Blast from the past in Cold War images

Archive staff have come across slides showing a bunker at Wawne, near Hull, which was the designated emergency HQ for a nuclear attack, and was given the name “Falfox”.

The slides show the former Humberside County Council carried out a number of experiments including one looking at how a family would cope with living underground at Falfox, from November 12 to 18 1979.

Living conditions were spartan, but bunks were provided, as well as copious quantities of spirits, as part of provisons costing £58.

Sam Bartle, from the Treasure House at Beverley, said information beyond the slides was scant. He said: “The Cold War is still in living memory and if anyone has records related to this area, we’d be eager to receive them.”

Former Humberside County Council leader Terry Geraghty was one of the select few entitled to go to the bunker should a bomb fall. But he said at the time he doubted the Russians would risk it. He said: “As far as I was concerned it was Cold War hype. A lot of money was spent on nothing in my opinion. If the bomb had dropped in the area or anywhere in Yorkshire, the fall-out would have killed us all off.”