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Underground (Miscellaneous: Tunnels, Roads, Bunkers Etc.)

I have dug up (dug up - ha ha!) some extra notes on the belief of tunnels underneath Hales Owen Abbey:

"Hasbury - The Manor Abbey stands in the township of Lapel, on the site of an ancient manor house, which was called the 'Kings House'. There is in this township, a tunnel. About three miles in length called Lapal Tunnel."

Halesowen history and Antiquities - W. Harris (1831)

"The highlight of the season was the annual walk to the tunnels at Lutley on Shrove Tuesday, traditionaly known as 'pancake day'. There was an official half-day from school."

The Black Countryman vol.15 no.2 pg.21


Coal was mined in Halesowen as early as 1274 so I guess holes, pits and tunnels have been part of the local landscape at least since then. The last mine closed in 1921 following a three month miners strike. If a photograph of a large crane can become in our mind an image of the mythical Thunderbird, then it is easy to see how in our creative/art memory a childhood reminiscence of a walk through a canal tunnel can become a journey along a hidden tunnel under the local Abbey.

Just a thought!
 
Re: Keele tunnels revisited... Again...

101 said:
To drag up the Keele tunnels again... Someone (I've lost track now that all these threads have been merged. Sorry!) mentioned that the whole of the Stoke-on-Trent area is riddles with old coal mines. This is a pretty fair point. Having recently climbed onto the property ladder herer, I've found that my own house will probably never be worth more than most people's cars because of the ammount of uncharted tunnels under the city.
One of the most recently closed minehead is in Silverdale, which is just one-and-a-half miles from... (Drumroll)... Keele.
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No idea why I havn't mentioned this before, but of course, this is linked to the demonstrably true phenomenon of Barnes Halls of Residence on Keele campus. The alphabetically listed blocks of rooms and flats in Barnes skip straight from 'J' to 'L', with no 'K'. K block was built at the same time as the rest of them, became structurally unsound and partially sank due to undermining. It was therefore knocked down and never spoken of again.

Also, demonstrably in existance, but in the opposite direction to the tunnels (up rather than down) is 'H' Block in Horwood Halls. This is a five storey concrete structure cheefully known as 'Suicide Block', as the top floor, presumably still accessible somehow, has no ceiling or windows, and is just the shell of a floor, where presumably the desperate could throw themselves out onto the courtyard below (though this has never happened).
The reason always given as to why the building has remained incomplete since it's construction decades ago due to a marvellous oversight in planning permission. Work had already begun on floor five of the concrete carbunkle when a surveyor or somesuch official pointed out that buildings for residential use over four storeys in height require an elevator to provide access to all floors. As the had only planned for stairs and had not money, time or room to fit a lift in, the work merely ceased, the floor of level 5 becoming the roof to the whole structure.

However, while I'm on a roll about Keele... The rumour still persists that Keele was the Uni which was kicked off University Challenge for 'dropping stuff off the top row', and subsequently being banned from the show for 20 years. It wasn't us. It was someone else. The only reason Keele didn't appear on U.C. between 1979 and 2001 is that we sucked.
 
Re: Mickey's Mousehole

101 said:
I'd heard a slight variation on the underground element to Disneyland/ world. I have it from a friend (not an employee of the Disney organisation, but a postgrad scholar of American Studies who claims to have to know about these things...) that once in costume, Mickey and friends are not allowed to break character in front of the public. So keen is the company to maintain this element of fantasy that the rest-rooms where the costumed employees may remove their mouse heads (or whatever) and enjoy a quick chat or cigarette are located in a bunker-like basement level of the staff buildings with no natural light.
Anyone found breaking character by taking their mouse (or duck, or whatever Goofy is...) head off or scratching their bum or swearing anywhere where the public might possibly see or hear them is dismissed for breach of contract.
Strange to note that most of the tunnel stories we've mentioned (My initial Keele Woods one, the institutional one in Wisconsin, and my firiend's account of the Disney one) all have a punitive element to them. The Keele story is made more thrilling by the 'fact' that you can get instantly sent down for snooping around; in the Wisconsin case MercuryCrest details, employees are discouraged from discussing the tunnels or asking questions; and in my American Studies friend's embellishment of the underground Disney story described initially by liveinabin, the threat of the sack looms over any anthropoid mice who transgress the laws concerning the underground mouse-lair.
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While snopesing for something completely different, I found this....
http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/headless.htm

Is 'snopesing' a suitable verb for it...?
 
