Kenton Bunker At Former Raf Blakelaw

1833/0/10225 KENTON LANE 25-JUN-03 (South,off) Kenton Bunker at former RAF Blakelaw

II Underground Operations Room or Bunker. Built 1939 as the Head Quarters of No. 13 Group for the North. Reinforced concrete and brick. Above ground a small entrance building with a flat concrete roof supported on square brick columns. Entrance doors to right flanked by single narrow casement windows with overhanging canopy above. To left two further bays, the first has a central 2-light casement window flanked by single narrow casements. Beyond the left bay has a single narrow casement window. The bunker itself is underground and covered grass. INTERIOR is entered down a long flight of concrete steps. The west entrance door has rubber gas seals. Almost all the original fittings survive in the Plant Room including its Porton anti-gas filters, the electrical pipes and fuse boxes, the main power input console, the original air pressure gauges and the metal ventilation ducting. The acid filled glass batteries survive in the Auxiliary Battery Room. The Operations Room itself even retains its original light fittings. This bunker was the HQ for No. 13 Group which formed part of RAF Blakelaw. It was from here that the northern response to the Battle of Britain was co-ordinated and also the general air defence for the remainder of the Second World War.