Projects Wellbright, Mallard and Trojan at the Valley Works Rhydymwyn

PMN1

New member
Interesting story on the UK's mustard gas production during WW2, but has anyone heard of Projects Wellbright, Mallard and Trojan that were to use the excavations some time after WW2?

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/r/rhydymwyn/history.html

The Valley factory site was used until the early 1990s mainly as a buffer depot. The site covers 86.8 acres, has seven miles of secure fencing and has always been 'Secret'. This has led to some bizarre conspiracy theories; it was never an alternate to Corsham that was Drakelow. The nation's art treasures were stored at Manod not Valley. There is no fourth tunnel; the footprint of the tunnels today is the same as in 1941. There is no evidence of any secret communications centre. No steam engines ran in the tunnels, there is a rational explanation. There is no evidence of food being stored in the tunnels by the EEC. There were however secret plans for the tunnels which were Projects Wellbright, Mallard and Trojan.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/r/rhydymwyn/report.html
 

Brains

Well-known member
All I know of Rhydymwyn is that is home to the Olwen Goch shaft into the Millwr Tunnel.
User "LAC" on another forum maybe the best person to ask about this - he has had a lot of success with freedom of information requests on various secret tests on the military and public in the 1950's for germ warfare.
He can be found over on www.dark places.co.uk, but you will to remove the space in the web address
 

ditzy 24//7

Active member
i have pm/d LAC and he asked me to put a reply up about this for him

In the early 1960's, the Cabinet Office gave the Rhydymwyn Tunnels the codename - WELLBRIGHT. At the time the Cabinet Office were in a bit of a quandary re providing host nation protected accommodation facilities for two NATO Agencies - the NATO Oil Executive Board (NOEB) and the Defence Shipping Executive Board (DSEB).

These were originally to have been located within Corsham Underground Site No 3 - (known at the time as BURLINGTON or TURNSTILE). Unfortunately, the presence within both NATO organisations of 'foreigners' (foreign representatives) caused a great security concern as the Corsham site was then considered to be one of the UK's most vital secrets and the risk of compromise would prejudice the deterrent.

This, coupled with the fact that, while the BURLINGTON complex wouldn't have been manned until nuclear attack was judged to be inevitable, the NATO Agencies War HQ were to have to be manned much earlier in a crisis, made Corsham an unsuitable site for the NATO Agencies.

The Cabinet Office were then forced to covertly seek a new wartime location for the NATO Agencies - hence their proposal to use the Rhydymwyn Tunnels. By 1967, the Cabinet Office had abandoned this proposal - some would say that their eye had turned to the former RSG building at Cambridge.

In the meantime, H.M. Treasury had also been busy during the early 1960's - seeking a suitable location for the emergency storage of part of the UK Gold Reserve, which would have been evacuated from London during the Transition To War.

After a long search they too found the Rhydymwyn Tnnels to be ideal for their purpose, and for a while the plan was to co-locate part of the Gold Reserve with the NATO Agencies within WELLBRIGHT. The relocation of the Gold Reserve (known as London Gold) went by the name of MALLARD until 1966, when it was realised that another 'MALLARD' existed (a UK/Australia comms system) and the codeword changed to FOLIUM.

By the mid-60's it was realised that the emergency evacuation of the London Gold was a non-starter, and proposals were made to permanently store the reserve in a purpose built site outside of London.
 
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