Notes on Ullenwood from Gloucester Archives ...

Ullenwood is unrecognisable now apart from the perimeter fence and has a very large house built on it and the grounds are still being landscaped: none of the buildings that the diggers lived in remain. I found some of its history on the web:


"Post-War Civil Defence: The Cold War

The Cold War period between 1945 and the 1990s saw Britain and her NATO allies ranged against, the Soviet Bloc. It was marked by constant tension between East and West Europe, and the concurrent threat of nuclear attack, reflected here in the records of local authority Civil Defence committees. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) were involved in protests against both the British independent nuclear deterrent and the presence of American bases in the United Kingdom.

A special “bomb proof” bunker was built after World War II at Ullenwood, for use as a control and command centre in the event of a nuclear war. It was constructed on the site of a U.S. military hospital that had been used during both World Wars, the old wooden huts remaining around the bunker area. The County Council purchased the site in 1963 for use by its Emergency Planning section, which administered it until 1994. Gloucestershire Archives used it for storage from 1993-1997 (being responsible for its administration from 1994-97), after which it was administered by Fire & Rescue and used for training purposes until sold by the County Council in 2003."