While Area 51 is a well-known location which brings in a lot of conspiracy talk, people probably don’t know that the UK seemingly has its own version too.
Tin foil hat wearers have been so passionate about Area 51 and their suspicions about aliens that they even held a mass ‘storming’ of the facility in 2019.
But the UKs version hasn’t seen as much notoriety, despite wracking up a cult following of people who believe it’s being used for something strange.
So, what really goes on behind its guarded exterior?
RAF Rudloe Manor, formerly known as RAF Box, has been abandoned for the last two decades, and while it’s hidden between the settlements of Box and Corsham in Wiltshire, it’s got a reputation.
Known as ‘England’s Area 51’, the estate features an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers that have been used for a number of purposes over the years.
It was during the Second World War, that Rudloe Manor was used by the RAF’s operations group for filtering intelligence on enemy activity.
It was also the former location of a civil defence division responsible for monitoring radiation hazards and nuclear risks at the height of the Cold War.
Conspiracy theorists think the site was actually used to conduct research into UFOs and make contact with extraterrestrials.
Perhaps the most well-known rumour is that it hides the remains of an alien spacecraft and its otherworldly crew.
The theory was actually first put forward by American writer Dorothy Kilgallon, who claimed that the crash unfolded in the 1940s.
She claimed that she was told about the incident by a high-ranking British official, although they wished to remain anonymous.
Rudloe Manor was utilised by for RAF operations in the Second World War. (Wikimedia Commons)
While it’s not been confirmed that it was used for UFO investigations, with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) even coming out to deny claims, Sky History reported in 2007 that declassified secret files released at the National Archives suggested that the site was used for this purpose in the 1950s.
So…the conspiracies were true?
The publication then pointed out that even though it was no longer being in active use by the MOD, the site is still fenced off and under strict guard.
This peculiar detail means that the conspiracies surrounding the site will never truly die out.
A big believer in the conspiracies is folklore enthusiast Neil Cartwright, who told Sky History: “We all suspected this was happening at Rudloe Manor, but they operated as a clandestine organisation unregulated for decades, never held accountable to the British taxpayer.
“I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this story in the coming years.”
The building is still heavily guarded. (Wikimedia Commons)
In a YouTube video by History describing the theories, people in the comments were convinced it’s all true.
A local to the area wrote: “I live in Corsham and some of my family live right next to the CCC and they have a entrance in their garden but it is blocked of by the army I have always thought what don’t they want us to see?”
Others however noted that it’s allegedly a data centre for the navy, containing important strategic information.
