| CASE | SO-012 / BELLHOUSE |
|---|---|
| CLASSIFICATION | ACROSS — SEALED SITE |
| FAR SIDE | Regional Seat of Government 12, under Sheldon Moor, Derbyshire. The present day. |
| REGISTRY OFFICER | Mr Bewley |
Bellhouse is a government bunker built into a worked-out coal mine under Sheldon Moor and commissioned in 1962. On 4 November 1974 its staff and their families, 412 people, went below for a civil defence exercise. The door was shut. Nobody came up.
In 1975 the entrance was filled in. After that the Seat is on no map, no index and no budget. Nobody asked why.
In May this year a Seat return dated Week 1, 1974, arrived in the Registry in-tray. It was not posted. It is enclosed (SO-H02). It is stamped with a small circle cut by a stroke. The same mark is on the letter of instruction recovered in case TT-004, Mercy Draw, 1881, from a Mr Smith whom the company never employed.
Coal smoke has been settling on Wetherlaw Farm, above the Seat, for fifty years. There is no chimney on the moor. The department’s reading is that the Seat is still occupied.
Anyone below has been there since 1974 and will believe what they were told. Be courteous. Carry your warrant card where it can be seen: a warrant of the Department is recognised at the Seat. Do not argue with anyone about the war.
Standing Order 9 applies. Nothing modern goes through.
A crossing stands at the warm vent head on Sheldon Moor, above Wetherlaw Farm. It opens at dusk. Mrs Joan Wetherlaw will meet you at the farm gate. She is not cleared.
Hand lamp · service revolver · Geiger counter, 1974 pattern · greatcoat · warrant card. No telephones.