A CREEPY former RAF base known as the “UK’s Area 51” has long been rumoured to have “aliens hiding in the tunnels below”.
Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire, was revealed as the centre of investigations into UFO sightings in Britain after declassified government files went public in 2010.
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Documents show behind-closed doors briefings were held over reports of an underground complex lying beneath the site.
It led to ufologists speculating that spacecraft wreckage was taken there to be examined along with alien corpses.
And it sparked rumours that the isolated base could have been home to Britain’s very own Area 51.
Rudloe Manor was soon being compared with the infamous US Air Force highly classified military base that has long been associated with UFO sightings and government cover-ups.
Tony Pierce, a retired business consultant, 66, from Corsham, Wiltshire, said that mysterious tales have always been swirling around the area.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, he said: “I’ve lived here since I was a teenager and I’ve heard all the stories about the place.
“Conspiracy theorists, UFO hunters and crack pots of all descriptions have tried to prove that something fishy was going on beneath the camp.
“Unfortunately, the truth is that it was a product of the Cold War which at the time meant we had to have secret locations where people could work out how we were going to live if the worst happened.
“Everything else stems from that paranoia which erupts whenever something secret is on your doorstep.”
He added: “If there are aliens down in those tunnels, then my name is Winston Churchill.”
Anyone visiting the site can see how it appears “time has stood still” at the 30-acre former RAF base set in an area of outstanding natural beauty near Corsham.
Around 40 prefabricated buildings, huts and storerooms are dotted around the sprawling site, many with boarded up windows and doors.
The rusted former main entrance gates are festooned with signs warning: ‘Private. Keep out.’
Just yards away is a concrete pillbox where armed guards would have been stationed when the base was operational.
But Corsham resident Richard Moulton, 58, who co-owns Spindles Bikes in the town also raised doubts about aliens being housed in the tunnels below the base.
He said: “If aliens do exist and they have the advanced technology to make their way to our little planets don’t you think they may have the ability to avoid detection and capture by the obviously primitive abilities that we possessed in the 1950s and 1960s.
“It might be that aliens do exists somewhere out there but are they in the tunnels below RAF Rudloe Manor? I doubt that very much.
“The science fiction movie Area 51 was a good film but it was just that – science fiction. And I don’t believe there’s anything like that up there.”
Outside, the former road leading to the base has been abandoned and is overgrown with weeds.
But 20 mph signs remain in place along with markings on the road which show ‘non pass holders’ were directed down a separate lane as they approached the camp.
Previously manicured lawns are now overrun with thick tangled brambles and stinging nettles while the once bustling base is shrouded by an eerie silence.
There are also giant abandoned oil tanks capable of holding 6,000 gallons along with rusted pipes raised above ground level and apparently now leading nowhere.
Amateur investigators are convinced the base has remained off limits since it was decommissioned in 2000 as it holds the secrets to extraterrestrial life.
Another long-term Corsham resident, Michael Callaghan, 77, said: “There is no doubt that the former top secret military base has become a magnet for UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists after lying abandoned for more than 20 years.”
Angry neighbours have complained that the eerie RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire has been plagued by break-ins after remaining sealed off behind security fences topped with razor wire.
The mystery surrounding the site led to enthusiasts making videos of themselves breaking into the grounds and trawling through rubble strewn buildings including the original 17th century Grade II-listed Manor House.
In one video posted on YouTube two men are shown entering a hanger on the site they called ‘The Registry’ they claimed was used to store row after row “from floor to ceiling” of cabinets containing “X Files” documents.
The men go on to enter a hut which they said was the secret office where UFO sightings were investigated.
Along with online amateur films, the American television series Ancient Aliens featured an episode on the base which was screened on Sky History Channel.
The manor house was originally bought by the Air Ministry in 1941 and became a Second World War RAF command centre for directing Battle of Britain operations.
An underground operations room was later built in an old quarry there.
The base is one of many government sites in the area made up of operational and decommissioned MoD establishments.
At the height of the Cold War in the late 1950s, a secret underground city was built 100 feet beneath the ground linking bases across the area.
The massive subterranean complex was designed to safely house up to 4,000 central Government personnel and members of the Royal Family in the event of a nuclear strike.
After the war, Rudloe Manor became the headquarters of the RAF’s police and secret service covering espionage and counterintelligence operations.
It also took part in the operation of the UK military communications satellite system and became home to the Flying Complaints Flight which gathered reports of UFO sightings from RAF bases and passed them to the MoD HQ.
Declassified files show that during the 1950’s, ministers commissioned weekly reports on UFO sightings from a committee of intelligence chiefs.
Winston Churchill was so concerned about one reported encounter between a UFO and RAF bombers, that he ordered it be kept secret for at least 50 years to prevent “mass panic”.
What is Area 51?
THE mystery surrounding Area 51 has always entertained the public eye, with many theorising what lies behind the top-secret government base.
Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada, just 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas, and is the common name of a highly classified at the United States Air Force facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range.
The airbase is commonly believed by many to be the home of the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.
The US Air Force acquired the site in 1955.
However, the CIA never acknowledged the existence of the facility until June 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2005.
The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories, as some believe the facility is used to house alien technology or extraterrestrial life.
The base has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.
Conspiracy theorists believe the facility is used to store, examine and reverse engineer crashed alien spacecraft, including material supposedly recovered from the 1950s Roswell crash.
The so-called Roswell incident is one of the most discussed and controversial UFO theories in history.
History.com calls the Roswell incident the “mother of all UFO sightings.”
In July 1947, a rancher found “mysterious debris” and soldiers from a nearby base came to collect the materials.
Then came a giant leap as newspapers reported that a “flying saucer” went down in a New Mexico city.
Reports included an incident dubbed the ‘Welsh Roswell’ in 1974, where members of the public sounded the alert after seeing lights in the sky and feeling a tremor in the ground.
And a mountain rescue team was called to investigate the “crashed UFO” in the Berwyn Mountains.
In another infamous encounter known as the “Rendlesham incident”, three US officers based at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk claimed a “triangular shaped craft” landed in neighbouring woods in the early hours of December 26 1980.
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Years later it emerged intelligence papers on the incident had gone missing.
The manor house was later put up for sale with celebrity chef Marco Pierre White – who owns the nearby Rudloe Arms hotel and restaurant – reportedly among potential buyers.
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