Online Talk: How Did The Cold War Become Heritage?

Join us on Zoom for a new Online Talk and discover how key Cold War sites became part of our national heritage!

This talk will be presented by Wayne Cocroft and is available to join FREE through funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

30 years ago, the break-up of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact led to the greatest drawdown of military forces since the end of the Second World War.

In addition to the scrapping of thousands of armoured vehicles, military aircraft, naval vessels and large personnel cuts hundreds of airfields, emergency stores, civil defence facilities and other military infrastructure became surplus to defence requirements. These sites ranged from clearly historic places, such as the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, to state-of-the-art bunkers where the concrete was hardly dry.

This talk will explore how in England key sites were selected for protection as listed buildings and scheduled monuments. It will also briefly explore how the Cold War is being is being marked internationally through the preservation and presentation of often formerly secret defence sites.

By Wayne Cocroft

About the Speaker

Wayne Cocroft, MCIfFA, FSA, is a Senior Archaeological Investigator with Historic England and has written extensively on the heritage of the Cold War.

Joining the Talk

The talk will be held online on Zoom at 11am on Friday 26th March. Limited places are available.

Book your free ticket online here. One ticket per Zoom screen is required.

The Zoom joining details (ID & password) will be emailed to you shortly before the start of the talk. Please log on at 10.50am, ready for a prompt start at 11am.

During the talk, you will see and hear the speaker, but you will not be heard or seen on screen yourself. There will be the opportunity to ask questions via the Q&A function.

About the Cold War Talks Series

Bentley Priory Museum is delighted to be running a series of online talks exploring the Cold War, to complement our current project, Bentley Priory Bunker: Defending Britain from Nazi and Nuclear Threat.

These special talks are free to all, thanks to the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. If you enjoy the talk and would like to support the Museum with a donation, any amount great or small is hugely appreciated!

DONATE HERE

A team of volunteers have been recruited to work on the project which aims to record and share the memories of RAF, ROC and WAAF personnel who worked in the Top Secret Bunker at RAF Bentley Priory, focusing on the key historical periods of the Battle of Britain in 1940 and the Cold War from 1945 to 1991.

A temporary exhibition is running at the Museum on open days throughout 2021, and a permanent exhibition is being created – we look forward to sharing it with you soon!

Our ongoing podcast series brings to life the experiences of those who worked in the Bunker during WWII and the Cold War through fascinating oral history interviews. Please listen to the podcasts via our website here: Bunker Podcasts