Many years ago, roughly 1979 and 80's I was regularly exploring the Godstone mines with some mates.
We had seen that the man hole cover that they had on the entrance had been smashed off
and took full advantage by investigating as it was begging to be explored. We took a tin of cellulose blue spray paint to spray marker arrows and off we went. We found mushroom beds left over from WW2 when food was rationed, tracks on the ground for quarry carts like an underground railway and even on old rusty milk churn.
We went for around half a mile or more under ground, there were lots of corridors and off of these were rooms, perfectly carved out. You can still see the pick marks on the walls made by the men who dug it out, possibly several hundred years ago.
The green sandstone, Reigate Stone as it's known in places, was used in the building/restoring of Hampton court palace, Windsor and Tower of London.
It was used from just after the Norman Conquest up to the time of the Tudors.
There were risks from the ceilings coming down in a few places near the surface and the thick wooden pit props had largely rotted away which didn't inspire one with confidence as you scurried past them, wondering if there was a cave in after you passed them, how the hell would one get get out again as the passage would be well and truly blocked!
But when you are young, you don't think or care, you just get on with it!
I remember one day,myself, my mate and my cousin went down there, about 1982-3, we were the only ones down there, 3 adult males, yet as we neared the exit 2 of us who were walking side by side chatting and the third man being further on near the exit, we suddenly heard children's voices. Definitely not men's voices, and the strange thing is, it was right next to use like someone whispered in our ears.
We went back in the cave system and checked out the tunnels and passages, no one there, so what did we hear?
I did some research in to these caves, apparently they used to use child labour down there many moons ago and they had the inevitable deaths of children down there, makes you think doesn't it, wonder who it was we heard.
About 5 years ago, I took a colleague in my trade to the entrance of the caves just to show them as they have long since had a proper entrance with thick metal locked bars on them, stopping anyone getting down there.
As we stood looking through the bars we saw a pair of legs and trainers of a young kid, about 12-15 I'd say going on the size, they just stood there about 10 feet infront of us with only their legs visible, top half obscured by the cave ceiling for about 30 seconds, then slowly turned and walked away back in to the caves.
There was no lights showing and you can only go in for around 20 feet max before your eyes can't cope with the darkness. No sound emitted from the cave or the person we saw, total silence.
Roll on 31 years from my last visit down the caves, I saw there was a guided tour by the local cave society down the caves one weekend. So, myself a few others decided to go, it is all sectioned off now and once inside they have built a tunnel out of bricks near the entrance to hold the ceilings up, it's where we heard the children's voices. They took us round and my blue spray painted arrows are still on the walls!
We saw a fossil (large) of a bone in a dinosaurs leg in the ceiling as well as a few other things I remember.
On the way out someone else asked if there were any ghosts, the guides said that someone had reported hearing things down there and on looking found nothing, so it wasn't just us that heard something in there.
My title to this thread is government bunker, there is a reported government nuclear fall out bunker used back in the 90's for the then (Maggie Thatcher) to retire to and run the country from there. I heard it was set up with communications and files that the government would need. How true this is I don't know and I am still looking for it but it could be on private land which I haven't got the permission to go on.
I have some photos I need to upload from my phone of these caves on the last recent visit and will do so soon.
Oz
We had seen that the man hole cover that they had on the entrance had been smashed off
and took full advantage by investigating as it was begging to be explored. We took a tin of cellulose blue spray paint to spray marker arrows and off we went. We found mushroom beds left over from WW2 when food was rationed, tracks on the ground for quarry carts like an underground railway and even on old rusty milk churn.We went for around half a mile or more under ground, there were lots of corridors and off of these were rooms, perfectly carved out. You can still see the pick marks on the walls made by the men who dug it out, possibly several hundred years ago.
The green sandstone, Reigate Stone as it's known in places, was used in the building/restoring of Hampton court palace, Windsor and Tower of London.
It was used from just after the Norman Conquest up to the time of the Tudors.
There were risks from the ceilings coming down in a few places near the surface and the thick wooden pit props had largely rotted away which didn't inspire one with confidence as you scurried past them, wondering if there was a cave in after you passed them, how the hell would one get get out again as the passage would be well and truly blocked!
But when you are young, you don't think or care, you just get on with it!
I remember one day,myself, my mate and my cousin went down there, about 1982-3, we were the only ones down there, 3 adult males, yet as we neared the exit 2 of us who were walking side by side chatting and the third man being further on near the exit, we suddenly heard children's voices. Definitely not men's voices, and the strange thing is, it was right next to use like someone whispered in our ears.
We went back in the cave system and checked out the tunnels and passages, no one there, so what did we hear?
I did some research in to these caves, apparently they used to use child labour down there many moons ago and they had the inevitable deaths of children down there, makes you think doesn't it, wonder who it was we heard.
About 5 years ago, I took a colleague in my trade to the entrance of the caves just to show them as they have long since had a proper entrance with thick metal locked bars on them, stopping anyone getting down there.
As we stood looking through the bars we saw a pair of legs and trainers of a young kid, about 12-15 I'd say going on the size, they just stood there about 10 feet infront of us with only their legs visible, top half obscured by the cave ceiling for about 30 seconds, then slowly turned and walked away back in to the caves.
There was no lights showing and you can only go in for around 20 feet max before your eyes can't cope with the darkness. No sound emitted from the cave or the person we saw, total silence.
Roll on 31 years from my last visit down the caves, I saw there was a guided tour by the local cave society down the caves one weekend. So, myself a few others decided to go, it is all sectioned off now and once inside they have built a tunnel out of bricks near the entrance to hold the ceilings up, it's where we heard the children's voices. They took us round and my blue spray painted arrows are still on the walls!
We saw a fossil (large) of a bone in a dinosaurs leg in the ceiling as well as a few other things I remember.
On the way out someone else asked if there were any ghosts, the guides said that someone had reported hearing things down there and on looking found nothing, so it wasn't just us that heard something in there.
My title to this thread is government bunker, there is a reported government nuclear fall out bunker used back in the 90's for the then (Maggie Thatcher) to retire to and run the country from there. I heard it was set up with communications and files that the government would need. How true this is I don't know and I am still looking for it but it could be on private land which I haven't got the permission to go on.
I have some photos I need to upload from my phone of these caves on the last recent visit and will do so soon.
Oz
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