Secret nuclear bunker just 10mins from Cheltenham racecourse has 2ft-thick walls built to protect PM from apocalypse

A SECRET nuclear bunker with two-feet thick walls built to protect the Prime Minister from an apocalypse sits just 10 minutes away from Cheltenham Races.

The premier would have been rushed to the subterranean complex in the event of a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War era.

The bunker, in the charming Cotswold village of Ullenwood, is just ten minutes from Cheltenham Racecourse where thousands of fans are roaring on their favourites.

It was lined with 2ft-thick concrete walls designed to protect all those within it from a nuclear blast wave.

The underground labyrinth would have been used to provide the government with sanctuary if a nuclear war broke out in the 1950s.

At the epicentre was a control room where officials would have tracked incoming nuclear Russian bombers and organised a response to the attack.

The site was sealed off to prevent radiation poisoning killing the inhabitants and had its own water supply, generator and over 30 phone lines.

In 1963 the War Office sold the subterranean complex to Gloucestershire County Council as an emergency centre.

The local authority later used the bunker as a training centre in the 1980s. The council sold the site to a local businessman in 2003.

The site was first used as a military hospital by US forces during World War Two.

Over 1000 US personnel were based there between July and September 1945.

The huts used by the GIs and other soldiers are still visible today just off Greenway Lane.

In 2005 the National Archives released the government's contingency plans from the 1950s in the event of war.

The records revealed how the PM would have been rushed to the secret bunker where he would have attempted to coordinate the UK's response.

The UK Government also put plans in place to keep high-ranking officials and the Royal Family safe at Barnton bunker near Edinburgh in the event of war.

Deep underground, just four miles from the capital, it served as Sector Operations Centre for co-coordinating RAF fighter jets.

And it also protected Scotland from attack by Russian long-range nuclear bombers until around 1960.

The owner now intends to open Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker up to the public as a museum after plans were approved by the City of Edinburgh Council.