World War Two Observation Post

World War II Royal Observer Corps Observation Post, Brassington

This is a Royal Observer Corps post, situated approximately 500 metres south of the village of Longcliffe, opened in 1943. It is constructed of red brick on a steep rock outcrop.

The building is rectangular in plan, standing approximately 3.5 metres high over two storeys. Access to the upper floor is by way of steep external steps. The upper level comprises an open-topped aircraft observation area measuring approximately 2 metres square, with evidence of an instrument table mounting in the centre. From this roof area, two steps lead down to the crew room, which measures approximately 1.25 metres by 2 metres and has a flat roof. A door at the bottom of the stairs provides access to the lower room, with a window in the opposite wall. An outside toilet block is attached to the north wall.

The post was built to a standard RAF pattern and formed part of the 'Granite' system, a network of posts equipped with flares to warn friendly aircraft of high ground in poor visibility. This system is estimated to have prevented up to seven thousand accidents. The post remained in use until 1964, when the principal role of the Royal Observer Corps shifted to nuclear reporting and an underground post approximately 150 metres to the south-east came into operation.

The broader context of the Royal Observer Corps begins with the public response to bombing raids on London in 1915 and 1917. A unified air defence system was established under Major General Ashmore. In 1925, trials of a telephone-linked network of observation posts were conducted in cooperation with the RAF to test aircraft identification and tracking systems. Following the successful trials, the Observer Corps was formally established in 1925. Initially limited to the Maidstone and Horsham areas, the network was progressively expanded throughout the 1930s to cover the whole of the British Isles as the threat of war increased. By 1938, there were approximately 1,400 posts, of which eighteen were situated in Derbyshire. When war was declared in 1939, all Observer Corps posts had been manned for two weeks. In 1941, the Corps' contribution was formally recognised by King George VI, who granted it the title Royal Observer Corps and became its first Air Commodore-in-Chief.

Following the end of World War II, the Royal Observer Corps was briefly stood down before reactivation in 1947 in response to increased tension with the Eastern Bloc. By the 1950s, the threat of nuclear attack led the Government to establish the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation. The Royal Observer Corps was assigned the task of collecting information on nuclear bomb locations, weapon sizes, fallout patterns, and basic weather data. In 1968, nearly 700 posts were closed. The underground monitoring post at Brassington was eventually decommissioned in 1991 when the Royal Observer Corps was finally stood down.