brighton road shelter (cane hill bunker) | correspondence
Last update: 14|06|15
brighton road shelter (cane hill bunker)

Lone Visit

"No one wanted to come 'out to play' so I gave my wife the NGR, arranged a callout time, having located the hole in the roof the previous day and set off alone."

"A little test for myself, 'Am I afraid of the dark?'"

"It was creepy. VERY creepy! I sat just inside for a while listening, I don't believe in ghosts, there's nothing in life to be scared of except other people!"

"I gradually advanced. I was taking it steady as initially I had no idea of the layout and didn't want to get lost so I was being fairly systematic and went round in a generally a clockwise direction."

"About halfway in I started to hear the occassional odd noise, just an echo. Eventually I heard it again, this time when I was already standing dead still and holding my breath listening. Definitely not me!! A low moan, and a scuffling sound. The hairs rose on the back of my neck!"

"Forcing myself to remain calm (and therefore in control) I retraced my steps back to the entrance resisting the urge to keep spinning round to stare behind me."

"Eventually I got a grip, gave myself a stern talking to, and headed back in. Finally I got to the end of the main drag and found the ventilator. A piece of plastic blowing across the floor was making the noise. Finally I circled right through the bunker having conquered my fear and now certain that I am not scared of the dark per se."

"I have a dodgy shoulder and have to be careful climbing at certain angles. I decided the 'boost' out through the roof might be risky if my shoulder pops out and I'm alone so I decided to go out through the South entrance. I am very skinny, and managed to get my upper body out but then discovered I had nothing to push my legs against or pull with my arms. I was stuck! Being rescued is an embarrasing experience I don't want to have so I ended up wriggling on my stomach muscles until I was able to get my hips through. I won't do that again!"

Andy Belcher
www.wcms.org.uk



Cane Hill Tunnels

"I have come across your website about the Cane Hill Tunnels. Great stuff."

"As a lad I used to spend most evenings down in these tunnels when I was at secondary school (middle to late 70's) and for a few years after I left school because a relation of a school pal rented part of them for his engineering business."

"From memory, he rented them from Optical Surfaces in Kenley. With my friend Andrew and other school friends, we used to get up to all sorts of antics in these tunnels like being towed on a trolley at great speed round the tunnels by someone on a moped, re-bounding off the walls until you couldn't see anything in front of you because of the exhaust fumes. The carbon monoxide couldn't have done us any good."

"I remember that the entrance to the tunnels and we used to call them "The tunnels", was accessed through a wooden gate from the Brighton Road near Smitham Garage. I think the first gate to the tunnels was a steel bar gate, closely followed by another solid steel door which led into a right angled blast entrance. The place used to give us the creeps no matter how many times we had been there."

"I've attached the photo I took, of the chap that used to rent the tunnels."

Stuart Barber



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