In undergrowth on North side of cliff top path, 500 yards along farm track from B4267 just North of its junction with Upper Cosmeston Farm (Road name).
SEALED Following damage by vandals the post was non-operational after October 1973, closing in March 1975 when Rhoose was re-opened. Unusually for an early closure there are two telegraph poles remaining alongside the farm track and two alongside the edge of a field to the North of the post. All surface features remain intact but the hatch is capped with a 9" thick slab of concrete. The surrounding apron is breaking up badly and there is a hole in one side of the shaft big enough to look down and see that the shaft is still open below the concrete cap. The adjacent ventilation shaft has gone. The top of the main ventilation shaft is broken and one side of it is breaking away below the removed louvre. The other louvre, a metal replacement, is still in place.
Former post observer Adrian Angove remembers Penarth: Most of the post strength came from my class at school - eight of us from the twelve members of the post. On weekend exercises, rather than attend as the normal crews of three, all eight of us attended for the full 24 hours (Warmon) or 36 hours (Intex) depending on the exercise. Obviously it would have been too crowded for all to be below ground, so the off duty guys hung around in the above ground building.
It was quite sound and comfortable then, brick built with corrugated asbestos roofing edges. The door was still secure, the ground floor room was dry and tidy and we had taken an unofficial tap off the farmer’s power line that ran nearby. We had a Baby Belling cooker/hob, a two bar electric fire, a bedside lamp, camping chairs, sleeping bags and a radio for comforts. There was even carpet on the floor.
The view over the channel, across to Flat Holm, Steep Holm, and Weston-super-mare from the upstairs platform was excellent. However, I remember holding normal volume conversations with the observers stood by the hatch, while I was on the above ground post’s platform.
Opened in 1962 and closed in 1975.
