VETERANS who manned a Cold War Bunker in York have reunited on the tenth anniversary of the bunker being restored as a monument open to the public.

Staff at the Cold War Bunker in Acomb, York, invited members of the volunteer Royal Observer Corps who were based there in its heyday to join the celebrations and share their stories.

York Cold War Bunker was built at the height of the Cold War to provide vital information on the size and location of nuclear bombs if Britain had been attacked.

It is equipped with ventilation systems, dormitories, a canteen, radio and telecommunications equipment plus the operations room where nuclear fallout could be plotted using maps and monitoring equipment.

After the bunker was decommissioned in 1991, it stood derelict until 2001, when English Heritage recommended it for scheduling as a monument, affording it the highest level of heritage protection.

It took five years of building works, restoration and research before it could open in May 2006.

Since opening to the public in 2006 more than 48,000 people have visited. As part of the preservation of the site – built in 1961 - Royal Observer Corps members were interviewed and many of the objects, items and stories came directly from conversations with these volunteers.

Among those returning was former Group Commandant Jim Millington, whose uniform hangs in the Officers’ Room.

Rachael Bowers, site manager at York Cold War Bunker, said: “This was an amazingly well preserved example of a Cold War building but we needed to understand what happened here and have the human stories before we could share it with our visitors.”