The Ham Nomads

22 Aug 2014. <GB-ENG> York, N Yorks; Stamford Bridge, E Yorks; Edwinstowe (Sherwood Forest), Notts —

Today we could sleep in a little, as we were camped only about 10 minutes from our first destination. This was an English Heritage site, but a most unusual one. It is the York Cold War Bunker, the headquarters of the Royal Observer Corps No.20 Group. One of 29 such headquarters bunkers, in its operational time it had a staff of 60, and had about 40 3-man observation posts reporting to it. Its sole raison d'être was to report nuclear strikes on the British mainland in its own vicinity, and was part of a reporting system that covered first Great Britain, and then the whole of the NATO Treaty countries.

Rachel, our guide for the tour, was delightful — from Monday to Thursday they run tours for schools, and she's obviously well used to boisterous children, so adults were child's play for her! We were taken through the support areas — decontamination, air filtration, heat dissipation, dormitories, the canteen — before we were shown into the operations room, and then the telephone exchange.

In the operations room was a piece of equipment that in the 1960s was top secret — Audrey — a computer that took a lot of the tedious tasks away from the human staff. But she couldn't be trusted — she couldn't tell the difference between a nuclear explosion and a lightning strike, or fireworks on bonfire night.

Farewell York!

After leaving the bunker, we tried to go out to the site of the Battle of Stamford Bridge. No luck — the battlefield seems not to be marked. Nevertheless, Warren was satisfied, as he was able to determine that the terrain in the whole area is dead flat, so the only external influences on the battle would have been the River Ouse and the Bridge itself. (For those who don't know about this battle, it was where King Harald of England repulsed a Danish invasion attempt only days before having to fight his fateful battle at Hastings against William of Normandy, and which may well have reduced his chances of success at the latter battle.)

We then set off southwards, intending to visit Bolsover Castle or Hardwicke Hall, both not far from Chesterfield, and not far north of Nottingham. There was a huge hold-up on the A1, the M18 and the M1, which would have been our route down, so we decided to take alternate roads, which put us behind schedule for these two sites, but took us right by the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, so we decided to pay our respects to Robin Hood instead! A pleasant afternoon tea in the restaurant (to allow a fairly heavy rain shower to pass), and then a pleasant walk through the woods.

Apparently this piece of mainly oak and birch woodland is in fairly pristine condition, much as it was 500 years ago, and so is of great interest to naturalists. And, of course, it's a magnet to all the kids who have the romance of Robin Hood in their blood! There's a well-set-up visitors' centre with an exhibition about Robin Hood and his band, and also an introduction to the flora and fauna of the area.

There's a huge old oak tree — The Major Oak — which is over 1000 years old. It's so old and creaking with age that it has a huge number of braces now attached to it to stop it collapsing or branches from snapping off. Legend has it that Robin Hood's camp was near this tree.

The Major Oak

Anyway, we left after a couple of hours and have camped in a layby only a couple of miles away — giving us a good start for Bolsover Castle and Hardwicke Hall tomorrow.

Distance driven — today, 100 miles ( 161 km ); to date, 6,310 miles ( 10,155 km )