With war looming on the horizon the government were encouraging large companies to set up headquarters out of London. This move from the city would be highly secret and be known as project X. One of the first companies to move was the London, Midland & Scottish Railway., one of four railway companies in the capital. They moved and set up HQ at the Grove p, a large empty country house just outside Watford just as the Italians invaded Albania in 1939. Huts were built to provide offices and accommodation for the workers, the site was open for business by September 1939. War was declared two days later. when staff arrived not enough huts had been built, they were miles from anywhere, the nearest pub was a mile away. Each hut had coke boilers to make tea and cook snacks, knifing was collected by the workers and coke provided by the company. Staff looked after the grounds using the walled garden to grow veg and sold to staff at a cheap price. Allotments nearby were rented to workers as well, they were granted permission to leave the grounds out of work hours to tend the allotments. Later on concrete paths were put in as it got very muddy. A large canteen was built. Along with a male and female hairdressers, and a greneral store. The local defence volunteers who later became the home gaurd was assigned to patrol and protect the grove. Later on as the bombs started falling on the UK they built several bomb shelters on the site. These would house the workers if and when the bombs dropped, which a few did but caused little damage. The staff for the railways worked long hours and the railways were always a target for enemy planes.
I visited with man gone wrong when he suggested stopping here on the way home from something else. The shelters have mostly been demolished now except the long one we visited. The grove is now a luxury hotel and the grounds of the camp are now a golf course. A nice relaxed visit and quite enjoyable. The tunnels are extremely long. Each section is lettered and split into four sub sections, it gets very repetitive. What I did like was the entry points, the were staggered pre cast concrete arches joined together resembling a concrete armidillo. Looking at the shelter it does not look like it was buried underground like the deep level shelters. It was made up concrete panels. These were then placed in a cut and cover style job.
Workers going into the shelters.
Plan of the Grove site. The shelter we visited were to the left of the walled garden.
Some of the many entry points.
Some of the remains of the old benches.
And some old wooden toilet seats.
I visited with man gone wrong when he suggested stopping here on the way home from something else. The shelters have mostly been demolished now except the long one we visited. The grove is now a luxury hotel and the grounds of the camp are now a golf course. A nice relaxed visit and quite enjoyable. The tunnels are extremely long. Each section is lettered and split into four sub sections, it gets very repetitive. What I did like was the entry points, the were staggered pre cast concrete arches joined together resembling a concrete armidillo. Looking at the shelter it does not look like it was buried underground like the deep level shelters. It was made up concrete panels. These were then placed in a cut and cover style job.
Workers going into the shelters.
Plan of the Grove site. The shelter we visited were to the left of the walled garden.
Some of the many entry points.
Some of the remains of the old benches.
And some old wooden toilet seats.
