Monty BattleHQ - Reigate - Surrey

 

 Monty battle Hq 

Date:   May 2021

Location: Reigate

Public or Abandoned: abandoned

Demolished:  Yes

I came across this deep shelter in April, although I had unknowingly liked photos of it on Instagram as far back as September the previous year. After seeing it frequently on Facebook and Instagram last month, I decided to do some research and surprisingly, I found it!

My first attempt to visit the bunker was in April, but it was too dark by the time I arrived to see anything. At that point, I didn't really know what I was looking for. However, a close friend of mine found the bunker through an old map and messaged me where to go and how to get there. I was pretty surprised that I was so close on my first attempt.

The exploration was relatively simple - we followed the well-trodden footpath down to the bunker, which took us about five minutes to find the entrance. Once inside, it was like most other deep shelters - two corridors with interconnected tunnels in the middle. Both tunnels had debris scattered around, and there was a lot of chalk writing on the floor and on items from previous explorers over the years.

My favorite part of the exploration was the newspapers. The last time I saw newspapers that old was in an abandoned house. It was nice to see them in the tunnels. We didn't spend too long down there, only about an hour. It was a bit dodgy down there and we didn't want to walk back up the path in the dark and high winds.

The history of this bunker is not well-documented, as it is pretty hard to find. However, it is said that the tunnels are 3,000 feet long and were dug by Welsh miners and Royal engineers. It is also possible that during World War II, the bunker was used as a radio control center, serving as a secret war time control center.