Broadmoor Hospital Sirens Wiki



Welcome to the Broadmoor Hospital Sirens Wiki
This Wiki is dedicated to the memory of the Escape Sirens used by Broadmoor Hospital, UK. The wiki contains information on the purpose of the sirens and their locations, why they have been removed and the condition of any remaining units. Removal of the sirens began in 2018. This wiki is here to serve as a historic record of an obscure piece of British history that will soon be a bygone era. One day, people will have long forgotten that these sirens were ever here, but it is my hope that records such as this will be here long into the future to remind everyone that this was a real thing that existed.

NOTE: This is NOT a wiki about Broadmoor Hospital. This wiki is solely focused on Broadmoor's Escape Sirens. A brief (and edited) Wikipedia description of Broadmoor Hospital is contained below and a link to the main page attached. More information about Broadmoor Hospital can be found there.

NEW! - Carstairs "State Hospital" Sirens Guide!
The State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital near the village of Carstairs, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like Broadmoor, it uses a network of Sirens to warn locals of an escape. The network is made up of 9 sirens - 7 Secomak CS8's, 1 Secomak GP12 and a Klaxon GP8.

CLICK HERE

Broadmoor Siren Removal:
The process of removing Broadmoor's siren has now begun, as of 2018. As new information about removed sirens comes in, we will update this Wiki in accordance with it. The following sirens are confirmed to have been removed:


 * Siren A - Bracknell - Bracknell Train Station
 * Siren B - Wokingham - Shell Petrol Station
 * Siren C - Wokingham - Holt Lane
 * Siren D - Finchampstead - Burnmoor Meadow
 * Siren E - Crowthorne - Crowthorne Train Station
 * Siren F - Crowthorne - TRL
 * Siren H - Sandhurst - Lambourne Close
 * Siren I - Sandhurst - School
 * Siren J - Sandhurst - Sandhurst Military Academy
 * Siren K - Camberley Car Park
 * Siren L - Bagshot - Surrey Highways Depot
 * Siren M - Ascot - Skate Park

NOTE: This list is only the sirens that have been fully demolished. There are some that are still in place, but do not work. Plus, as Sirens J is practically inaccessible, it is difficult to know if it still exists or not, now that the remaining old sirens no longer sound.

Siren Locations
Click Here to find the locations of the sirens: http://broadmoor-hospital-sirens.wikia.com/wiki/Siren_Locations

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEOS: http://broadmoor-hospital-sirens.wikia.com/wiki/Videos?venotify=created

Broadmoor
Although this wiki is about the Broadmoor Sirens, in order to understand why they were important, you need to know exactly what Broadmoor is. Below is an extract from Wikipedia:

Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton. The Broadmoor complex houses about 210 patients, all of whom are men since the female service closed with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall in September 2007, a few moving to the national high secure service for women at Rampton and a few elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there suffer from severe mental illness; many also have personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. The average stay for the total population is about six years, but this figure is skewed by some patients who have stayed for over 30 years; most patients stay for considerably less than six years.

More information on Broadmoor can be found on Wikipedia.

Why were the Sirens installed?
The siren network was established in 1952, following the escape of serial child killer, John Straffen

Straffen, (born 27 February 1930) strangled two young girls to death in the summer of 1951. The first was Brenda Goddard (age 5) on July 15, and the second was Cicely Batstone (age 9) on August 8th. At Taunton Assize Court, on 17 October 1951, Straffen stood trial for murder before Mr Justice Oliver. However, the only witness to be heard was Dr Peter Parkes, medical officer at Horfield Prison, who testified to Straffen's medical history and stated his conclusion that Straffen was unfit to plead. Oliver commented, "In this country we do not try people who are insane. You might as well try a baby in arms. If a man cannot understand what is going on, he cannot be tried." The jury formally returned a verdict that Straffen was insane and unfit to plead.

