Presentation

The presentation to the public of the military material culture of the Cold War mainly occurs through military museums that usually tell the stories of particular units or branches of the armed services.Their displays are often narrowly focused on their particular interests and rarely set the objects within their wider context.One exception to this was the gallery at the Imperial War Museum,London,dedicated to the stories of conflicts since 1945,and in particular the Cold War;here the objects were presented in their wider political and social contexts(Imperial War Museum,2001).At Cosford,Shropshire,the Royal Air Force Museum presents the National Cold War Collection in which its displays of post-war aircraft collection are set against the story of the broader strategic background of the global confrontation.

Moving beyond traditional museums there are eleven former Cold War sites in England that are easily accessible and presented to the public.They may be divided into three broad categories—

●Private charities and trusts

●Commercial ventures

●Publicly owned

The charitable trust,English Heritage,which cares for over 400 historic buildings,monuments and sites in England,presents two Cold War sites.The first is a former Regional Seat of Government beneath the medieval castle at Dover,Kent.This facility was established in early 1960s to provide accommodation for hundreds of civil servants,who in the event of war would be responsible for the administration of south-east England.It was abandoned in the early 1970s and largely stripped of its furniture and equipment.Due to health and safety regulations access is restricted to small escorted tours.(https://www.daowen.com)

English Heritage also owns a former Royal Observer Corps Group Headquarters in York.If the United Kingdom had been attacked,its function was to receive reports from small monitoring posts spread across the country and from the information received plot the position of nuclear explosions and the spread of fallout.The bunker was decommissioned in 1991,and rarely,most of its original equipment was left in place.Here,visitors effectively see a place frozen in time.The story presented is that of the operation and life within the bunker,while a short film presents the wider history the Cold War.

The Group Headquarters is located in suburban York,one of England's main tourist centres.Many Cold War facilities were,however,built in remote places often now valued for their natural beauty.The National Trust initially acquired the former nuclear weapons testing range site at Ordford Ness for its interest as the largest vegetated spit in Europe.Similarly at the Needles,Isle of Wight,its primary interest was perceived as being in the chalk sea cliffs rather than the abandoned rocket test stands.Both are now managed as modern ruins.

In a former radar station at Neatishead,Norfolk,a museum trust runs an air defence museum dedicated to the history of radar stations.It combines a presentation of an original 1970s control room along with displays,equipment brought in from elsewhere.Within its grounds is also the last large Cold War era radar in Europe.The success of the museum is dependent on a committed group of volunteers,many with a military background,who are able to explain the significance of the displays of complex electronic equipment.

At the disused former United States airfield at RAF Bentwaters,Suffolk,a community group,including a handful of Americans who have settled in England,runs a museum dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the airfield,its aircraft and personnel.The main focus of the museum is a former protected command centre.On closure this was largely stripped of its contents.But it has been re-equipped using items from elsewhere and at certain times each year a training exercise is recreated as a piece of living history.In other rooms more general displays tell the stories of the airfield and its personnel.The remainder of the airfield is used for a variety of commercial activities,including some private flying.Similarly,at former RAF Upper Heyford,Oxfordshire,private businesses occupy the airfield buildings.A number of these are protected as scheduled monuments and listed buildings and access is organised for escorted tours.

Three Cold War museums at Hack Green,Cheshire,Kelvedon Hatch,Essex,and Holmpton,East Riding of Yorkshire,have been established by private initiative in former radar bunkers and are managed as commercial concerns.They present their visitors with structures outside of their usual day-to-day experience and are filled with often bewildering displays of Cold War objects not necessarily associated with that particular bunker.Lastly,in Gravesend,Kent,the local council has retained ownership of an early 1950s civil defence bunker.Here,a community group,Thames Defence Heritage,manages the bunker and has been responsible for partly refitting some of the rooms to recreate their appearance in the 1950s,while in other areas more general collections of Cold War artefacts are displayed.