b3ta.com links
You are not logged in. Login or Signup
Home » links » Link 848803 | Random

This is a link post spooky air raid siren in Teesside NSFW I made this!
Possibly not that interesting but thought I'd share anyway. I've been hearing this in Teesside ever since I was knee-high to a Verne Troyer and finally caught it on video.

It was actually quite terrifying during the eighties, especially when you'd just been watching Threads or When The Wind Blows. I remember it going off on the way back from school one time and it was particularly loud, and it caused a bit of a panic with some Mums running home with their kids.

To this day I have no idea where the sound comes from, probably an old factory or something. But yeah, surely one of the most haunting, chilling noises known to mankind. Brrrr.

Maybe NSFW due to me saying a mild swearage.
(Leemondus, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:01, , Reply)
This is a normal post I agree, a truly ominous sound.

(I helped save b3ta! Dawn Of The Bread $$$$ E-THUG 4 LIFE - THAT'S HOW I SCROLL $$$$, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:04, , Reply)
This is a normal post I live in Greenwich
And if you leave the windows open then on the first Monday of every month at 7am you can hear an air raid siren. Clearly its being tested, but no-one seems to know where it is and what it means.
 (I helped save b3ta! evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:07, , Reply)
This is a normal post I remember being scared of nuclear attack in the '80s
and thinking of Russians as "the baddies". Or Germans, depending on the mood.
 (I helped save b3ta! Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:12, , Reply)
This is a normal post 'I lived through that in the 80's'
would be nice if you'd just watched the cosy Nuclear War series 'Threads' :(
 (Spin Its a thing., Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:14, , Reply)
This is a normal post Threads
Is fucking horrifying.
 (Huw Edwards #notalljews, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:20, , Reply)
This is a normal post You and your family must take cover

(I helped save b3ta! magnum, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:19, , Reply)
This is a normal post Ow! Ow! Ow!

(Leemondus, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:23, , Reply)
This is a normal post that
was your 1,000th message on links :)
 (Emmon Ctrl+Shift+T re-opens that tab you just closed, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:54, , Reply)
This is a normal post Wow!
Do I get a special B3TA award? A commemorative magenta penis perhaps?
 (Leemondus, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 20:31, , Reply)
This is a normal post I was about 9 or 10
In the late 70's and was spending a week with my older brother and his wife just outside Bracknell. These were the days were you were allowed to leave a kid on his own in the summer holidays, so they were both out to work.

Terrified the life out of me, thought that this was it for the end of the world. Turns out they tested it every other Monday. It was the siren to warn everyone of escaped patients from Broadmoor.
 (GhostAtTheFeast Soup Sir?, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 14:44, , Reply)
This is a normal post We've got a siren in my bit of Bristol
it's tested once a month (3pm on the first Thursday of the month I think)

I don't know about your siren, but ours is to warn of a fire/explosion at one of the chemical plants or fuel depots in Avonmouth. Pretty much "if it goes off and you're not expecting it, go inside and shut the windows, summat nasty is coming towards you on the wind"

Every couple of years they send out a leaflet with a map in it showing all the risk sites with fallout zones drawn round them showing you how at risk of death you are.

Thankfully, while I'm in earshot of the siren I'm not in any of the danger zones.

I know where one of the siren towers is, and for years I've been meaning to go and hang around at the base of it during a test to see how loud it is :)
 (I helped save b3ta! LP, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 15:05, , Reply)
This is a normal post We can hear the same sirens
There are several of them, for different factories in Avonmouth. I've got that leaflet hiding on a shelf somewhere and it tells you the days and times for each different siren. Problem is that there is one on Monday at 10am, one on Wednesday at 11am, one on Thursday at 2pm, one on Sunday at 10am, one on the third Wednesday of the month at 3pm, one on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at midday, one on the third Wednesday after Ascension Sunday at 10am, except in leap years when it's at 11am, one on the 4th Tuesday in February on years where there is a 3 in it and so on. So no-one actually knows when the tests are running and just ignores them all anyway.

And yeah, they all sound like air-raid sirens.

