A private collection of cold war paperwork is currently under offer. For more into check out: http://www.rafholmpton.com/ click on the Archive Disposal Sale link for more info. Details as follows:
DISPOSAL SALE OF PRIVATE ARCHIVE COLLECTION CURRENTLY STORED AT RAF HOLMPTON
Viewing Opens 30th July – Ends 10th August
Sealed Bids need to be in by 5pm 11th August
CLARIFICATION: 3rd August 2007 – Following various enquiries we wish to clarify that the sale of this archive constitutes the sale of a ‘private collection’ stored here. It does not include any of the historic archive items, images, films and artefacts that form the permanent collection on display and always accessible to the general public at RAF Holmpton, and it does not include the files relating to the development of our previous exhibitions at Dover Castle, The Liverpool WWII War Rooms, The Scottish Home Department Bunker near St Andrews and the Essex County Bunker.
REASONS FOR SALE: The recent serious flooding at RAF Holmpton (which did not damage this archive) has placed its future storage under immediate consideration and it has been decided by the archive’s owners that it will be offered for sale.
The National Archives at Kew and the Ministry of Defence have carried out an inspection of the archive and they have no objection to it’s being sold. They found it to be a substantial ‘private collection’ of great interest concentrating into one place a huge amount of Cold War information that would otherwise take many years to research.
The sale is therefore to proceed as planned and full details about the archive, viewing, the process of sale, removal etc are detailed below. Please be sure to use the contacts provided at the foot of this page, as emails or calls made to other numbers will not receive attention.
1: THE ARCHIVE – The archive contains details of the majority of underground military and bunker sites in the UK built between 1940 and the present day along with a huge number of files on the subject and a massive photographic archive which is almost unique – The documents contain committee papers, architects plans, research documents, specifications, correspondence, engineering drawings, maps, location plans etc – There is an additional collection of Emergency Government, Home Office, Local Authority Emergency Planning, Civil Defence and General Manuals, reports, correspondence, plans, emergency procedure papers, pamphlets, nuclear war manuals, scientific reports and manuals, and many additional papers and documents – Included with the document archive is a truly massive collection of photographs detailing the majority of bunkers, shelters, underground buildings, underground factories etc built between 1940 to the present day, including RWR’s – AAOR’s – RSG’s – SRHQ’s – RGHQ’s – Sector Ops Rooms, Communications Centres – Military Headquarters, the entire Rotor Radar station and bunker programme etc – Together with a huge collection of 35mm slides and negatives and other images – Assembled over some 35 years this is a fascinating record of these amazing places and the archive is quite simply a unique record of these wartime and cold war UK structures – It is quite possibly the largest and most complete record of it’s kind in existence today. However all the principal documents in this archive are available from other sources, archives, private collections etc although not all held in one collection, and the majority of the originals (not including the images) are held at either The National Archives, the RAF Museum or other official stores and libraries. The value of this particular archive is that it concentrates into one collection an almost complete overview of this period of our national history, and therefore the value to reserchers is undoubted. The disposal however would not result in any loss to the nation as the core and source information still remains in the public domain. The vendors do not provide any guarantee as to the content of the archive which is open to prospective buyers to inspect prior to bidding.
2: QUANTITY -10 Filing Cabinets – 40 Drawers – These are not all full. Some sample photographs are shown – Some of the archive is in files and folders – some in the form of loose papers – some in the form of manuals/publications/other documents and of course photographic images/35mm slides and negatives together with architects plans/drawings.
ETC ETC ETC – check out the website for more info:
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August 10, 2007 at 3:05 pm