Herald - Issue 413

Page 14 • The HERALD • 7th October 2021 v READ THE HERALD ONLINE: www.herald-publishing.co.uk v • J ewellers • W atchmakers J. COLLINS & SON Proudly Serving the Waterside since 1972 10 Marsh Parade, Hythe, Southampton, Hants Tel: (023) 8084 3074 WE ARE KEEN TO BUY ALL SECONDHAND JEWELLERY, SCRAP GOLD Stockists of large range of gold, silver and gem set jewellery M ain A gents for C itizen , R otary , P ulsar , L orus W atches and S eiko C locks Kit Heath & Hot Diamond Silver Jewellery Stockists Secondhand Jewellery for Sale Our Professional Services include Jewellery & Watch Repairs, Re-Stringing, Ear Piercing PVCu FASCIAS & GUTTERING CLEANING SERVICE Gutters checked for leaks and repaired Also new installations Driveway, Patio and Decking Cleaning and Restoration Service Very reliable and fully insured Good Rates and Professional Service Special Rates for OAP’s Call us now for a free quote Holbury 07884 112416 Sophie’s Sewing Alterations • Dresses • Trousers • Curtains • Replacement Zips etc Also made to measure garments Call Sophie Walsh on 07422 533856 Friends of Lepe were welcomed back on Wednesday 8th September for their 14th (but for COVID-19 it would have been the 15th) Annual General Meeting. e meeting was held in the Lepe Lookout and was attended by 40 Friends of Lepe and Park Sta . It has been a di cult year for the Friends group who have been unable to give support to the park in the form of conservation volunteers, front of house and nature surveys, although the latter managed to study and record the park ora and fauna if they lived locally or worked in household pairs. e committee remains unchanged with Karen Dudley moving from co-opted to full membership and the group is still ably lead by Alison Steele. Adam Cooper the senior ranger and Laura Cox gave updates on the park. With the formal part of the evening over a cheese and wine party followed and the members enjoyed a relaxing evening catching up with new and old friends overlooking the glorious view of a setting sun over the Solent. To nd out more about joining the Friends, receiving 4 newsletters a year, taking part in walks, talks and visits and social events plus hearing about volunteering opportunities at the park please get in touch with Alison Steele Friends of Lepe AGM September 2021 Memories of the Lepe Beach Bunker As an embarkation point for D-Day, Lepe Beach is steeped in wartime history. Walking along the shoreline, you can’t help but notice remains of how it contributed to the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. But if you walk up from the café area and into the park itself, you’ll notice a fenced o section surrounding a green concrete block and hatch. is is a reminder of a war that never was: e Cold War. Underneath the hatch is a long ladder that descends into a small underground bunker. e bunker is known as an ROC monitoring post and was one of 1,500 in use between 1955 and 1991. e posts were operated by the Royal Observer Corps. As a collection of nationwide part-time volunteers, they acted as Britain’s eyes and ears against the threat of nuclear attack. e Lepe ROC post was unique in the late 1980s and early 90s, as the volunteers manning it were extremely young - some just teenagers at the time. If missiles had come, they’d have sounded air raid and nuclear fallout warnings, reported aircra movements and suspicious shipping, gathered data on the location, strength and radiation of nuclear bomb bursts, and monitored fallout levels and wind direction. However, by the early 90’s the world had started to change. e Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union broke apart, and the threat of nuclear war receded so much that the decision was taken to close the ROC posts down. Lepe’s post nally closed its hatch in 1991. I recently spoke to one of the observers from the Lepe ROC post. His name is Steve Hall, and he o ers fascinating insight into how he felt about being a young volunteer in the late 1980’s. He shares some of his memories: “Most Observers were single young people or middle aged and older – the nature of the role meant it wasn’t an organisation that those with young families tended to join. At Lepe we were very young. We even had teenagers at some points. ROC crews operated drills one evening a week, either at the post, or nearby as space was at a premium underground. In the case of Lepe, we either met at the Air Training Corps facility in Hythe or at the post in the country park. Facilities were basic, for example, a bucket rather than a proper toilet. But one of the good things about Lepe was the nearby public toilets. We had our own set of keys! What was funny was seeing people queue at the nearby ice-cream van on summer evenings. They’d be astonished to see a uniformed young man, sometimes wearing a gas mask with radiation protective equipment, emerging from a green metal hatch by local history enthusiast, Marc Heighway Continued on page 15