Drakelow Tunnels

shall we? So, yes, the place is called Drakelow, as Kat has already said.

And you might have remembered, I fleetingly mentioned, I think, Drakelow when we were talking about, when we were doing the local law series.

Because Drake refers to dragon and low refers, it's like a mound or burial mound or a mound of some sort so drake low is literally like the dragon's mound the dragon's hill that kind of thing so and it's first recorded as that in 1240 um so yeah so there's probably some dragon law belief at this at that time by the minute Yeah.

So if I show you, I just want to show you.

So this is basically from the air, in fact, from the surface, if you were just walking around, the area that Draco tunnels occupy looks like a quiet woodland.

In the middle of the countryside, there's nothing there.

It is, I'll put the map up.

So this is courtesy of Google Maps.

It is nestled, I suppose, halfway between the villages of Kinvert and Wolverley area in Worcestershire in England.

And it's the perfect disguise because underneath here lies...

A maze, basically, a hidden maze of concrete, sandstone tunnels.

Obviously, no lights or so in complete darkness, obviously, until the lights are turned on.

But they are underneath the ground completely.

um it the the the tunnels in total length are over three miles long probably more like three and a half and the whole area covers uh site covers around 285 000 square foot feet or 26 and a half thousand square meters uh and it was like i said it was built for the uh it was built at the beginning of the second world war and the idea was that it would be a factory site it was a factory site for rover if anyone remembers like the rover car plants they were they were very it was like a massive employer in the birmingham um area and in the war obviously they weren't just making cars we weren't making many cars at all but they were making for airplanes And of course that meant that Birmingham and nearby Coventry as well, which was heavily industrial, was a target for bombing raids.

And so they wanted an underground factory where they could move operations should the plants in Birmingham and Coventry take a direct hit.

So, yes,

so this is how it came about.

And then later it was adapted for potential use as a regional headquarters during the Cold War.

So around the country, there were these sites that were identified that government would work out of if the Cold War turned hot.

I don't know what the hell we do now.

We've told everyone where all our sites are.

But anyway, so we were obviously very arrogant and confident, should I say, when the Cold War ended, that we would never need these sites again, which to me now, thinking about things is a little bit bizarre.

But yes, so lots of visitors go there.

You have to go on an organised trip, Eventbrite, they put their tickets on Eventbrite and there's just part of the tunnels that are still available for the public to visit during these types of organised visits.

I mean, I suppose a lot go because it is quite an extraordinary survivor from wartime Britain, but it's also highly reported as one of the most unsettling places you can take yourself to.