Not sure whether to post this one in Military or Underground, but opted for Military.
Anyway, my mate (the recently signed-up 'Badger-Mole') and I headed out to Western Heights after a relatively disappointing trip 4 weeks ago that involved us walking around the trenches for some time to little avail, but ended with us being shown two locations, one of which was the nice and accessible St Martin's Deep Shelter. Having parked up I said something along the lines of 'I'll be annoyed if they've sealed it', and sure enough, there was a nice, fresh rewelded entrance awaiting us
Not to be deterred, we went to our other location, which I worked out this morning was the Archcliffe Galleries.
From Underground Kent:
Getting in was fun and interesting given the recent rain, but my trusty Floyd shirt has seen much worse in the past. Once in we realised pretty quickly that the place was pretty beat up, and that my torch was annoyingly low on batteries To top things off, upon going to get my tripod out of its bag the bugger's head came apart in my hands. Therefore the following set of photos aren't the best, especially compared to others who have done this site before
The first two rooms' floors were caked in broken bits and pieces, including what looked like the old door in the first room, although that picture didn't come out
I really loved the archways and brickwork of the corridors that were further in, a nice contrast to the scummy floors on the first two rooms.
Part of another door there.
Looking at previous reports, what once was a calling card for explorers has now just become fodder for the pikies
Badger-mole had a climb over a wall which ended up not going anywhere, and we'd sort of reached the end. I found this map this morning, and we were able to get as far as St Martin's Magazine I think.
Then we headed off to explore the unknown (to us, anyway)
Anyway, sorry about the poor quality of photos, I'm sure badger-mole's came out a lot better, he'll post some up soon probably.
SJP
Anyway, my mate (the recently signed-up 'Badger-Mole') and I headed out to Western Heights after a relatively disappointing trip 4 weeks ago that involved us walking around the trenches for some time to little avail, but ended with us being shown two locations, one of which was the nice and accessible St Martin's Deep Shelter. Having parked up I said something along the lines of 'I'll be annoyed if they've sealed it', and sure enough, there was a nice, fresh rewelded entrance awaiting us
Not to be deterred, we went to our other location, which I worked out this morning was the Archcliffe Galleries.
From Underground Kent:
The road “improvements†that took place in the 1960’s meant the demolition of Archcliffe Gate and the surrounding ditch to be filled in. Fortunately the galleries that were inside the gateway were left untouched, as were some of the surrounding walls. These walls would have housed defensive features such as gunrooms and the necessary means of ventilation to allow smoke created by the guns to escape.
Close to the galleries and guardroom are the rooms that were used as cells.
Getting in was fun and interesting given the recent rain, but my trusty Floyd shirt has seen much worse in the past. Once in we realised pretty quickly that the place was pretty beat up, and that my torch was annoyingly low on batteries To top things off, upon going to get my tripod out of its bag the bugger's head came apart in my hands. Therefore the following set of photos aren't the best, especially compared to others who have done this site before
The first two rooms' floors were caked in broken bits and pieces, including what looked like the old door in the first room, although that picture didn't come out
I really loved the archways and brickwork of the corridors that were further in, a nice contrast to the scummy floors on the first two rooms.
Part of another door there.
Looking at previous reports, what once was a calling card for explorers has now just become fodder for the pikies
Badger-mole had a climb over a wall which ended up not going anywhere, and we'd sort of reached the end. I found this map this morning, and we were able to get as far as St Martin's Magazine I think.
Then we headed off to explore the unknown (to us, anyway)
Anyway, sorry about the poor quality of photos, I'm sure badger-mole's came out a lot better, he'll post some up soon probably.
SJP