Cold War nuclear bunker site to become two-bed holiday cottage after council ruling

The underground complex served multiple purposes throughout its operational life, functioning as a shadow factory for aircraft production, a storage facility for the Royal Air Force, and subsequently as a regional government headquarters during the Cold War era.

The substation was among three such buildings erected at the site in 1943, with all three remaining in service until decommissioning took place in 1994.

These facilities provided power to the entire subterranean installation throughout its decades of operation.

Under the approved scheme, the single-storey structure with its flat roof will accommodate two parking spaces for guests.

The applicant has proposed covering the existing brick exterior with black cladding as part of the renovation works.

Substation C's history stretches back more than eight decades, having been constructed during the Second World War to help power operations at the secretive underground facility.

For more than fifty years, the building and its two counterparts supplied electricity to the tunnels, which housed everything from wartime manufacturing to Cold War contingency planning.

The substations ceased functioning in 1994, leaving the structures dormant for three decades before the current holiday let proposal emerged.

The conversion will give the former industrial building a new lease of life as tourist accommodation in the Worcestershire countryside.

Only substation C received approval for the conversion, as the remaining two substations lack vehicular access to the site.

One of the other buildings has been designated as a bat habitat and was previously included in a wine storage planning application submitted in 2021.

The decision arrives just weeks after archaeologists unearthed a forgotten Cold War underground facility at Scarborough Castle in North Yorkshire.

English Heritage experts discovered the subterranean bunker, built to shelter Royal Observer Corps volunteers who monitored for nuclear strikes across Britain.

Kevin Booth, head of collections at English Heritage, said: "Wherever you lived in Britain, you were probably no more than a few miles from an ROC post yet few people knew they existed."

The Yorkshire bunker had remained hidden since being sealed in 1968.

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