Report - HMS Foward South Heighton Newhaven may 12

monk · May 27, 2012

Been on the wish list for many years

Visited with a non forum member (anywhere) but long time exploring partner.

Be quick if you want to see this as it wont stay open for long.
History

Until 1993, all knowledge of an underground top secret Second World War intelligence centre was denied by the MOD, but one local resident, Geoff Ellis, knew the truth â€“ he watched the excavations as a small boy.

In 1941, 130 miners dug 550 yards of tunnels through rock chalk and seams of hard flint 20m below South Heighton, north of Newhaven, in just 17 weeks. The purpose of the project was to house 100 or so naval personnel who monitored the sea off the Sussex coast midway between the strategic ports of Dover and Portsmouth. Staff co-ordinated and controlled shipping movements and plotted enemy ship movements in the English Channel using radar. The tunnels had a small opening at the base of the hill but the main entrance was at the top of the hill in the Guinness Trust Holiday Home that was built in 1938 but requisitioned by the Royal Navy after Dunkirk in 1940. The building and tunnels were named HMS Forward. After the war, the MOD sold the lot to a property developer which led to many houses being constructed over the tunnel.

Today, Geoff Ellis helps the Friends of HMS Forward, whose objective is to "restore the tunnels to a standard conforming to current legislation suitable for public access as a site of historical interest". The tunnels were once used to defeat the Germans but a new enemy has now surfaced - one particularly difficult resident who lives above wonâ€™t allow visitors below his land and is trying to persuade Tony Blair to fill in the tunnels. This legal situation can be compared to that of the residents above the disused Kemp Town rail tunnel that runs from the bingo hall on Eastern Road to the school on Elm Grove.

Pictures...