Never Cuddle in a Broom Closet at Disney

The Disneyworld Underground is a notorious haunt for all sorts of headless types, I hear.
 
Johnnyboy said:
Wasn't there a letter in FT quite a while ago from someone claiming that either himself or a relative had been exploring some tunnels under Manchester, which were extensive, almost like underground streets, when he was scared off by a man in a strange military uniform?

Sounded quite spooky to read, but I'm not so sure.
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Uh, anybody know where this thread is coz it sounds amazing. No pun intended.;)
 
My Grandfather talks of a tunnel he and his friends used as children to get into the grounds of the Tower of London. Don't know if I'd be able to get any more info about it though. He has Alzheimer's so I don't want to press the memory too much...
 
FraterLibre said:
The Disneyworld Underground is a notorious haunt for all sorts of headless types, I hear.
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Don't they keep Walt Disney frozen body under Disney world :)?
 
Lauren Churchill said:
Uh, anybody know where this thread is coz it sounds amazing. No pun intended.;)
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I do beleive it was earlier in this thread m'dear!!
 
Billyjoe said:
Don't they keep Walt Disney frozen body under Disney world :)?
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In suspended animation, presumably.

Lauren - there are links and anecdotes about the Manchester tunnels throught this thread. You couild spend all day in here :).
 
There was an artical, which I'm sorry to say I've binned, on the tunnels under Liverpool in the magazine that Orange mobile phone people send out.

It would seem that they are going to be openned to the public!
 
Billyjoe said:
Don't they keep Walt Disney frozen body under Disney world :)?
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According to snopes.com, that's total crap. He was never cryongenically frozen. Although this is related to us by the same website that claimed Mr Ed was played by a zebra so... :sceptic:
 
Tunnels in Manchester:
I was having a chat to a friend of mine in the pub the other day (he will remain nameless for now) who has actually gone down the Nuclear bunker in Manchester. It runs from Salford into Manchester town Centre, but is more easily accessable from the Salford end. Incidently, the friend he went with, managed to cut off his own big toe, by dropping the door to the entrance on his foot (ouch!). Alledgedly, there was nothing exciting to see in the tunnel, not even any scary men in black suits.

I've got a book on ghost and legends of Lancashire and I'm sure there was something about old tunnels running under the Cathedral.
 
Lauren Churchill said:
Uh, anybody know where this thread is coz it sounds amazing. No pun intended.;)
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Not another one :)

This very thread, Lauren. Page 5.

[edit] Sorry Seaweed, didn't spot your post. Doh! :D
 
Ashdown Forest

A little while ago I was driving through Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, and I came across a semi-paved road leading off the main road, next to a mud car park. It was quite overgrown with grass (and main path/bridal way crosses it at one point), and looked interesting enough to take a look at where it went. At the main road end of this overgrown rough road there were small above-ground boxes, and a green access hatch with hazard warnings and the like. This all seemed way out of place to me but it reminded me of rumours of a large underground reservoir in the area. I decided to take a walk along the rough road to see where the hell it went. As I followed along it for a little way, I came across what seemed to be recently cleared areas of the undergrowth. I finally came to a large-ish circular clearing directly after a set of - what I can only presume were - ventilation shafts (deduced from the roaring wind noise coming from them). On the short shafts were warnings regarding them being alarmed etc. Dotted around the perimeter of the clearing were more green access hatches.

Being the imaginative yet cynical type of person that I am, at the forefront of my mind was that it was the underground reservoir that I had heard about, but there was always that small thought that maybe it was something else, something a little more fortean! I later on spoke to somebody I know, whom worked quite a lot in the Ashdown Forest area confirmed that there is indeed an underground reservoir there somewhere, but doesn't know where exactly (useful I know).

Has anybody got any inside information as to whether what I've described sounds like the aforementioned reservoir? Like many others I'd love to go down one of those access hatches and take a look at what was down there... but the alarms and hazardous environment warnings kind of put a hold on that one!

I know this is relatively un-amazing but I thought I'd see if anyone else has come across this.

Who knows, it could be a secret underground base protected by.. well.. bracken.
 
Breathing Water

Reservoirs, even underground, don't need such ventilation shafts with fans. That was for an underground installation in which people must breathe.

Military? Missile site perhaps? Monitoring bunker?
 
