Father who made £50,000 underground bunker makes £10,000 upgrade in case WWIII erupts
A father is splashing out £10,000 to upgrade his £50,000 underground bunker he built in his garden in case World War Three starts - but it won't be nuclear proof.
Dave Billings, 44, wants to fit it with blast doors to make the hideout a 'survival place' for his wife, Beth, and their son, Oliver, 7.
He built the shelter in the garden of his Derbyshire home more than ten years ago and has become spooked by government warnings following tensions in the Middle East.
Mr Billings said the goal is to have a secure underground space for his family if things take a turn for the worse.
He said: 'With the way things are changing, I'm prepping it to be more of a survival place. It won't necessarily be nuclear-proof, but if you need to hide away, you'll be able to survive.'
The engineer and content creator first built the bunker when he was inspired by the Steve McQueen classic movie The Great Escape.
He estimates he's so far spent around £50,000, which started as a disused well.
A 35ft tunnel now leads into a multi-room facility, which measures 140ft in total.
The underground hideout features a handcrafted Great Escape tunnel, gym, toilet, sink - and even a beer lift disguised as a keg to carry drinks down to the bunker.
The upgrade will consist of food supply, air filtration, water supply and blast doors.
Mr Billings said: 'I'm going to have to have emergency supplies of food. I'm going to guarantee a source of water. I think the idea is to make a water filtration unit so we can safely use the well water.
'I want to make blast doors in the bunker so if a big explosion went off outside, it would hold the door shut better.'
'As long as you've got food, you can stay here indefinitely.
'If it starts getting bad outside, you've got somewhere to hide away, kind of like what they used to have in World War Two with Anderson shelters.
'People think we're going to get a direct hit, but I'm in the middle of nowhere, it's not really somewhere you get a bomb, is it?'
While he doesn't claim to be a 'prepper' - people who stockpile in case of disasters or wars - Mr Billings said the recent government warnings made him realise how far ahead he is in terms of readiness.
He said: 'When I saw it on the news and it said "you've got to be prepared for war", I thought, "what are you preparing for?".
'Because having somewhere underground with a food supply where you can lock yourself in is quite prepared, really.
'I don't think anyone could really be more prepared than I am.'
Despite the serious upgrades, Mr Billings says he's still figuring it out as he goes.
'I'm winging it myself really,' he said. 'None of us have got a big plan here of what's going to happen. No one can see into the future.'
On his advice to others he suggested preparing a supply of food to keep in your house ready.
He said: 'You've got to keep some basic supplies around in your house. When things go wrong there isn't going to be a shop to go to for a start.
'So people should at least get some basic foods and stuff that lasts a long time that will keep them going. Food and water supply, that's the main thing you need.
'If people have got to stay in their houses, you've got to be prepared. Have enough stuff in your house to last you two or three weeks if you can't go out the door. It's always better to be a bit prepared.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
From the archive: Bargemen sail into history
From The Times: June 30, 2025 The Thames bargeman, butt of wits and inspiration of old song-writers, is going out with the tide. Sails are being superseded by motors, and slow craft by more speedy. The change was inevitable, but when the old-fashioned barge has disappeared, the river will have lost some of its pretty variety. The barge's beauty has beckoned to many of our marine artists, who have depicted them in ballast, or so heavily laden that their decks are almost awash, or towering high with hay. Nowadays, indeed, a barge with bulky cargo is easier found in a picture than on the river. Bigger vessels bear off the bigger loads, and there is always the railway and motor lorry to offer quicker transport. Yet, with a fair wind and a heavy freight, there is no cheerier being than the Thames bargee, though he will not stand nonsense from those who are independent of the wind. A question of the 'rule of the road' has caused many a heated argument between bargeman and 'brass bound' skipper, perched high on the bridge of a passing tramp-steamers. And seldom has the bargee been scant of words or lost the palm for thrustful repartee. Whenever the time comes for the river to be bereft of sailing-barges, none will be more thankful than masters of tramp-steamers and others of their kind. These dignitaries are apt to forget that the type which mans the barges helped to make London the chief city of the Empire long before steam was thought of. While yet we have the barge with us, it might be well to revive the races between Gravesend and the Nore. Until about 14 years ago they were an annual feature. It was the day of the year when the barges looked their best, with hulls showing a lavish use of tar, blacklead, and paint, and sails testifying to abundant treatment with red ochre. All the waterside workers and their wives and families were there; and of musical instruments as many as could be carried. With a fair wind there was always the chance of excitement. Great was the applause when a favourite by clever tactics managed to 'blanket' a rival. The race called for expert seamanship and quick decision, barges when light being rather difficult to handle; a moment's hesitation in a turn of the helm or in easing halliards might have serious consequences. Explore 200 years of history as it appeared in the pages of The Times, from 1785 to 1985:
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
We need to find out why family life is falling apart
F or generations it has been taken for granted that the family unit is the cornerstone of the local community and, more generally, of wider society. But in recent years, almost unnoticed, changes of fundamental importance have steadily had a substantial impact on the structure and nature of family life. Office for National Statistics figures show that the number of marriages has fallen by 40 per cent in less than half a century and the birthrate has now reached an all-time low of 1.44 children per woman. As Professor Kathleen Kieran wrote in 2022: 'As well as relatively more children being born into lone-mother families, Britain has high and increasing rates of parental separation.' So much so that 'families in Britain are notably more fragile and complex compared with other western European countries, with high and increasing rates of parental separation: 44 per cent of children born at the beginning of this century will not have grown up living with both their biological parents (to the age of 17), more than double the figure for those born in 1970.' Last month Unicef published a report concluding that the UK was 21st out of 36 countries in terms of the wellbeing of children. It may be significant that the number of children assessed as 'persistently absent' from school is stubbornly high at about 1.5 million. The number of young people not in education, employment or training aged 16 to 24 is now estimated at just short of one million. In addition, The Times reported last month that 'nearly a quarter of parents with adult children have seen them move back in to the family home only two years after leaving it', the average age of return being 26. As the population continues to age, and as more young people survive with profound disabilities, demands on family members grow. A House of Lords report estimated that there are between 4.2 million and 6.5 million unpaid carers in the UK, and the actual figure is likely to be much higher. The average person, it said, now has a 50 per cent chance of becoming an unpaid carer by the time they reach 50. The above examples simply touch on the many changes that are now affecting family life in this country. Allowing the current changes to drift on while being little understood and neglected is the worst of all possible actions. The time has surely come for the government to establish a serious study in the form of a Royal Commission to better understand the forces which are driving these changes in family life and to preserve those elements of family life we hold dear. Lord Laming was chief inspector of the social services inspectorate from 1991 to 1998
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Sudoku 6,949 easy
Click here to access the print version. Fill the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9. To see the completed puzzle, buy the next issue of the Guardian (for puzzles published Monday to Thursday). Solutions to Friday and Saturday puzzles are given in either Saturday's or Monday's edition.