Straffen was transferred to Broadmoor hospital in Berkshire. Broadmoor had originally been termed a criminal lunatic asylum, but by the Criminal Justice Act 1948, responsibility for it had been transferred to the Ministry of Health, and those committed to it had been renamed patients. Straffen breifly escaped from Broadmoor on 29 April 1952. Only 20 minutes after escaping, Straffen came up a private drive in Crowthorne and approached Mrs. Doris Spencer, who was in her garden. He asked her for a drink of water, which she gave him and then discussed the proximity of Broadmoor and the likelihood of escapes. He left after 10 minutes. An hour and a half later, he reached Farley Hill, and at about five o'clock, Straffen came to the point where 5-year-old Linda Bowyer was riding her bicycle around the village. Half an hour later, Bowyer was dead.

Straffen was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, with September 4th fixed as his execution date. However, Straffen was reprieved because of his mental state, owing to a recommendation to The Queen by Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe. Straffen's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he remained in prison until his death on 19 November 2007 more than 55 years later. He was 77 years old when he died. Straffen is currently the longest serving prisoner in British History.

The escape and subsequent murder of Linda Bowyer highlighted the need for a way for the hospital to alert the general public of an escape. Remember, the hospital is home to some of the UK's most dangerous men, and in the early 50's, it was not possible to alert people by way of Text-messaging or TV Broadcasts like we can in the 21st century. The hospital decided that the best solution was to set up an alarm system, which could be activated to alert people in the vicinity of the hospital (located in Crowthorne) and the bordering & nearby towns of Sandhurst, Wokingham, Bracknell and Bagshot, when any potentially dangerous patient escapes. The network consisted of 13 Sirens (all of which were Secomak CS8's).

Siren Alert Tones
The sirens used two different alerts (controlled by dampers) to produce an "ESCAPE" tone and an "ALL CLEAR" tone. When a patient escapes the hospital, the "ESCAPE" tone sounded for 20 Minutes to allow enough time for people to hear the alert and take action. The sound used is an alternating Hi-Lo signal, which is produced by using the dampers on the sides of the siren. The "ALL CLEAR" tone is a single tone, during which both dampers remain open. An online video by YouTube user mrmattandmrchay can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzW3G-XUFHw. The last time these sirens were used in an actual emergency situation was in 1993. In 2014, the Bracknell siren was activated accidentally during an electrical storm (fortunately on the All Clear tone).

Weekly Testing
The Broadmoor Sirens were tested weekly at 10AM every Monday (though a few sirens did not work in later years). The test began with the "ESCAPE" tone being sounded for 2 minutes, followed by a short break during which the sirens would wind down. This was immediately followed by the "ALL CLEAR" tone which was sounded for a further 2 minutes. One this had been done, the sirens wind down and the test was officially over. In some rare cases, the tones would be switched during a test, with the All-Clear sounding first, followed by the Escape. In a real situation the "ESCAPE" tone would be sounded for 20 minutes.

Schools within the vicinity of Broadmoor and the Siren network are required to have and practice protocols for an escape situation. An example of one from Owlsmoor School can be found here: http://www.owlsmoorprimary.com/attachments/download.asp?file=199&type=pdf. Schools still maintain protocols for an escape to this day, despite the risk of an escape being incredibly low. Even though there is no longer a siren network, Schools will still be notified immediately if there is an escape.

NOT "air-raid" sirens!
Many people are under the false impression that the 13 Secomak CS8 Sirens were recycled Air-Raid sirens or that they were used during the cold war. Neither of these facts are true. The sirens were purpose-built for Broadmoor Hospital, and have only been used for this purpose. You can tell that this is the case, as these sirens are fitted with Dampers to allow for production of the Hi-Lo sound. This was required, as the standard "alternate wail" tone that most people associate sirens with was exclusively for air-raids only. Other siren systems could not be used, as using the same sound an an air-raid siren would cause confusion over the message being broadcasts via the sirens. Sirens from WWII and beyond were not fitted with these dampers. Broadmoor and The State Hospital in Carstairs, along with the Naval Base in Plymouth, are to this day the only known users of the Secomak CS8, which was designed specifically for the job of producing these Hi-Lo sounds.

During the 50s, it was important that the sirens did not use the same signal as an air-raid, as during this time Europe was engulfed in the Cold War, and as such the risk of another world war between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union was immense. Many towns around the UK kept their air-raid siren from WWII in place, in case they were ever needed (to this day, some town still have WWII sirens, but now used for different purposes, such as flood warnings).