Well this is one of the thoughts I had, if you have to wear breathing equipment / hazmat suit to enter where ever access hatches lead, then why have ventilation? The conspiracy theorist within (a quiet one at that) says there's more than meets the eye (that could seem a really bad joke regarding the thread subject :D).

Of course one idea might be that the hazardous enviroment warning may be a scare intended for potential trespassers, and the ventilation designed to make it safe for maintenance personnel, but still; hmm.
 
One thing I neglected to mention was that when I returned to my car after my little investigation, a black spotless saloon car with tinted windows pulled up a few car widths away (no other cars in carpark), and a man in a pristine suit and black gloves stepped out and looked over to my car. I kid you not.

Needless to say I was put into a state of Fight or Flight, but thankfully he didn't pay any further attention to me or my car, and I didn't think any further of it. Quite a scary coincidence in my books thinking about it! :eek!!!!:
 
Re: Ashdown Forest

iiyamax said:
A little while ago I was driving through Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, and I came across a semi-paved road leading off the main road, next to a mud car park.
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Do you have a grid reference and/or directions to this site? If I'm in the area I may take a look and report back.
 
Air

The only reason to go to the expense and complication of putting in forced air ventilation is to provide breatheable atmosphere for workers.

Most interesting about the MIB sighting, too.
 
markrkingston said:
Do you have a grid reference and/or directions to this site? If I'm in the area I may take a look and report back.
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Coming from Groombridge (on the B2188), it's the last carpark on the right before you come to the junction with the large carpark on the left. Check out the Streetmap location below... if memory serves correctly that should be the spot. Once you are in the carpark walk towards the main path and follow it to the right, and the first access hatches mentioned are on the right towards the road as you are following the main path.

Streetmap
 
iiyamax said:
Coming from Groombridge (on the B2188), it's the last carpark on the right before you come to [...]
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Thanks for the directions. Will report back here if/when I find anything.

On second thoughts, I'll post a message before I go looking, just in case I meet a MIB and don't make it back... ;)
 
Good plan.. and if they say they are from South East Water don't believe them ;)
 
Hi Iiyamax,

Apparently the decommissioning of a sewage treatment plant is being undertaken to the north east of the Kings Standing police compound on the forest.

They are going to clear the area of vegetation and the boundary fencing is to be removed and the treatment plant demolished.

You probably stumbled across it after the foliage had been cleared.

http://www.eastsussexcc.gov.uk/ashdown/minutes/conservation.htm

Although it is common knowledge that the MoD use Ashdown Forest as a training ground. Could be one of their training installations. I know that one is located fairly close to the place you mentioned.

http://www.army.mod.uk/ate/public/cinque.htm
 
Vented Methane Surprise

Would sewage treatment be underground and require air-exchange vents and fans?
 
Your could be right… By sheer coincidence I’ve literally just stumbled across another thread (Nuclear bunker in Sussex Downs) where KittyRice mentions that a nuclear bunker does actually exist at King Standing police compound. Might be a good idea to PM her to glean some more info.

Just talked to a work colleague who mentioned that he definitely knows that an underground bunker exists under the Churchill Square shopping mall in Brighton. To which the entrance is located in an old church by the seafront
 
Curzone said:
You probably stumbled across it after the foliage had been cleared.
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Thanks for the info Curzone, I was aware that there was MoD training going on around there but wasn't sure what they did exactly, presume it's just orienteering etc. One other thing about the hatches and vents I saw was that they all seemed quite new, which was odd because amongst the cleared bushes was the odd piece of years-old rubbish (old soft drink cans etc). Also there wasn't any boundry fencing at all, nor were there any signs of it previously being there.

Could it have something to do with the bunker? Far as I know the police compound is some way up the road... would it be that big??
 
Here in the states, if an officer of any sort (I'm a volunteer police officer) sees something going on like that, I would call for backup, which would be interesting, and immediately get my MIB suspect on the ground with my weapon at his/her head. I cannot imagine any truly clandestine government agency leaving themselves without any liasion to the local police department to take care of such unfortunate incidents. If you encounter someone and he/she won't show you any kind of credentials, be deeply suspicious. Absolutely turn around and go away, but really, that's suspicious. Someone is full of shit, but don't get in trouble over it.
 
to anyone in manchester:- do you know what the wooden framed pyramid in oxford st(?) is for?
its outside the barclays bank and opposite the eye hospital and the hogshead pub
i only ask becos i noticed it when i was up from cardiff visiting my bro when we went for a pint at the hogs
 
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