The Rotor Station is located at SZ163977 on the west side of a
minor road half a mile north of Sopley village. It is contained within a large
secure compound with a very low mound giving little evidence to the unsuspecting
passer by that there is a bunker beneath.
The guardhouse is not the standard bungalow design as it has an overhanging flat
roof, similar to that at Portland. The building is pained white. The only other
buildings on the site are the former generator house alongside which has now
been stripped out and is used as a garage and a small blockhouse near the south
west corner of the compound which houses the emergency exit.
There is no indication on the property as to who owns it and what business is
conducted there and at the request of the owners we cannot publish that
information although I believe it is fairly common knowledge. We were allowed to
see everywhere in the bunker below but were only allowed to photograph those
areas and rooms that did not show any evidence of the business that was being
conducted at the site.
We entered the bunker down a small stairway at the back of the guardhouse which
leads to the top of the sloping 50 yard access tunnel into the bunker. At
the bottom of this tunnel the corridor goes round a Z bend containing two blast
doors to the main upper spine corridor. Just before the Z bend is one of the two
main transformers which is now out of use and the original 1950's intercom
system which is working and used by the owners. At this point is the main
stairway down to the lower level with its hoist still
in place for lifting items up from the well below.
All the rooms on both sides of the main corridor have been adapted for new uses
apart from the kitchen on the right hand side which still contains its cooker.
At the far end of the corridor is the secondary stairway down to the lower level
and another Z bend with two more blast doors. The second transformer is located
at this point together with the original sewage plant which is still
operational. The stairs up to the emergency exit are still in
place with empty cable ways along both walls.
We descended the stairs to the lower floor where we were surprised to find the
main plant room still intact and fully functional with am impressive array of
1950's plant including compressors, ventilation plant, freezing plant, fans,
control panels and cabinets, filters etc. Everything was almost identical to the
plant we had seen at Hope Cove a few weeks before but in better condition and
all still working. This is probably not surprising as
Hope Cove (R6) is just a surface version of an R3 bunker like Sopley.
At this point we had to end our all too short visit. We drove home via the
dispersed camp on the north side of Derritt Lane which is intact and put to
other uses.
