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Lucy Letby
by diggingdeeper - 16th Dec 2024 6:16pm
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,006
Forum Guardian
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Forum Guardian
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So did you actually get into the tunnels?
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 21,269 Likes: 4
Wiki Master
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Wiki Master
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So did you actually get into the tunnels? err yes and no.... Did we run around the caves shouting Awwwwww haaaaa No... Did we look into the Tunnels and see a door going off to the left YES
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Joined: Nov 2006
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could u not really get into there ? is it really well sealed up ?
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Its not as sealed as we first thought when we got there to be honest. There was a Black Wooden Board covering a Hole that was cut into the metal and bent over in 2 places. Funny when Whelan pushed the wood and it fell inwards with out any resistance lol.
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Joined: Jul 2004
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Why oh why was I in work today?
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 21,269 Likes: 4
Wiki Master
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It could be re visited But more of wearing a better artier lol As in scruffy clothes, gloves, ropes and step ladders.
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Joined: Jul 2004
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Forum Guardian
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or even better, pair of old jeans, worky boots, hi-vis vests, hard hats, cones with zoning off tape and clipboards etc. make us look like officials.
no-one questions you if you have a clipboard and hi-vis vest...
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Joined: Nov 2006
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better idea waddi ............
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Here is an interesting story I have come across courtousey of both 28dayslater.co.uk and Google: Minutes of Wirral’s Civil Defence Emergency Committee in 1941 reveal that the peninsula’s skilled workforce saw it granted almost unprecedented funds to establish two deep air raid shelters, one sprawling under Tranmere under Olive Mount, Thompson Street and Holborn Hill, the other under Bidston Hill’s Rhododendron Garden, its entrance facing Hoylake Road.
Tickets were to be handed out to ensure access to residents in the event of a raid.
By June 1943 the final bill for the project was £48,006, with the corporation paying £6,510.
The tunnels were 7ft wide and 6ft 6in high with an arched roof.
A report in January 1943 advised that due to the unreliable nature of the rock, costs increased, and it was noted that the unskilled labour available had been markedly inferior to the Tranmere Shelter.
Less explosives were required in Bidston, and the spoil was tipped close to the entrance - which accounts for the rise in the ground on the grassed area near Hoylake Road. Emergency committee minutes also reveal that during construction the project was plagued with trespassers and vandalism - not just a modern problem!
Nine-hundred-and-fifty tons of sand were sold to a contractor for building purposes.
Although it never saw the scale of use it was intended for, tickets do exist and people did shelter under Bidston, there were 2,213 bunks and 793 seats, as well as a canteen, staff dormitory, toilets, medical aid post and a ventilation shaft which could double as an emergency escape hatch.
Chair of Bidston Preservation Society, Peter Crawford, has conducted meticulous research into the shelter.
He said: “As a child I remember seeing the escape shaft building on Bidston Hill. It was a brick structure 8ft tall, and inside were a series of ladders which meant people could get out if the Rhododendron Garden entrance was hit. “After the war it was a real problem for the police because if someone got in there and got into trouble there was very little chance of them being found - this was a structure that could house 3,000 people and it was totally dark.
“In the 1960s they saw it as a place that could be of use because of the Cold War, but there was a lot of dry rot in the timberwork.”
Peter hopes that with the right investment, Wirral could make the most of the Bidston shelter - as a tourist attraction revealing the true nature of the home front in the area.
He added: “The people working in the dockland were irreplaceable, skilled labour was vital and structures like the Bidston shelter show how seriously the threat was taken.”
Do you have any memories of accessing the tunnels in the 1950s? As the police reports show, this was an extremely dangerous site, and it is worth pointing out to would-be adventurers that thanks to the careful application of huge amounts of concrete, the interior is utterly inaccessible.
But deep down below the medical room, the broken siren and the tunnels are still there...
A POLICE report from April 6, 1960 reads that they should “brick up completely the ventilating shaft, to weld a steel door in place and secure the inside by means of a lock.”
Earlier on April 29, 1959, officer R Gibson had written in a report: “There is nothing of value, lavatory pans and wash basins are long broken.
“Intersecting walls have been pushed down and continue to be a dangerous obstruction in the dark. “Electrical switch gear is broken and corroded beyond repair and on one landing bay 30 feet up the emergency escape shaft the siren is so corroded it is doubtful whether it could ever be made serviceable.
“The steel ladder is in four sections and shows signs of considerable oxidisation.
“To use the emergency escape shaft one has to mount 85 rungs of the ladder to the landing bay.”
He describes the depth of the access shaft as 80ft.
“As supervisor, at this portion of the tunnel an injured or dead person could lie here undiscovered for an indeterminate length of time.
“It is not difficult to imagine how long a body could remain effectively secluded in this maze of tunnels. In view of the great danger and the uselessness of the tunnel in this condition, it is suggested that it is permanently secured.” Source: icWirral/Wirral News Group
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very interesting read, i was just about to post that one my self.
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I suppose its a case of read into what you will - some of it will be true, some of it will be falsified to deter interest from the site. But what they dont realise, is thats all part of the fun, the anticipation of not knowing and the finding out what actually is in there. A few people have said on the 28dayslater.co.uk forums that there is hundreds, if not thousands of steel beds (apparently there was capacity for upto 3000 people in the shelter) and army machinery (including a massive old air raid siren - one of the kids mentioned that before too) etc... Also, at least one person has stated that it was actually across three levels. There is supposedly a book available with a map of the tunnels in, I may pop along to the library tomorrow morning and get a library card or whatever to get the book out, im sure they will have it as its a local issue book. Would be good if we can find a map!
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I have heard (dunno if it was on 28dl) that the council went down about 10 years ago and said they were damp, dark and cold places of no interest to the public. So maybe the council have been down there since they were closed?? But yeah, working it out, they must have been done pre-1995, I was working it out to approx 1991/92 before from what you said and the lads said, but can't be sure, but id say it would have to be at least a decade or so.
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Found what I was talking about: It is a similar grid layout but wasn't finished until after the war. It's had a variety of uses from fire service training, customs & excise store and now it's just a plain old class 1 nuclear bunker. It's completely sealed up and I have never met anyone that has been inside.
The local council went inside about 10 years ago and called it "damp, dark and featureless" so wouldn't consider opening it to the public.
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the council went down about 10 years ago and said they were damp, dark and cold places of no interest to the public. LOL They would say that ;P
Putin khuilo
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Lucy Letby
by diggingdeeper - 16th Dec 2024 6:16pm
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Lucy Letby
by diggingdeeper - 16th Dec 2024 6:16pm
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