In the mid-80s, when I was a teenager, the air-raid siren in my part of Bath went off at about 2am one night. Scared the crap out of me! A couple of local old boys had heart attacks and died and everyone was talking about it at school the next day. You could hear it on the other side of the city, my house was 100 yards from the siren itself. The official excuse from the council, (or police, or whoever was responsible for it) was that they tested the air raid sirens regularly but with the loop to the sirens themselves switched off so they didn't actually go off. The test that night had been a normal test but they had forgotten to switch the siren loop off so it actually went off, for which they were sorry. Which completely failed to explain why they were testing air raid sirens at 2am and how they expected to actually test them without making a sound! They have since been removed.
 (Smiley_Neil filling the interweb with crap, Mon 27 Aug 2012, 15:59, , Reply)
This is a normal post used to here the one in
north finchely every week during the 80's, the plymouth one is still tested every few weeks, dont think most people know what it is, due to the fact the ferry makes a lot of noise
 (I helped save b3ta! The invisible ham Fig rolls are the best, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 15:31, , Reply)
This is a normal post They test the sirens of Broadmoor
Once a week at a set time, Monday at 10? If the sirens go off they have a network of people who phone/text each other.

The way it works is that say 10 people are given the responsibility to contact say 5 other people if the siren goes off. Those people each have 5 people to contact and they in turn... you get the picture.

The idea is that the whole of Berkshire will know within a few minutes of any escape. Serious business.

Edit: oops, saw someone else posted this... soz
 (I helped save b3ta! simbosan liked your link on, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 16:24, , Reply)
This is a normal post In France
they test their civil defence sirens at noon on the first Wednesday of every month in major cities. I was unaware of this until suddenly a load of deafening air raid sirens started going off all over the place. Spent about a minute considering where to shelter then thought 'nah, I'll just film it for posterity'.

In the event of a surprise nuclear strike, smartphone users will be wiped out.
 (I helped save b3ta! John Q Wagonwheel Spent, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 16:39, , Reply)
This is a normal post I was in the Slavonia region of Croatia in 2000 when their air raid sirens went off
Began wondering whether the Serbians were kicking off again when someone pointed out that they now used the sirens to get their part-time fire brigade in for an emergency.
 (Smiley_Neil filling the interweb with crap, Mon 27 Aug 2012, 16:01, , Reply)
This is a normal post They sound familiar
I work at Seal Sands on Teeside,and every Wednesday the majority of chemical sites including the one i work at,test their site alarms
 (I helped save b3ta! strictlyrockers hasnt been on here for ages, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 16:42, , Reply)
This is a normal post We just have church bells.
/Village life blog
 (I helped save b3ta! Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 17:44, , Reply)
This is a normal post I know this!
Every Tuesday at 10:00 hours - its the siren test for the chemical plants (possibly what used to ICI). Like you say its been going on for years and if I'm in the garden or have the windows open I can hear quite clearly.
 (Tyrion, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 18:00, , Reply)
This is a normal post thats nearly what i said
^^^up there
 (I helped save b3ta! strictlyrockers hasnt been on here for ages, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 19:14, , Reply)
This is a normal post Cool!
Mystery solved. Ta!
 (Leemondus, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 20:29, , Reply)
This is a normal post i said it first!!

(I helped save b3ta! strictlyrockers hasnt been on here for ages, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 20:34, , Reply)
This is a normal post Spoiled for choice.
I think it's over in the old ICI plant site near Billingham / Haverton Hill where they still produce chemicals, or maybe the steel plant in Redcar, or maybe the Tioxide plant in Hartlepool. Either way we're spoiled for choice for potential chemical related disasters here.

EDIT: Ooops it helps if i read all the responses first *re-lurks*
 (slack_bored_yokel, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 20:29, , Reply)
This is a normal post im at ConocoPhilips
sounds like ours,but then again it sounds like many other area plants
 (I helped save b3ta! strictlyrockers hasnt been on here for ages, Sun 26 Aug 2012, 20:35, , Reply)
This is a normal post it's the nonce alarm
there's an emitter in your head that goes off every time you think about little boys
 (Quintno EXPERIMENT RUINED CANCELLED, LEFT 4EVER, Mon 27 Aug 2012, 20:24, , Reply)
This is a normal post Air Raid siren
Ever Monday morning at 10am you hear the Broadmoor escape warning siren go off in Bracknell to test that. Imagine how shit steering it is when it goes off at any other time (like it did last month... false alarm apparently... cheers for making the local populous lock themselves indoors wondering which of Britain's raving loony, rapist, serial killing bastards you'd let out...)
 (swidds, Mon 27 Aug 2012, 23:24, , Reply)
This is a normal post
Its the toxic gas emergency siren from ICI Wilton (don't know what its called now). They used to test it weekly when I worked there in 1996. Dupont used to use it weekly as they accidentally released nasty looking gas into the atmosphere. It was followed by a very posh man announcing "This is a toxic gas emergency close all doors and windows" in the Wilton Research centre. I hated Middlesbrough the whole place just stinks of chemicals on a warm day.
 (Upuaut, Tue 28 Aug 2012, 6:40, , Reply)