Written by Unknown on 10 February 2006.
Wood Norton Hall was a country estate with extensive grounds and woodlands. Once the home of the Duke of Orleans, and later a private school, it was acquired by the BBC shortly before WWII for use as an emergency broadcasting centre.
Since the war, the site has been used as a training centre.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s, a new block of lecture theatres and training laboratories was built - on top of this substantial nuclear bunker, which was finished in 1967. The building is known as Bredon Wing.
For years, lecturers at the site have teased students about the bunker, claiming that it is anything from two to ten stories deep!
The bunker was (is?) a BBC emergency studio centre, designed to be capable of providing a radio broadcasting service in wartime. It is said to contain a number of radio studios and related facilities.
The bunker is built into the side of a hill. The photo shows the back of the building. At the front, the top of the bunker is at ground level.
Written by Matt Hardiman on 04 March 2025.
Like most ex-BBC types, I know the bunker well
It is 2 storey and contained (in 2008 when I left the BBC) 4 radio studios within their own inner Faraday cage - one for each of the 4 main networks (it was built before 5Live). The studios were arranged in a square form with a shared technical corridor on one side – entry to studios furthest away from the corridor was via the other studios. The 4 main networks were left faded up on the desks such that the studios could be switched into circuit. When initially installed, I believe that the microwave tower at the top of the hill that Wood Norton sits was “between London and Birmingham” and so it was possible to route to the transmitters from here. The floor with the studio section had a large “newsroom” office to the side of the studios. This had smaller offices off to the sides. When 5Live came long, it was thrown into a small badly acoustic office off the newsroom. Only select members of staff had access. At the top of the stairs between floors, there was a tiny safe on the wall which everyone joked had either a gun or suicide pills in, I never found out!
As you entered the bunker there was a communications room on the right which was active but was not staffed by BBC staff whenever I visited and I was told not to talk to them.
