History:
Between 1940 and 1941 a network of tunnels was excavated sixty feet below Hargate Forest on the south side of Broadwater Down in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. No documentary evidence relating to these tunnels survives although there is a strong local rumours that the tunnels would have been used as an underground operations room for Lt. General Montgomery (later Field Marshall) in the event of an invasion.
Explore:
Visited with @Seany Explores
This was not a planned explore we was walking around the forest that had these tunnels dotted about so we decided to have a quick mooch. We actually failed this explore... we could’ve climbed over the gates as you can see there’s a bit of metal removed however noticing the festination of spiders that looked like “false widows” I may be mistaken but that’s what they looked like... after seeing them crawling everywhere we decided we was not going to bother. We didn’t really see the point in climbing over the gate as the tunnels are very flooded and we wasn’t really prepared for the explore. We didn’t know the gates were still there we thought we could just walk down the stairs like you can do with most war tunnels. Anyways we thought that the fact we went in the summer the water level would drop a little but that made no difference as we didn’t fully explore down to the water. The whole area has become heavily overgrown and the entrance blockhouses are no longer so easy to find.
Entrance A is closest to the road where we parked so we entered the tunnel complex through this blockhouse. Apparently in the past the, Abergavenny Estate, who own the tunnels, have attempted to prevent access. They were the ones that have gated off the tiles by putting a series of wide steel bars at the top of each stairway and a brick wall half way down. One bar has been partially cut away at each blockhouse and it is now possible to climb through with some difficulty. Not forgetting the brick walls, they have also now been breached so you can carry on down the stairs. I used my o-light torch and pointed it down through the gate and I could see green water. It looked like a little swamp...
We then walked around the forest and found entrance C, again we couldn’t really explore it due to the same reasons as Entrance A. The same goes for Entrance B.
Between 1940 and 1941 a network of tunnels was excavated sixty feet below Hargate Forest on the south side of Broadwater Down in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. No documentary evidence relating to these tunnels survives although there is a strong local rumours that the tunnels would have been used as an underground operations room for Lt. General Montgomery (later Field Marshall) in the event of an invasion.
Explore:
Visited with @Seany Explores
This was not a planned explore we was walking around the forest that had these tunnels dotted about so we decided to have a quick mooch. We actually failed this explore... we could’ve climbed over the gates as you can see there’s a bit of metal removed however noticing the festination of spiders that looked like “false widows” I may be mistaken but that’s what they looked like... after seeing them crawling everywhere we decided we was not going to bother. We didn’t really see the point in climbing over the gate as the tunnels are very flooded and we wasn’t really prepared for the explore. We didn’t know the gates were still there we thought we could just walk down the stairs like you can do with most war tunnels. Anyways we thought that the fact we went in the summer the water level would drop a little but that made no difference as we didn’t fully explore down to the water. The whole area has become heavily overgrown and the entrance blockhouses are no longer so easy to find.
Entrance A is closest to the road where we parked so we entered the tunnel complex through this blockhouse. Apparently in the past the, Abergavenny Estate, who own the tunnels, have attempted to prevent access. They were the ones that have gated off the tiles by putting a series of wide steel bars at the top of each stairway and a brick wall half way down. One bar has been partially cut away at each blockhouse and it is now possible to climb through with some difficulty. Not forgetting the brick walls, they have also now been breached so you can carry on down the stairs. I used my o-light torch and pointed it down through the gate and I could see green water. It looked like a little swamp...
We then walked around the forest and found entrance C, again we couldn’t really explore it due to the same reasons as Entrance A. The same goes for Entrance B.
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