Drakelow Tunnels, Staffordshire - Sep 2009

[adders]

The extensive Drakelow underground complex was originally constructed during world war two as a shadow factory for the Rover car company.( Rover were at this time manufacturing engines for the Bristol aircraft Company ). It was to serve as a feeder plant supplying components to Rover's two main shadow factories at Acocks Green and Solihull, to supply spare parts and also to act as a back-up facility enabling continuity of production if either of the main shadow factories was damaged by enemy action. The tunnels have a total length of 3.5 mi (5.6 km) to 4 mi (6.4 km), covering 250,000 sq ft 200 ft beneath a sandstone ridge in Kingsford Country Park near the village of Kinver, Staffordshire.

A rough timeline of its' history;

1940's = Shadow factory producing plane and tank engines.
1950's = Used by the Ministry of Supply for storage.
1960's = Converted to Regional Seat of Government, Region 9 (RSG9)
1980's = Home Office spent a reputed two million pounds on refurbishing and upgrading around 25 to 30% of the original area to provide accommodation for a new Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) this incorporatted many areas of the 1960's RSG.
1990's = The Drakelow site was decommissioned and sold to private owners in 1993.

Unfortunately the tour only covers less than quarter of the site, but the owners started stripping out any machinery and metal left on site for scrap last year, so the quality of things to see has deteriorated. Due to some roof collapses you can't venture in to some of the older parts of the factory, but with Paul as our tour guide I was more than happy to stay with him. That guy knows ALOT.

1940's games room, 1980's canteen.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/1.jpg

1980's kitchen, including mechanical apple corer + peeler on the left there. You know, because there'll be loads of apples during nuclear fallout.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/2.jpg

Attack warning system.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/3.jpg

1 of the 2 generators which would have powered the bunker.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/4.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/5.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/6.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/7.jpg

First avenue, part of th factory complex. These giant tunnel spaces would have had the machinery and equipment needed to produce engines for the war effort.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/8.jpg

Part of the sealed off area towards the other factory tunnels. The entrance was bricked up, but Airsofters had broken through the wall.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/9.jpg

Side office.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/10.jpg

It almost looks like it's out of a Bond film.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/11.jpg

Some relics of machinery are still in situ, although their future is uncertain too.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/12.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/13.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/14.jpg

The factory dining room and canteen.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/15.jpg

One of the original tanoy speakers. The speakers were used more for playing music to the workers, lifting the moral of working underground.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/16.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/17.jpg

Original communications unit from Shropshire County Council, it used public BT network to communicate to ROC posts and other headquarters. If the power supplying the BT network went down then TA radio frequencies were used to carry messages between posts.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/18.jpg

One of the control consoles in the BBC studio.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/19.jpg

Broadcast BBC studio.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/20.jpg

Apart from the toilets, the doctors surgery and operating theatre is the only room which has maintained the same use throughout each conversion of the facility.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/21.jpg

In front of the women's dormitory, which was later used as a concert room for workers during lunch breaks. Former staff testimonies state the working conditions in Drakelow to be the best they'd ever experienced.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/22.jpg

A wooden door near the entrance shows the natural takeover since the owners stopped maintaining the site. The dehumidifiers were turned off to save money, so the damp is slowly destroying everything.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/23.jpg

The 60,000 liter water tank on the left is piped in to the Severn Trent mains, and was the primary drinking water source for the bunker. The 30,000 liter tank at the rear of the room was supplied by a bore hole which tunnels 50 foot below the bunker, taking water from the water table currently sitting in sandstone. This water is said to be better than the fresh water off the mains, and if the primary tank ran out during fallout the bore hole water could be redirected to fill the tank.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/24.jpg

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/25.jpg

The entrance to the bunker is protected by 3 heavy blast doors.

http://www.adampowell.org.uk/urbex/drakelow/26.jpg

My photos don't do the site justice, and the extensive history which is documented in Paul Stokes's book "Drakelow Unearthed" (http://www.stokes277.freeserve.co.uk/pages/du3.html) is the place you want to be looking. It's a crying shame that the facility has been left to decay like it has, luckily there are good people in the local community and preservation groups working to secure its' future, but for the time being the Trust has stopped planning public tours.

Many thanks to Paul Stokes and everyone else involved in the tour, was a great evening out.

Further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakelow_Tunnels
http://www.stokes277.freeserve.co.uk/pages/drakelow.html
http://www.drakelow.info/

[turkey]

Good shots mate, looks like an interesting trip. :thumb

[mr-monday]

Excellent report.

[gingerspeedfreak]

Nice report. I had heard rumours, admittadly this is a good few years ago, that these tunnels were connected to the main factory in Birmingham. However, I thought that a little far fetched, considering the engineering involved in doing that!!
:thumb

[Stealthy]

looks very cool down there nice shots!

[Dr Zoidberg]

Looking good , though what I'd *really* love to see is for someone to get away from the illuminated and maintained sections that are used for the tours and right into the depths.

It's almost worth going to play airsoft and then legging it.

[castors wheels]

Very interesting. I saved all the photos in my collection. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Dragon's Lair]

Hi Adders,

Great shots and report.
I've just asked the same question of GhostofFlo, but wondered if you had any shots of the groups going around? Because of the photo ban we never got any pics of the tours and would like some to remember it by.

Cheers

Dragon's Lair

[MarkR]

:eek: awesome

[bungle666]

drakelow is an ace place i went a few years ago, but we wernt allowed to take pics :(

have the owners had a change of heart regarding pictures??

B..

[Space_Cowby]

They have had a total change of mind, no more tours.

http://www.stokes277.freeserve.co.uk/pages/tours.html

[chinc]

Reading the explanation, it sounds like they didn't have much choice to stop it due to it being trashed.

Looking at the vandalism on http://www.stokes277.freeserve.co.uk/pages/Airsoft.html is saddening.

[gingerspeedfreak]

Hmmm, just had a look at the 'vandalism because of airsoft pics' in the last link. I know the guys who are running the airsoft days very well, having played in the tunnels myself and having worked with them in the past.
I can catagorically say that no-one is allowed into the old BBC studios (considering the historical importance of the equipment), for a start, and that the holes in the brick walls have been created with the permission of the owners of the site. During the initial briefings everyone is told that vandalism of the site is totally unacceptable and, will lead to an instant removal from site of whoever caused the damage.
Having lived only a couple of miles down the road for most of my life, I know what a special place this is. My view is also shared by the operators of the airsoft days, who consider themselves incredibly fortunate to be able to use such an amazing site. So much so that they have a team dedicated to cleanup after every single day, to make sure that all traces of them being there are removed, to the best of their ability.
This is not a rant at anyone. I just want to get across how seriously the airsoft guys take the use of the site.

[1906johns]

very good report, i love the pic of the generator with the blurred out people in, brilliant

[adders]

I'll have a look through the rest of my photos and see if there's any of the group... I tried to take photos around them though so I can't promise anything. Thanks for the interest though.