Comment Re:Bullshit (Score 5, Informative) 242
Actually, it's not bullshit. If it's the place I'm thinking of (I'm pretty sure it is), it's called Monkton Farely, and like one of the comments says, everyone in the town of Bath knew it was there.
About 15 years ago, the place was bought for a nominal sum (5 million pounds is a hell of a lot more than they bought it for!) by a family who had the idea of creating a tourist attraction down there. They didn't do too well, but while they were in business we did manage to get down there. It was barely an 'attraction', but incredibly interesting, nontheless.
It's a truly amazing place. A lot of the infrastructure was decommissioned, so we had to use hand lamps - it was pretty spooky since it's obviously completely dark down there, and your head lamp doesn't do a whole lot to penetrate into the deeper bays and tunnels. Some of the major tunnels are indeed 30ft wide, and the lights are actually low wattage bulbs strung along the way.
One funny thing is that they stored a *whole lot* of ammunition down there just prior to D-day (I believe), and the only fire management equipment was a bucket of sand under each light - every few feet. I guess they figured that if there was a problem, all the fire extinguishers in the world wouldn't deal with it!
The there are a few things I remember particularly: The built-in power plant, air conditioning system (three huge stations with 30 foot fans) and the indentations left in the concrete from the bigger ammunition.
Apparently the train station intersects with the Box Tunnel outside Bath, Wiltshire. Every time I travelled from London to Bath I used to look out of the window of the train to see if I could see it, but no luck unfortunately. Apparently it's possible to find old quarry workings which lead you into the complex, but that sounds a bit dicey to me!
Here's an article about it - I'm not sure if this was the original one, but it might give you a flavour of what it's like down there.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/the_exchange/connec t/bunker.shtml
About 15 years ago, the place was bought for a nominal sum (5 million pounds is a hell of a lot more than they bought it for!) by a family who had the idea of creating a tourist attraction down there. They didn't do too well, but while they were in business we did manage to get down there. It was barely an 'attraction', but incredibly interesting, nontheless.
It's a truly amazing place. A lot of the infrastructure was decommissioned, so we had to use hand lamps - it was pretty spooky since it's obviously completely dark down there, and your head lamp doesn't do a whole lot to penetrate into the deeper bays and tunnels. Some of the major tunnels are indeed 30ft wide, and the lights are actually low wattage bulbs strung along the way.
One funny thing is that they stored a *whole lot* of ammunition down there just prior to D-day (I believe), and the only fire management equipment was a bucket of sand under each light - every few feet. I guess they figured that if there was a problem, all the fire extinguishers in the world wouldn't deal with it!
The there are a few things I remember particularly: The built-in power plant, air conditioning system (three huge stations with 30 foot fans) and the indentations left in the concrete from the bigger ammunition.
Apparently the train station intersects with the Box Tunnel outside Bath, Wiltshire. Every time I travelled from London to Bath I used to look out of the window of the train to see if I could see it, but no luck unfortunately. Apparently it's possible to find old quarry workings which lead you into the complex, but that sounds a bit dicey to me!
Here's an article about it - I'm not sure if this was the original one, but it might give you a flavour of what it's like down there.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/the_exchange/conne
