Do you know England’s Area 51?

Deep in the South West of England, in the county of Wiltshire, is a former RAF base called Rudloe manor. At first glance, the building looks like any other quaint English manor house, but, deep beneath the structure lies a vast network of underground tunnels and chambers. Contained within their walls is a closely kept secret.

For years, the RAF’s secret service worked at Rudloe Manor across espionage and counterintelligence operations, but also something else -  UFO investigations. The claim was consistently denied by the MOD, but in 2007, during a release of declassified files from the National Archives, it was finally confirmed the site was the centre for UFO investigations in the 1950s.

Shortly before the files were release, the MOD announced that Rudloe Manor was no longer in use, but today the location is still fenced off, monitored by cameras and guarded by dogs. It begs the question, what are they hiding?

To look for answers, Ancient Aliens host Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is heading to the site. Alongside Nick Pope, a former MOD UFO Investigator, Giorgio explores the possibility that important files related to the history of the UFO phenomenon are being kept under lock and key here.

Might there be recovered extraterrestrial craft be stored and analysed there? Could the evidence of extraterrestrial contact from the Berwyn Mountains incident in 1974 and the Rendlesham forest encounter in 1980 be hidden in this highly-protected facility? 

HISTORY spoke to folklore enthusiast Neil Cartwright, who told us, “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.”