the cold war and the increasing threat of nuclear attack in the 1950’s, the ROC was given the added responsibility of reporting nuclear bursts and monitoring fall-out which necessitated the construction of 1563 underground monitoring posts throughout Great Britain & Northern Ireland.
Henley in Arden Monitoring post opened in 1960 and closed in 1968.
On a plateau on the north west side of a public footpath leading to a motte and bailey castle mound. The location of the post is marked by an area of disturbed ground.

3The 1968 OS Card suggests that the castle ditch was damaged by the insertion of the ROC post and therefore the monument boundary extends into the ditch.