UK has a fenced off location known as 'England's Area 51'

Everybody's heard of Area 51, the secretive US Air Force military base that's been the subject of endless conspiracy theories.

Tin hat wearers were so passionate about confirming their suspicions that the US experiments on aliens at the Nevada base that thousands showed up to storm the facility back in 2019.

Well, you might be surprised to find that the UK has its very own version of Area 51 — a place called RAF Rudloe Manor, formerly known as RAF Box, an elusive base that has sat abandoned for the past 20 years.

Situated between the settlements of Box and Corsham in Wiltshire, the base — which is known as 'England's Area 51' seems like any other estate in the country upon first appearance.

But, beneath the bricks and mortar of its overground buildings lays an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers that have been used for a number of purposes over the years.

And as you can imagine, conspiracy theorists have had a field day coming up with ideas of what exactly goes on down there.

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During the Second World War, Rudloe Manor was used by the RAF's operations group for various purposes, including filtering intelligence on enemy activity.

It was also the former location of a civil defence division responsible for monitoring radiation hazards and nuclear risks at the height of the Cold War.

But, theorists believe that the site was actually used to conduct research into UFOs and make contact with extraterrestrials.

Perhaps the most well known rumour is that it hides the remains of an alien spacecraft and its otherworldly crew.

This didn't come from thin air, either - the theory was first put forward by American writer Dorothy Kilgallon, who claimed that the crash unfolded in the 1940s.

She alleged that she was told about the incident by a high-ranking British official, although understandably they wished to remain anonymous.

Now, none of this has actually been confirmed, and the claim that Rudloe Manor was used for UFO investigations was continually denied by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

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However, as outlined by Sky History, this all changed in 2007 when declassified secret files released at the National Archives suggested that the site was in fact used for this purpose in the 1950s.

The outlet went on to point out that despite no longer being in active use by the MOD, the site is still fenced off and under strict guard.

And it's for this reason many people still believe there's far more to this story than meets the eye.

This is certainly true for folklore enthusiast Neil Cartwright, who told Sky History: "We all suspected this was happening at Rudloe Manor, but they operated as a clandestine organisation unregulated for decades, never held accountable to the British taxpayer.

"I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this story in the coming years."

Topics: UK News, Aliens, UFO, Army, Conspiracy Theory

Bec Oakes