Halstead Instation

The site is on PRIVATE LAND. NO ACCESS WOULD BE ALLOWED WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Captain Ken Ward recalled there was a nearby Met hut though no evidence has yet been found.

The Station was built into an over grown bank located on the edge of a wood. The trees are not contemporary with the structure so there is no aerial remains.

The entrance is located near to the wood's edge and the emergency exit comes out onto the edge of a bank that joins open fields, ideal for a quick exit. It was entered by going down a breeze block built shaft. There is no evidence of steel rungs so a ladder must have been used to gain entry. The exterior of the hatch would have been well camouflaged. At the bottom of the shaft you can see the original hatch counterweight, a length of railway line, with wire still attached. The bottom of the hatch leads into a small lobby which we suspect would have contained a water tank and chemical (Elsan) toilet. This small lobby was a crucial part of the Station's disguise. Anyone entering it would have thought they were in a small storage room which contained shelves stacked with tins etc. This shelving was cleverly designed to conceal a small door which lead into the main operations room. A cast iron pipe ventilated this lobby area.

The main operations room has the end walls painted white to help reflect the light. The floor is paving slabs which originally was covered with brown linoleum. An aerial feeder cable enters through the roof. Two large ventilation pipes can be seen on the left hand wall. This wall separated the operations and generator room.

Two large ventilation pipes made from concrete pass into one end of the generator room. Like the wall of the main operations room, the pipes are painted white. Fresh air entered the Station through the bottom pipe. As it warms and rises it then leaves the bunker through the top pipe and travels outside. Two 240 Volt mains power cables came into the Operations Room through the wall. In the generator room the wooden mounting block is still in situ. Made of sections of timber it is bolted to the floor to prevent movement when the generator was in use.

You access the escape tunnel by passing through a square opening in the end wall of the generator room. The escape tunnel is only about ten feet long. Nothing remains of the exit cover and the end has either collapsed or is blocked. Under all the soil the passage has a concrete floor, it is built of breezeblocks walls and the roof is paving slabs.

A full study of the site was carried out by Evelyn Simak and Adrian Pye and published by SubBrit.

Halstead is first mentioned in Beatrice Temple's diary on 15 Dec 1941 when she visited with Major Winterborne.       1 April 1942 she "dished out equipment". She next visited 7 May 1942. On 10 July 1942 she "picked up Mickie, saw site and found billet" but by 24 Nov 1942 she spent all day in a vain hunt for billets. Her next visit was 2 Dec 1942 then 12 March 1943. On 15 April 1943 her brake cable broke and she stayed for tea. 14 May 1943 she visited with Captain Childe and they had lunch at Nina's cottage. 10 June 1943 she visited the hut and had use of it overnight. 22 July 1943, 24 Aug, 24 Sept and 18 Oct 1943 saw further visits. On 27 Jan 1944 she met with Freddie Childe and had lunch in Rosemary Thurlow's billet. Halstead is last mentioned 2 March 1944 when she says goodbye to Priscilla and Clifford.