The beauty of Worsley Woods is something well known round these parts.
Part of a well-trekked three-mile circular walk – often highlighted as being one of the best across Greater Manchester – that also provides you with the chance to stroll along the Bridgewater Canal and take in the picturesque Worsley village and its cultural heritage, you can easily find yourself exploring the rich woodland area of this Salford suburb for hours.
But tucked away in a far corner of the RHS Bridgewater plot is something that’s really worth seeing.
If you know just where to look, then you’ll come across a bunker from the Cold War that may one day blossom into a protected ancient monument.
Sure, it’s not exactly a pretty site – now well camouflaged by graffiti and foliage – but it’s long been a destination for so-called ‘urban explorers’, and in 2009, was also a magnet for thousands of party-goers who attended illegal, underground raves.
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It’s history goes back much, much further than that though.
Mark Waugh / RHS Bridgewater
Dug into hillside in 1951, the bunker was constructed when the potential of a nuclear strike by a Joseph Stalin-led Soviet Russia was deemed to be at its height.
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According to a report by Salford University’s Applied Archaeology Department, it was built by the War Office as an anti-aircraft operations room on land at Worsley New Hall, and was part of a national network of defences, which included an alternative seat of government to the House of Commons underground at Box Hill, near in Corsham in Wiltshire.
In the event of a potential Soviet attack, it was thought the British population could be protected by anti-aircraft guns, and so the country was divided into 33 gun-defended areas arranged in five groups.
The bunker at Worsley was part of this web, with the next nearest at Frodsham.
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The two-storey square structure at Worsley was a main operations room, surrounded by eight reinforced concrete rooms and a viewing gallery and it would have had its own electricity supply and ample space for stores of food, but as nuclear technology advanced during the Cold War, defence policies changed.
It soon became clear a nuclear attack would come not from bombs being dropped by planes, but rather by inter-continental ballistic missiles.
Austerity in the 1950s also led to defence budget cuts.
By 1956, the Worsley bunker was being used as a Royal Navy store, by 1961, it had been transferred to the local authorities as a control centre in the event crisis, and then by 1968, it was closed for good.
Geograph / Anthony Parkes
The story of the bunker doesn’t end there though, as in more recent decades, it has continued to have a varied history.
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Through the 1970s to the early 1980s, it was used by Greater Manchester Fire Service. Then in 1985, it was leased to to the Worsley Rife and Pistol Club who turned it into a shooting range, before Peel Investments acquired it in 2000.
In April 2009, one of several raves were held in the bunker attracting thousands of people.
Due to extensive vandalism occurring at the event, and in the years prior and post, both entrances were eventually blocked up, and it has remained empty ever since.
But when RHS Bridgewater eventually opens in May, the bunker will form part of its estate.
RHS Bridgewater will be the country’s fifth national garden.
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The Worsley Woods plot where the bunker stands was sold by Peel to the RHS, and Salford City Council then put £19 million towards the creation of the garden.
The £44m attraction – which covers 156-acres of land – was due to welcome visitors in July 2020, but just like most things, this was delayed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, although planting and preparation has been in full swing ever since, and it is set to transform the grounds of the former Worsley New Hall when it opens to the public this year.
What’s in store for the bunker in the future then? Well, it doesn’t sound like it’s going away any time soon.
A spokesperson for the RHS said: “The bunker definitely won’t be demolished, as it’s a really interesting part of the site’s heritage.
“There are no firm plans for how it’ll be used just yet, this will be looked at as part of the next phase of garden development from 2022 onwards.”
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You can get the latest updates on RHS Bridgewaterhere.
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).