The End of the Broadmoor Sirens
The last time the Broadmoor Sirens were activated because of an actual escape was in 1991, although they were activated once more in 1993 following an attack at the hospital. Since that time there has been significant investment in improving security at the hospital including the installation of a second perimeter fence and additional alarm and control systems. This is on top of regular renovations of the buildings and updates to technological systems. The risk of an escape has been significantly reduced, and as a result, the last time a patient managed to escape was in the aforementioned 1991 escape. In that case, the escapee was captured again within minutes, only a short distance from the hospital.

Wear & tear, poor maintenance and neglect caused some of the sirens to develop faults, whilst others simply did not work at all. Plans were initially drawn up to remove 7 of the 13 sirens, and replace the remaining 6 with new ones. The current sirens have a range of 2 miles, and the furthest one is located 7.1 miles away from the hospital. The plan was to use new sirens that had a range of up to 5 miles. Despite the increased range, many local residents disliked the plan to decrease the number of sirens, saying that they feel safer with sirens in their area, so this plan was scrapped.

Since then, Broadmoor made a new plan to decommission all of the sirens and install a new siren within the facility when the perimeter fence was realigned in 2018. This plan was put into action and, starting in 2018, the 13 sirens are being gradually removed.

Fact is, the Hospital are doing the right thing by investing money into ensuring an escape doesn't happen in the first place, rather than into sirens on the off-chance that one might happen. This is, after all, the 21st century, where we can use mobile alerts that reach more people more quickly. And this is a system that expands itself, as more and more people buy more modern phones that are capable of receiving such warnings. There is also the financial consideration. Replacement or upgrade of the siren network would have been incredibly expensive. The hospital only gets so much funding, so when and how money is spent has to be carefully calculated. Ultimately, it was decided that upgrading the siren network was too great a cost for something that is highly unlikely to be needed again.

The New Broadmoor Siren
The new siren that has been installed within the new facility is 'silent' tested on a Monday morning. The new siren is a Comtel CS siren From Greece Comtel’s Website: www.comtel.gr, though the siren is branded as Klaxon. It is an electronic siren. The tones for 'Escape' and 'All Clear' tones have been released by Broadmoor, and can be heard by clicking on the yellow words.. Here is a video of the first and last audible test of the new siren. Note that while it might seem quiet, this is because it was deliberately tested at a lower volume (electric sirens are essentially just massive speakers, so you can change the volume). In an actual emergency, the siren will blast at full volume.

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Credits
 PEOPLE: 


 * Alex Ellis - Creator of the Wiki, its pages and author of all the text.
 * Matt Ward (mrmattandmrchay) - Videos, Photos and Maps. Also provided some info on working status of some of the sirens.
 * Unknown Contributor - Photo of the siren at Sandhurst Military Academy.
 * AutoUnder - Collected information about the new Broadmoor siren.
 * Michal M - Video of the new siren being tested.
 * Many other users - Many other users have all chipped in with various bits of information, for which I am eternally grateful!

 SOFTWARE: 


 * Google Maps
 * Adobe Photoshop
 * MS PowerPoint

 INFORMATION: 


 * Wikipedia
 * Sandhurst School
 * Broadmoor Hospital
 * MANY news articles, videos & interviews
 * Matt Ward (mrmattandmrchay)

Thanks from the Creator:
Hi Everyone!

My name is Alex, and I'm the dude who initially set this wiki up. I started this project as a means of preserving the history of the Broadmoor sirens - a strange part of British history that would have otherwise been forgotten following the siren network's removal. I first discovered the Broadmoor Sirens from watching Matt Ward's (mrmattandmrchay) videos on the subject of YouTube.

For those who don't know me from YouTube, I actually live in New Zealand, so I couldn't visit the sirens for myself. I am therefore super thankful to everyone who has made contributions to this wiki over the years and provided updates, information, pictures and more! Building this wiki up to what is now, with a complete guide to both the Broadmoor Sirens AND the Carstairs sirens would not have been possible without the contributions of everyone here.

Thanks for all your continued support, and I look forward to seeing where we go from here,

~ Alex Ellis.

Latest activity


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Here is a picture of one of Broadmoor Hospital's 13 Secomak CS8 Sirens.]]