A WEEKEND of intense activity is expected with time running out to buy the jewel in the crown of Royal Observer Corps nuclear bunkers.

Internet bidding for the Hawkshead slice of history, which includes a 300-square metre patch of land boasting spectacular Lake District views, ends at 5.30pm on Sunday.

Rob Ward, of Lincoln-based selling agents J.H. Walker, said the bunker had reached its £4,000 reserve within the first hour of bidding. By early Wednesday morning, the eBay auction site had received 3,767 hits.

Thirteeen North West subterranean stations, built to monitor nuclear attacks, are for sale. Mr Ward said Hawkshead's prime hillside site overlooking the churchyard and village was the jewel.

"We expect intense activity in the run-up to the final bidding deadline on Sunday," he added.

Dent's bunker sale has also aroused a good deal of attention, with more than 40 people attending the viewing day. Flookburgh has proved less popular.

Memories of the area's answer to Armageddon came flooding back for Westmorland Gazette reader George Faulkner.

The retired Carnforth builder was involved in building 11 bunkers in the early 1960s, including Hawkshead, Dent, Milnthorpe, Windermere and Grasmere.

"Dent was the first, it took four or five months. Once we got into our stride, we got it down to eight weeks," he said.

Mr Faulkner, who worked for Carnforth-based Warren Construction Company, explained the same teams of men were used to establish the steel reinforced bunkers, which he said were built "every seven miles as the crow flies".

"I loved it. They were really well made, and lined in asphalt, but I'm not sure that I would have trusted them in a nuclear attack.

"Hawkshead was the most difficult. We had to carry everything up through the churchyard. It was so wet the wagons were sinking".

Log on to http://www.ebay.co.uk for auction details and bidding.

May 29, 2003 17:00