Re: Secret Underground.

In article <lh2uv1phnpkl11g8ucnfaiukiotudv5acr@xxxxxxx>, Mike Ross <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:49:54 GMT, SpamTrapSeeSig
<no-one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<sigh>... in response to what was a poorly phrased and somewhat stupid
question originally:

1. There is no intentional connection* from the GWR running tunnel into
the quarries.

2. During excavation, both parties took pains to ensure there was no
connection, which is one reason why the quarry surveys are so accurate...

<big snip>

You seem to know your stuff when it comes to Box... can you confirm or
deny something I posted about earlier... I'm positive I once read
(probably in a caving-related publication) that there was, or was
rumoured to be, some kind of connection between the mine and, not the
railway tunnel itself, but a vent shaft in the railway tunnel, a
considerable height above the running tracks below.

I'd have to ask an expert, but it's unlikely.

All six are marked on the 1" OS maps and on the Shepton's surveys.

For the three shafts on the Western side, Brunel paid the quarry owners for loss of haulingways and reinforced the roof around the shafts to a thickness of tens of feet with carefully placed backfill, placed by dry-stone wallers. They're accessible in the old workings and the work is very evident (and still good today). They're well outside the old military perimeter underground.

The easternmost shaft is at a point where the tunnel roof is close to the level of the workings (in the woods just south of Basil Hill Rd., see URL below), so that one's unlikely but not impossible. The aerial shot does have a path into the woods at the right place, but frustratingly you can't see through the foliage with what Multimap has on offer.

I think that leaves the two inner ones of the Eastern three to consider.
If there is a connection, IMHO it's the eastern one of the pair.

The western one is sunk alongside Black Swan heading, where there was indeed an emergency exit from Burlington (now 3ft thick concrete), but there's no evidence at the closest point that there was ever a connection from Black Swan or the Wind Tunnel (they're parallel to each other) to the airshaft. There wouldn't be any need either: when the munitions store was planned and in use, exit through any of the western quarries was easily possible (far fewer roof falls, open adits, and Clift quarry wasn't abandoned during WWII, only mothballed).

The eastern one of the two however is on (what was) military land.
http://tinyurl.com/hu3nn ("Old Shaft Road" unsurprisingly). I've not been over it but I'm sure Mr. McC. probably has. I've a vague memory it's been backfilled but I'm not sure. You can see it clearly, surrounded by grass, in the aerial image. It doesn't look open, but you can't zoom suficiently to be sure.

If it ever existed, presumably made for ventilation purposes?

Emergency exit if anything. I'd expect the piston effect of trains would wreck any ventilation equipment, and you'd have to provide an airlock for that reason alone, never mind blast overpressure.

Naturally, I defer in all things Box to Nick, who almost certainly knows for certain.

Regards,

Simonm.

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