Monument record 0853900000 - ROC Post S of Oving Road

Royal Observer Corps monitoring post opened November 1957 and closed September 1991. In 1998 all surface features remained intact. The interior was not inspected (B1).
Photos added to Subterranea Britannica website suggest that the interior was subsequently inspected in 2008, 2009 and 2012 (B1).
In November 2021 the Subterranea Britannica website reported: 'The post has now been secured, however it has also suffered severe damage to all of its external features. The mound around the post has been removed as well as the rear vent shaft, the BPI pipe has been mangled and there has been some damage to the concrete around the hatch' (B1).

A Cold War Royal Observer Corps underground monitoring post is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located near the roadside at the junction between North Marston Lane, Oving Road and Ashgrove Gardens and centred at SP 79435 21077, the underground monitoring post is visible on aerial photographs taken in 1976 within a L-shaped fenced enclosure in the corner of a field. The shadows on the aerial photograph show that the post is not sited within an earthwork mound as seen on other examples, but appears to be flush with the ground surface. Built to a standard design and constructed of 30 centimetres thick, steel reinforced concrete buried 6 metres under the surface to protect from penetrating gamma radiation and the blast effects of a nuclear detonation. Visible on the surface are the main bunker hatch, the air ventilation cover and the Fixed Survey meter, one of the post’s measuring tools. On aerial photographs taken in 2010, the post remains clearly visible, but by 2015 has been covered by secondary shrubs and woodland. By 2019, then entire area is scraped clean of shrubs and the fence has been demolished in advance of residential housing development, though the bunker hatch and other elements of the bunker remain extant. On ground photographs taken in 2023, the bunker hatch, Fixed Survey Meter and the small Bomb Power Indicator baffle remain visible, though the air ventilation cover appears to have been demolished and just the base left visible. The monitoring post now is sited within a small grassed public space in front of the new houses (3-6).