A new museum telling the history of the de Havilland Aircraft Company is set to open at Hatfield Police Station this month.
The Bunker has been created in the basement of the station, which used to be the administration building and the senior staff canteen for the Hatfield-based company.
The four rooms in the basement where the museum is being housed was originally used as air raid shelters during the Second World War, before becoming police storage space.
The museum includes photos, historical items, original film footage, dioramas and models that tell the story of the building from its origins in 1933 as the Headquarters of the de Havilland Aircraft Company, through to its current use.
The Art Deco Room will celebrate de Havilland and other early aviation pioneers, while The History Room takes you on a trip down memory lane to mark the achievements of the company and others throughout history.
The Police Room will be home to artefacts from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s past, while The Air Raid Shelter has been reimagined as it might have been in the 1940s.
The Bunker will be officially opened by chief constable Charlie Hall on Thursday, November 17.
The Art Deco building which is now home to Hatfield Police Station was built after de Havilland moved to the town from Edgware in 1930, as founder Sir Geoffrey de Havilland looked for a bigger site to house his expanding company.
The company continued to prosper, designed and produced the famous Mosquito during the Second World War, before leading the way in the jet age with designs including the Comet – the world’s first jet airliner – as well as military aircraft such as the Vampire, Venom and Vixen.
De Havilland’s decline began in 1960 when they became part of the Hawker Siddeley Group, and that was followed by a merger with British Aerospace in 1970 as the aviation industry was nationalised.
The Hatfield site continued to operate until it was closed in 1994, and while most of the factory buildings were demolished and the runway was dug up, the art deco administration building survived.
To find out more about The Bunker at Hatfield Police Station, visit www.hatfieldbunker.co.uk.
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