Manchester Tunnels

[Ian]

I found out something interesting today

I was out posting a parcel for Becky, and thought I'd take the scenic route around Longsight/Ardwick (not the nicest of places if you know Manchester). On the way there I saw what looked like a large sub-station with vents all around it and big doors, right in the middle of the housing estate. A little further down there was another smaller brick building, again covered with vents.

It looked like some sort of underground venting system, so I thought it must be for some underground tunnels I've heard of before.

Looking on the net and I found this :

http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/inside.htm

A massive underground tunnel all the way to the city centre, and then on to Salford (miles away!). Just shows how much stuff there is that we don't know about!

 

[chelseafc2005]

its funny how even though people have lived in cities for a long time or even their whole lives that there are still parts of the city they dont knw even excist..lol iv lived in london the whole of my life and i probably dont know that much about london if i was asked about it

 

[psd99]

thaths amazing


how much does a ticket cost then?

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've been here all my life and have never visited The Tower Of London, even though I driven past it a million times.

I've seen or know more about Derbyshire than where I live, lol (just to give an example)

 

[Ian]

I think thats the way the world works I don't know much about Newcastle even though I lived there for years, I could tell you more about the Lake District or Edinburgh easily - I guess we take the local surroundings for granted a bit

 

[ChristopherP]

My former ICT and Form tutor worked in that very bunker!!!

He told a story of some really heavy guage wire being installed, two guys were lowering it down but it got far too heavy and they accidently dropped it - it fell down, gained momentum, bounced off the floor and SMASHED right through the very blast door shown in photo 1. Some blast door!

That is a 100% true story - he even showed us that same website. Imrie - you remember that?

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

Affirmative

I remember that story quite well, we heard it many a times.

 

[Ian]

Oh fantastic I wonder if its still used now!

 

[ChristopherP]

more info of interest here

http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/

I would love to explore that bunker!!

----

We had a similar thing here - when i was a kid, back in the 90's, just over the road to my house was the entrance to the woods and army training ranges, went down there all the time with mates on our bikes - 8 square miles of forest trails and shooting ranges ever so often. On the entrance there was an electric substation... we used to squeeze through a hole in the very tall fence to pick blackberries for my Dad as they were really big on the inside around the big meaty looking green sub-station boxes.

Then one day the whole lot was gone. No fence, just a pile of sand.

Found out the other day it was an entrance to a secret underground nuclear bunker. in my town!! Cant find the slightest bit of information on the internet though, if anyone wants to have a look - the town is Whitehill or Bordon in Hampshire...

 

[Covenant]

Slightly off topic - quote from christopherpostill "when I was a kid back in the 90's" - I now feel terribly terribly ancient

Covenant

 

[ChristopherP]

i was a kid in the (admittedly very late) 80's too

 

[Covenant]

LOL

Covenant

 

[ChristopherP]

haha

no in all seriousness though, these bunkers sound VERY interesting... i emailed the council for any information on what i heard

 

[V_R]

Anyone ever herd of the Hellfire Club and Hellfire Caves?

http://www.hellfirecaves.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/have_fun/360/hellfire_caves.shtml

We have them right here in Wycombe! About a mile and a half from my home.

Aparently all sorts of bad things used to go on in them. They strech out all through the Chiltern hills. I been down myself but not for a while. They were even on that Most Haunted crap.

Do a google on them you'll find loads.

 

[Ian]

Looks good V_R - the site makes them sound like they were from some evil cult!

 

[ChristopherP]

Just got a reply...

Very interesting - click on the website:

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding a fall-out bunker in Whitehill. I have looked into this, and the site in question is actually a Royal Observer Corps underground monitoring post. These were a feature of Britain's Cold War defence system between 1952 - 1969. The Whitehill/ Bordon site was opened in September 1963. We do not have any specific information in our Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record regarding the bunker, but we do have some general information on these types of sites in a report by the Council for British Archaeology entitled 'Twentieth Century Fortifications in England'. Volume 11 of this set of reports deals with Cold War defences and gives a history and description of the Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts, as well as a site gazeteer. I would be more than happy to photocopy this material and post it to you if you wish.

Also, I managed to find a website that details the Whitehill site. Here is the link:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/cgi-bin/webdata_roc.pl?fid=988303843.000001&query=pagenum%3D1%26cgifunction%3DSearch%26County%3D%5EHampshire&cgifunction=form

I hope that this information is of assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information

yours sincerely

Alex Godden

Assistant Archaeologist

Archaeology & Historic Buildings

Landscape, Planning & Heritage

Environment Department

Hampshire County Council

 

[V_R]

Looks good V_R - the site makes them sound like they were from some evil cult!

They were, lots of devil worshipping and other illicit goings on down there. At least that's what the history books tell you.

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Visit the Caves and be guided by the voice of Sir Francis Dashwood - he will guide you down to the inner-sanctum (Hell) which lies directly below Heaven (St Lawrence's Church) some 300 feet directly above your head.

Quoted from HERE

Thats where all t[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]he dodgy stuff when on right down the end. It is kinda weird down there, you get a funny feeling, and theres a 'musty' smell.

If you want to know a bit more, you should try Google, although i'm sure i dont need to tell you that.
[/font]

 

[floppybootstomp]

Chris: That archaeologist seems like a helpful fella

VR: I'd heard of the Hellfire caves but didn't know where they were. I think there's some dodgy sixties film named The Hellfire Club based on the goings-on in those caves.

That's the kinda place I like, it's not too far away, I may give it a visit.

When I was working near Basildon, back in '82 or so, I was X-Raying all these pipes for British Gas just off the main road, across a level crossing. The roof of a building in this field stood just a metre above ground level.

When we went in and had a look turned out it was an RAF operations bunker used in WW2. It had a circular walkway or gallery running round it with two huge boards with maps on.

On the map were details of all the attacks and sorties against the Germans, showing flight paths across the channel.

There were airplane cutouts on tables which stuck to the boards, magnetically.

It looked as though it hadn't been touched since the end of the war. It was just about 50 metres from the main road, on British Gas property and it seemed nobody was aware it was there.

 

[ChristopherP]

i love places like that - they should be left there, untouched

 

[floppybootstomp]

i love places like that - they should be left there, untouched

I agree, wonder what ever became of it? Hopefully it's preserved.

Thought so, I have some pix of working there. Crap quality and unfortunately the building in question is out of sight to my right, but here's me and the pipes I was X-Raying: