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

[TheTimeChamber]

Lovely stuff mate, always wanted to see Burgoyne

 

[Calamity Jane]

Lovely stuff mate, always wanted to see Burgoyne

I have a few from there, very ltd, though didnt go to plan lol. I will see if I can find them.

 

[Buster995]

This looks fantastic! I've been meaning to find these tunnels for a long time! what a fantastic write up too its good to see your kids are also into exploring! are you able to point me in the right direction of how to get to these tunnels as I'm planning on having a look tonight!

 

[Stimpakman]

Sorry about bumping an old thread but it's great seeing your pics surface again @monk I remember Seeing the explores you were doing when I first got into the scene in the mid 90's (I think curtains/undercuts were compulsory hairstyles back then) and was always in awe of the locations but also the photos. Excellent report mate!

 

[monk]

Sorry about bumping an old thread but it's great seeing your pics surface again @monk I remember Seeing the explores you were doing when I first got into the scene in the mid 90's (I think curtains/undercuts were compulsory hairstyles back then) and was always in awe of the locations but also the photos. Excellent report mate!

Cheers mate, curtains were deffinitley the cut to have haha

 

[SamLD]

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.

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...

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

North Entrance

This was the fortified access point to the Western Heights.

Just an easy nut risking squeeze over a metal gate, is St Martins Deep shelter.
My first visit into a deep shelter

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.

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

Fan Bay deep shelter

Lydden Spout deep shelter

South Forelands Deep shelter

Nik emerges from Hougham plotting room

A plotting room.. maybe South Forelands

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.

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

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.

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

Continued....

I am a newbie and have just posted my first post about gaining access into Dover Castle! Then I read your posts and I've been in the same places as you and your team, my best friends and I had so much fun, well I did. I am positive some of the tunnels you have posted is in St Margerets? As I remember being at a rave in St Mags and we were at a party not doing our serious exploring and some of us stumbled upon a hole in the ground which looks similar to another photo. Jeeeeeze you need to be careful as apparently there isn't much oxygen in this specific tunny, you go through the hole in the ground and go down some steps then there's some tunnels all kind of open if I remember correctly then the other side there's steps going up but its blocked of? We sat there and smoked, not much, and I swear the place was hotboxed. Bloody dangerous lol remember as we were walking back up the stairs to exit I actually didn't know if I was going up or down. And I'm sure I was at a St Mags party. I may be wrong as I partied heavily back then and we exploring a lot too. Do you remember there's this one moat, the other side where the Castle is in the distance and there's no bliming entry into the building in the middle of the moat but you can walk rouna dn go through a tunnel to go between moats and you have to mind your head as I always bumped it but if you get tp the top of the moat and look over to the building I was just mentioning there's a massive entrance, at the top of the moat, and there's no way across. It would drive me insane as I was dying to get in there. To this day I still haven't managed to gain acces but the building must have like 3 or 4 levels and it's massive. Is there any chance you still explore? As I said I am new here and I need to build up some strength again, my exploring days i was mid teens and I am now 31. Thank you for reading and I love your photo's! Brought back loads of memories.

 

[monk]

I am a newbie and have just posted my first post about gaining access into Dover Castle! Then I read your posts and I've been in the same places as you and your team, my best friends and I had so much fun, well I did. I am positive some of the tunnels you have posted is in St Margerets? As I remember being at a rave in St Mags and we were at a party not doing our serious exploring and some of us stumbled upon a hole in the ground which looks similar to another photo. Jeeeeeze you need to be careful as apparently there isn't much oxygen in this specific tunny, you go through the hole in the ground and go down some steps then there's some tunnels all kind of open if I remember correctly then the other side there's steps going up but its blocked of? We sat there and smoked, not much, and I swear the place was hotboxed. Bloody dangerous lol remember as we were walking back up the stairs to exit I actually didn't know if I was going up or down. And I'm sure I was at a St Mags party. I may be wrong as I partied heavily back then and we exploring a lot too. Do you remember there's this one moat, the other side where the Castle is in the distance and there's no bliming entry into the building in the middle of the moat but you can walk rouna dn go through a tunnel to go between moats and you have to mind your head as I always bumped it but if you get tp the top of the moat and look over to the building I was just mentioning there's a massive entrance, at the top of the moat, and there's no way across. It would drive me insane as I was dying to get in there. To this day I still haven't managed to gain acces but the building must have like 3 or 4 levels and it's massive. Is there any chance you still explore? As I said I am new here and I need to build up some strength again, my exploring days i was mid teens and I am now 31. Thank you for reading and I love your photo's! Brought back loads of memories.

Yes some of these are from St Margaret's Bay.
The big building in the moat I think by your description is the Drop fort, you access the moat through the head bumping tunnel, it's looked after by English Heratige now but years ago you could just walk in through a chopped out part of a window, waa always good on a summers day to watch the hovercraft go in and out.
EH were doing open days, not sure what the score is now but if you're still interested in having a look might be worth looking into it.

I still explore but am based in North Wales now, but there's plenty of good lads & ladies in the Dover area who are still active and have a wealth of knowledge of the area, stick a couple of reports up on here get your name out again and I'm sure they'd happily help you out.

 

[TheTimeChamber]

That's awesome Mate

 

[SamLD]

Yes some of these are from St Margaret's Bay.
The big building in the moat I think by your description is the Drop fort, you access the moat through the head bumping tunnel, it's looked after by English Heratige now but years ago you could just walk in through a chopped out part of a window, waa always good on a summers day to watch the hovercraft go in and out.
EH were doing open days, not sure what the score is now but if you're still interested in having a look might be worth looking into it.

I still explore but am based in North Wales now, but there's plenty of good lads & ladies in the Dover area who are still active and have a wealth of knowledge of the area, stick a couple of reports up on here get your name out again and I'm sure they'd happily help you out.

Thanks Monk. I really appreciate the reply yeah I’m going to go do some exploring soon and document it so I gain friends and trust to be part of a group.
Im actually going to be in North Wales in September as I booked a holiday with the newspaper the sun. It’s called Lyons Robin Hood and I’ll be around from 26th to the 30th and my 32nd birthday is on the 1st October but I would be travelling back the day before in the Friday. If, by some crazy long shot, you and your friends are exploring around that time I swear I would die with gratitude if I could join you. I don’t know the area whatsoever and taking a day out to explore with you and your team would be amazing. I’m just saying I’m around but no pressure obviously I know I need to earn my place as a full member but I’ll be around!
I bought a new torch, I don’t know if any of you had the same fascination but I had such a thing for torches in my teens but obviously I used them a lot. I still like them and bought a military type one with different coloured glass to help with the dark. Anyway, thank you for the reply and maybe hear from you soon.

 

[Wevsky]

Thanks Monk. I really appreciate the reply yeah I’m going to go do some exploring soon and document it so I gain friends and trust to be part of a group.
Im actually going to be in North Wales in September as I booked a holiday with the newspaper the sun. It’s called Lyons Robin Hood and I’ll be around from 26th to the 30th and my 32nd birthday is on the 1st October but I would be travelling back the day before in the Friday. If, by some crazy long shot, you and your friends are exploring around that time I swear I would die with gratitude if I could join you. I don’t know the area whatsoever and taking a day out to explore with you and your team would be amazing. I’m just saying I’m around but no pressure obviously I know I need to earn my place as a full member but I’ll be around!
I bought a new torch, I don’t know if any of you had the same fascination but I had such a thing for torches in my teens but obviously I used them a lot. I still like them and bought a military type one with different coloured glass to help with the dark. Anyway, thank you for the reply and maybe hear from you soon.

Monk doesn't have a team, he has friends , but you never know, he is a rather accommodating chap.

 

[monk]

Thanks Monk. I really appreciate the reply yeah I’m going to go do some exploring soon and document it so I gain friends and trust to be part of a group.
Im actually going to be in North Wales in September as I booked a holiday with the newspaper the sun. It’s called Lyons Robin Hood and I’ll be around from 26th to the 30th and my 32nd birthday is on the 1st October but I would be travelling back the day before in the Friday. If, by some crazy long shot, you and your friends are exploring around that time I swear I would die with gratitude if I could join you. I don’t know the area whatsoever and taking a day out to explore with you and your team would be amazing. I’m just saying I’m around but no pressure obviously I know I need to earn my place as a full member but I’ll be around!
I bought a new torch, I don’t know if any of you had the same fascination but I had such a thing for torches in my teens but obviously I used them a lot. I still like them and bought a military type one with different coloured glass to help with the dark. Anyway, thank you for the reply and maybe hear from you soon.

Drop me a message.