Many people who know of the shelters say ‘it is easy to get lost in there’ for example In 2013 two 15-year-olds had wandered into the tunnels around Dodge Hill, without a torch or phones. . They were trapped for 3 hours. A passer-by dialled 999 at around 10.50pm. A total of 20 firefighters and seven emergency vehicles attended the incident. Since then the entrance located to Dodge Hill Rd was filled with reinforced concrete, and covered with a steel plate.
Prior to the outbreak of WW2, being that, Stockport was situated on one of the primary assault routes leading to Manchester. Being that the location was at
potential risk five air raid shelters were built around Stockport as part of a nationally coordinated scheme of Air Raid Precautions.It was predicted that large-scale aerial bombing of the civilian population would feature prominently in any future war. In 1924, the Committee of Imperial Defence set up a subcommittee to look at what measure could be taken to protect the civil population from aerial attack.
For the next ten years, this committee looked into issues of new aerial weapons development and the possible impact on civilians. The use of gas attacks in the First World War played heavy on the decisions, and protection via gas masks was a core decision taken by the committee. Together with ideas around the building of air raid shelters, evacuations of people and blackout requirements.
[Wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_Precautions]
The majority of the tunnels are lined with three tier bunk beds, some of which are galvanized and still look in good condition whereas a handful of others, which pre-date the galvanization technology, now sit rusting severely. The bunks are connected one to the other, head to toe, for entire lengths of the passageways and are nailed and cemented into the ground.
The sandstone easily crumbles to the touch and where there are areas that water seeps through the soft ground beneath is worn down and forms small holes.
Some areas of the tunnels are quite black and though this is not entirely explained it’s probable these are the stains from old smoking areas. Though it’s all very basic in here, you can see the remnants of electrical wiring where lighting was installed. A couple of the toilet blocks remain intact and are still fitted with the chemical toilets.
[Source from http://www.theskyliner.org/blog-1/dodge-hill]
Where a toilet block approaches the double lined passages, become less dense and make way to just one row of bunks, making beds by the bucket toilets a desirable, spacious location to spend the night.
Throughout the shelter there are inconsistencies in the sandstone, the tool marks are clearly visible all over the shelters and there are naturally occurring areas of compression or water faults.
The sandstone easily crumbles to the touch and where there are areas that water seeps through the soft ground beneath is worn down and forms small holes.
Some areas of the tunnels are quite black and though this is not entirely explained it’s probable these are the stains from old smoking areas. Though it’s all very basic in here, you can see the remnants of electrical wiring where lighting was installed. A couple of the toilet blocks remain intact and are still fitted with the chemical toilets.
[Source from http://www.theskyliner.org/blog-1/dodge-hill]
Where a toilet block approaches the double lined passages, become less dense and make way to just one row of bunks, making beds by the bucket toilets a desirable, spacious location to spend the night.
Throughout the shelter there are inconsistencies in the sandstone, the tool marks are clearly visible all over the shelters and there are naturally occurring areas of compression or water faults.
In September 2023..I managed to gain access into the shelters...
 |
| Steps from the original entrance |
No comments:
Post a Comment