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Report - - Tranmere deep Air raid shelter, Wirral, Merseyside Jan 2015 | Underground Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Tranmere deep Air raid shelter, Wirral, Merseyside Jan 2015

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The Kwan

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Just a few weeks ago I was chatting to Ojay on the phone and we were talking about these shelters and how we would actively make plans to try to get in to them in 2015, Fast forward a few weeks and I was lucky enough to get a heads up from a local explorer (thankyou Degenatron you are a gentleman)telling me that the old tart had her draws down and was open for business, needless to say these places get sealed back up swifto by the council so I pulled a sicky and got straight over there with my camera gear.
Also Props to Terry, the lad who I spoke to outside these tunnels on Saturday for opening this place up...cheers man :)

I was beside myself as I stood inside these shelters and gawped in awe at how fresh they are in parts, because they were finished AFTER the war they were never actually used so there is no graffiti done by the hands of people waiting out an air raid as there is in the victoria or Bidston shelters, not even in the bogs but regardless of this, It is a grail for any Wirral history buff or explorer so I felt pretty smug with myself.
I had phoned Ojay who was in the Big smoke and he couldnt get up here until Tuesday so arrangements were made to meet him and Marsden for a bimble in the shelters.

This place was bitter sweet for me because my poor long suffering sigma died here and simply fell off its mount, I knew that it was cracked pretty badly but it had struggled along and today was the day, anyway it was a godsend really because I now know that I can appoxy it and stop it waggling about as it was.

Some history snaffled shamlessly from Degenatron
Tranmere contains one of the largest and most expensive WW2 air raid shelters in the country. It consists of a series of tunnels stretching to a total length of 6500ft and was designed to house up to 6000 people (many of them workers at the strategically important Cammell Laird shipyard) - however by the time they were completed, they were no longer needed as the threat of invasion has diminished. The tunnels were later used by the Ministry of food for storage, and were considered as a nuclear fallout shelter during the cold war era. The tunnels were finally sealed off in 1989 amid growing H&S concerns. The tunnels still exist however and building work in 2008 uncovered a shaft - allowing temporary exploration of them, before being sealed off again.


This is a picture of a builder who is sitting atop of the shaft that was discovered in 2008, it has now been capped


and this is the shaft from below as it is now
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One of the first things to strike me was just how nice the paving was and the galvo roof cladding was still fresh as a daisy for the most part
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This was a bit of a crossroads here, for the bogs,canteen and way out but still remarkably intact
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roof is bad in parts and after my second visit there are even more quite serious colapses
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I dont normally loiter in the bogs but I made an exception here
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A stove enamel Bread bin
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The gas axe key works every time, I imagine that this is the bursars office or reception or something similar
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The sandstone roof is actually pretty shocking in parts and is a sore head just waiting to happen but again, look at the floor and lack of mindless graff
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some more passageway shots, you can see the daylight at the end of the passage that is flooding in from the hole in the wall
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check the roof work
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Then this happened and it was trip endski
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it Lived, my D300 is undestructable
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Some video of the tunnels that had the sound removed by Youtube....FUCKERS!
Thanks for looking
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Lenston

Bajo Tierra
Regular User
Cracking pics mate, place looks mint inside, if i hadnt have pulled a sicky for another site i would have come up :)
 

ACID- REFLUX

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice ones mate :thumb

That Galv"s not gonna last long that"s for sure.

Makes an easier mooch than climbing up Welsh Mountain i imagine ;)

Makes you wonder what"s holding lenses together sometimes :)
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
I missed this place by day's in 2008 when it was cheekily opened and that didn't last long either

After Bidston I never thought this place would see the light of day again, luckily my chance conversation paid off ;)

I'll stick summat up when I get a mo, the place is a death trap though, and it's probably best it is sealed for good
 

Wevsky

A Predisposed Tourist
Regular User
Nicely photographed Kwan ,this is a lovely specimen of a shelter indeed :thumb
 

The Kwan

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Thanks for the kind words folks,this place is well worth seeing but as Ojay said, the place is a deathtrap due to the roof collapses and current state of the roof in some parts, so anyone considering paying a visit should be on their toes and be wary.
 
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