Belfast's Post-Apocalypse Baking Plan Revealed

A document from the 1950s detailing how the production of bread would continue following an atomic bomb strike on Belfast has been selected as 'document of the month' by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).



The file 'Emergency Bread Exercise' dates from 1953/54 and was found within the records of the United Co-operative Baking Society in Belfast.



The report, originally marked as 'Confidential', details predictions of the effects of an atomic strike on the city, and focuses on whether bread could continue to be produced, post-apocalypse.



PRONI’s Repository team picked the document. Team leader Alan Robertson said: "This early fifties emergency planning exercise provides an insight into the expected aftermath of an atomic attack, with ground zero based at the now demolished, Midland Railway Station, York Street. It illustrates the disturbingly naive attitude to the impact of such a devastating attack, and the optimism prevalent at this early stage of the 'Cold War.’"



The exercise highlights well-known flour mills and bakeries in Belfast and provides a record of the bakery industry during the post-WWII period.



The document indicates that emergency bread centres were to be established in the event of a fallout, with a mobile bakery unit situated in Castlewellan and exports prohibited.



Maggie Smith, Director of PRONI said: "In 1953 people were planning for survival in the event of an atomic attack. The Northern Ireland Emergency Bread Exercise demonstrates forward planning and creativity and is one of many unusual documents held in PRONI. Now in 2014 the Cold War is a topic within the NI GCSE curriculum and this great document will fascinate students looking at Cold War topics from a local angle."



(IT/CD)