I visited with JP1976 and non member Gary, who had been keen for sometime to see the tractor parts which were supposed to be within coulsdon ( bless him he creamed his pants when we got in)
We spent a good couple of hours down there and found it fascinating, lots of old bits and pieces for Gary to look at! Quite a big site compared with some other Deep shelters I've seen
History ( Borrowed this from thetimecamber)
Around the time of WW2 Surrey County Council commissioned the building of four deep shelters, Coulsdon Deep Shelter was the fourth and was built within the grounds of Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum. After the war, the shelter was purchased by Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson, Limited who specialised in the manufacture of optical devices – mainly lenses for huge telescopes. They purchased the tunnels as it provided the ideal atmosphere for the production of the lenses – a constant temperature meant that they did not expand or contract during the grinding process. However, the main drawback of the tunnels was the cold and damp conditions within them, this played havoc with corroding equipment and the moral of the workforce. To combat this, the company brought a refrigerator and wired it backwards so that it could act as a crude air-conditioning unit.
Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson finally left the tunnels in the early 70s and the company subsequently wound up in 1978. After this they were used as a garage for a small length of time, but abandoned again because of the same problems faced by Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson. It was the later used as a dump for old VW car parts and the tunnels were then sealed by the local council.
Some pics
THE ORIGINAL MIDDLE ENTRANCE
TOILET BLOCK
MAYBE MACHINE USED TO MANUFACTURE OPTICAL DEVICES
MY MATE GARY CREAMING HIS PANTS
BLAST DOOR INTO MIDDLE TUNNEL
WTF IS THIS? ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLS
WELL GARY WANTED TO DO IT
Thanks for looking
We spent a good couple of hours down there and found it fascinating, lots of old bits and pieces for Gary to look at! Quite a big site compared with some other Deep shelters I've seen
History ( Borrowed this from thetimecamber)
Around the time of WW2 Surrey County Council commissioned the building of four deep shelters, Coulsdon Deep Shelter was the fourth and was built within the grounds of Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum. After the war, the shelter was purchased by Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson, Limited who specialised in the manufacture of optical devices – mainly lenses for huge telescopes. They purchased the tunnels as it provided the ideal atmosphere for the production of the lenses – a constant temperature meant that they did not expand or contract during the grinding process. However, the main drawback of the tunnels was the cold and damp conditions within them, this played havoc with corroding equipment and the moral of the workforce. To combat this, the company brought a refrigerator and wired it backwards so that it could act as a crude air-conditioning unit.
Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson finally left the tunnels in the early 70s and the company subsequently wound up in 1978. After this they were used as a garage for a small length of time, but abandoned again because of the same problems faced by Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson. It was the later used as a dump for old VW car parts and the tunnels were then sealed by the local council.
Some pics
THE ORIGINAL MIDDLE ENTRANCE
TOILET BLOCK
MAYBE MACHINE USED TO MANUFACTURE OPTICAL DEVICES
MY MATE GARY CREAMING HIS PANTS
BLAST DOOR INTO MIDDLE TUNNEL
WTF IS THIS? ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLS
WELL GARY WANTED TO DO IT
Thanks for looking
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