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Report - - Dover: Tunnels Forts & lots of chalk 96-16 | Underground Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Dover: Tunnels Forts & lots of chalk 96-16

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monk

mature
28DL Full Member
So things are slowly starting to get back to normal here in deepest Wales, work is once again starting to reer its ugly head, but before everyday life consumes me completely I sorted a few of my favourite explores out from Dover over the years.

I have a long family connection to Dover, going back to the 2nd world war, my grandparents owned a house in Winchelsea Terrace, they would always tell me stories from that era, what war time life in Dover was like, as a child it sounded frightening but exciting.

Over the years as a child we enjoyed many family trips to the area, we'd always stop at The Heights for lunch and a wander.

A visit to Dovers amazing castle was always the real highlight though, I think I must have been around 13/14 when i first went down the tour of the tunnels of Hell fire corner, a brilliant section of underground tunnels underneath the castle used during the 2nd world war.

As with many of these tours theres always a section not open to the public, it annoyed & frustrated me at the time, it was marked in yellow on the 3d model it looked more exciting than anything else we were allowed to see, it was named Dumpy level....

As soon as I could drive myself and a group of mates from Eastbourne would regularly head to Dover, we'd always head to the Western Heights, back then it was all wide open, we'd explore everything we could, then would end up in the drop fort for a joint on the top watching the hovercraft go in and out.

1990's Drop Fort cool explore, terrible hair.
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We visited the Heights many times over the years & always seemed to find new bits to explore,.
The Grand Shaft always sticks in my mind as we very nearly got caught by the police, three coppers turned up and all ran into the same entrance, they had a choice of three, they choose wrong...

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2006 myself & Jackal were regularly making the drive up to Dover, we were starting to find more bits now, including some cool underground tunnels, just a bit of a squeeze over a metal gate was all that was needed.

My daughter Jess in the Detached with myself & Jackal, I think she was 6/7... she's 20 this year :0
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North Entrance

This was the fortified access point to the Western Heights.

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Just an easy nut risking squeeze over a metal gate, is St Martins Deep shelter.
My first visit into a deep shelter
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So we had alot of fun up the Heights, but our attentions were starting to turn to Dover castle, imagine if we could find away in to the castle and have free run of the place?
who knows what we'd uncover.

So we started exploring areas around the castle and it turns out there's quite abit to see.
We didnt know at the time but we'd accidentally found Spur, we headed back at night with a pick axe to dig the ladder out so we could explore the top levels, still hoping it may lead in to the castle.

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We were starting to get to know a couple of other explorers from Dover by now and were regularly heading up at the weekends to meet up with them, things were really starting go get abit more interesting, and we had a common interest buried deep inside the castle.

Now this next lot I'm gonna lump into one section of pics.
plotting rooms & Deep shelters.

Z Rockets
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Fan Bay deep shelter
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Lydden Spout deep shelter
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South Forelands Deep shelter
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Nik emerges from Hougham plotting room
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A plotting room.. maybe South Forelands
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After the shelters & plotting rooms we went on the search for more random bits around Dover, everyweekend we'd have more to explore, it never dissapointed...

Noahs ark rd airraid shelter

The tunnel would have been able to accommodate approximately 850 people at a depth below ground level that varied from 30' near the entrances to around 100' under the highest point of the hillside.

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1880s channel attempt

In 1880 under the direction of Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the South Eastern Railway, a new shaft (No. 1 shaft) was sunk at Abbot’s Cliff, between Dover and Folkestone

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D.o.e

They would have been built to provide storage, and were linked to a section of the Oil Mills tunnels.

Within the main tunnels, steps lead down to a bricked up entrance to the harbour railway tunnel, beyond which a platform is believed to exist. The access passage was reputedly built during the Second World War to allow casualties to be clandestinely brought in from ships arriving from the continent.

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Oil mills
These tunnels in Limekiln Street were most likely dug in the early to mid 19th Century to extract chalk for burning and turning into lime
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Continued....
 

monk

mature
28DL Full Member
So we were doing pretty well uncovering parts of Dover to explore, but things just kept getting better,
We met some fella who claimed he could pick a lock blindfolded, we called bullshit,, he could.

Athol Guilford Trevanion

Athol tunnels at the eastern end, and Trevanion tunnels at the western end. Both linked by Guilford tunnel, which is supposed to be well over 1,000ft long.
They were all used as shelters during WW2.

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South & North casemates

Nik sent me and Jackal up here while he went of to have dinner just for something to do.. "dont think it's been reported on" he told us, "great must be shit then"
Turns out it was half decent and even had a "pipe of doom" if you know you know.

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Deep underground military position yellow
Aka: Dumpy

So here it is, we'd all talked about it, no one had done it and at the time you couldnt even pay to do it, upto this day only one other small group has done it.

Dumpy' is the name given to a set of tunnels located beneath Dover Castle. It was constructed in 1942, as an addition to the existing tunnels, to provide space for a combined army, navy and airforce headquarters. During the Cold War period it was converted into a Regional Seat of Government. In the event of a nuclear attack it would have housed the people necessary for the continued governing of the country when radiation levels were considered safe. A BBC studio was even included within Dumpy to allow broadcasts post attack. Fortunately, a nuclear attack never happened and the bunker did not need to be used. Dumpy was stripped of most of its contents after the Cold War stand down and remains a largely empty set of corridors. It is not generally open to the public

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So we'd cracked the holly grail of Dover, a night I dont think any of those involved will ever forget.
Nothing would top that for me, but we still enjoyed exploring around the area.

Fort Burgoyne

Built in the 1860s as one of the Palmerston forts around Dover in southeast England. It was built to a polygonal system with detached eastern and western redoubts, to guard the high ground northeast of the strategic port of Dover, just north of Dover Castle. The fort is named after the 19th century General John Fox Burgoyne,

Right on our fellow explorers garden this was an unexpected treat.

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If you read all the waffle at the beginning of this report then fair play, you may also remember that
my grandparents lived in Winchelsea terrace, this brings me to my final explore, one I particular wanted to visit as my nan used these as shelters during the bombing raids in ww2.
Thanks to wevsky for the pin ;)

Winchelsea Rd tunnels.


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obscurity

Flaxenation of the G!!!
Regular User
Love it mate. Great write up and collection of spots in dover. I enjoyed that! Must be about time you came had a kick around down here again soon :thumb
 

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