The Broadmoor Sirens were a series of thirteen warning sirens (Klaxon CS8) based in towns and villages surrounding Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. They were first installed in 1952 and are based on air raid sirens with the intention of warning residents living near the high-security psychiatric hospital of an escaped patient. [1]
The Broadmoor Sirens were installed in 1952 after John Straffen escaped from Broadmoor and murdered a child in Farley Hill, Berkshire. They are similar to air-raid sirens but employ shutters to produce an alternating "high – low" warning tone. [2] More sirens were added in the 1960s [3] after discussions in the House of Commons raised the issue that the sirens' two-mile (3.2 km) radius was insufficient for nearby towns such as Camberley and Wokingham. [4]
The thirteen sirens were created with the intention of warning residents in surrounding towns and villages to remain in their homes and keep their children supervised following the escape of a Broadmoor patient. The sirens were activated as a test at 10 am every Monday. [5] The sirens are susceptible to electrical interference. In 2014, the Bracknell siren was activated accidentally during an electrical storm. [6] In 2019, the sirens were also accidentally activated due to a technical fault. [7] The thirteen satellite sirens were due to be decommissioned during 2018, with one siren remaining in the hospital grounds. [8]
The 1978 hit song "Sound of the Suburbs" by Camberley group the Members refers to the regular testing of the sirens. [9]
The last time the Broadmoor Sirens were activated because of an escape was in 1991, although they were activated in 1993 because of an attack at the hospital. [10] In 2014, there were plans to remove seven of the thirteen sirens. This was because Broadmoor had added a second security fence around the hospital and intended to upgrade the remainder of the sirens so they had a five-mile (8.0 km) radius to improve on the two-mile radius of the sirens, which were installed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. [11] Local residents objected to this on safety grounds due to there being sixteen primary schools within the radius of the sirens. [2]
It was reported on 2 June 2016 that Broadmoor planned to remove all except the hospital siren, with alerts issued instead via television and social media. [12] The individual sirens were replaced by a single longer-ranged siren at the hospital.[ citation needed ]
A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. Initially designed to warn city dwellers of air raids during World War II, they were later used to warn of nuclear attack and natural disasters, such as tornadoes. The generalized nature of sirens led to many of them being replaced with more specific warnings, such as the broadcast-based Emergency Alert System and the Cell Broadcast-based Wireless Emergency Alerts and EU-Alert mobile technologies.
The Royal County of Berkshire, commonly known as simply Berkshire, is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London to the east, Surrey to the south-east, Hampshire to the south, and Wiltshire to the west. Reading is the largest settlement and the county town.
Bracknell Forest is a unitary authority area in Berkshire, southern England. It covers the two towns of Bracknell and Sandhurst and the village of Crowthorne and also includes the areas of North Ascot, Binfield, Warfield, and Winkfield. The borough borders Wokingham and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead in Berkshire, and also parts of Surrey and Hampshire.
Sandhurst is a town and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest borough in Berkshire, England. It is in the south eastern corner of Berkshire, and is situated 32 miles (51 km) west-southwest of central London, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north west of Camberley and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Bracknell. Sandhurst is known worldwide as the location of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Despite its close proximity to Camberley, Sandhurst is also home to a large and well-known out-of-town mercantile development. The site is named "The Meadows" and has a Tesco Extra hypermarket and a Marks & Spencer, two of the largest in the country. A large Next clothing and homeware store is open on the site of the old Homebase.
Camberley is a town in northwest Surrey, England, around 29 miles south-west of central London. It is in the Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Town", it was assigned its current name by the General Post Office in 1877.
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies 11 miles (18 km) to the east of Reading, 9 miles (14 km) south of Maidenhead, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Windsor and 25 miles (40 km) west of central London. Bracknell is the third largest town in Berkshire.
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of England's three high-security psychiatric hospitals, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire. The hospital's catchment area consists of four National Health Service regions: London, Eastern, South East and South West. It is managed by the West London NHS Trust.
Crowthorne is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire, England. It had a population of 7,806 at the 2021 census. Crowthorne is the venue of Wellington College, a large co-educational boarding and day independent school, which opened in 1859, and of Broadmoor Hospital, one of England's three maximum-security psychiatric hospitals, which lies on the eastern edge of the village.
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Sandhurst School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England. The headteacher is Mr Gareth Croxon.
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Wokingham is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1987 by John Redwood, a Conservative.
Bracknell is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by James Sunderland, a Conservative. It was created for the 1997 general election, largely replacing the abolished county constituency of East Berkshire.
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Harmans Water is a suburb of Bracknell, in the English county of Berkshire, formerly part of the parish of Winkfield. It takes its name from Harman's Water Lake, long gone. Building of the estate began around 1960 and was the fourth and last estate to be built as part of the original plan for the new town.
Caesar's Camp is an Iron Age hill fort around 2,400 years old. It is located just in Crowthorne civil parish to the south of Bracknell in the English county of Berkshire. It falls within the Windsor Forest and is well wooded, although parts of the fort have now been cleared of some trees. The area is managed by the Forestry Commission but owned by Crown Estate, and is open and accessible to the public. The hill fort covers an area of about 17.2 acres and is surrounded by a mile-long ditch, making it one of the largest in southern England.
Alan Patrick Reeve is an English murderer released from Broadmoor Hospital in 1998. He battered a 15-year-old boy to death and later strangled a fellow prisoner at Broadmoor. After escaping to Amsterdam, he killed a police officer in a gunfight and was imprisoned in the Netherlands for ten years. He then lived in the Republic of Ireland before being extradited back to the United Kingdom.
Phillip James Lee is a British doctor and politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bracknell from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Conservative Party, which he left in 2019 to join the Liberal Democrats, he unsuccessfully stood for the neighbouring Wokingham constituency in the 2019 general election.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust created on 1 October 2014 by the acquisition of Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This was the first ever take over of one NHS Foundation Trust by another. It runs Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Wexham Park Hospital near Slough, both in Berkshire, and Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley, Surrey.
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