Hidden History - The Ramsgate Tunnels Above & Below Tour
The Ramsgate Tunnels (1863-1965)
Saturday 12th May, 2018
Yesterday The Team at Hidden History participated in an arranged tour of The Ramsgate Tunnels entitled The Above & Below Tour. The aim of the tour was to walk the tunnel network above ground learning more about surrounding history before heading into other areas of the vast network underground. We started the tour near the furthest Westcliff entrance and made our way to all other entrances and ventilation airshafts. Many of the entrances and airshafts are now completely inaccessible however renovation plans by the organisation may look to open them to the public in future. Eventually we arrived at the St Luke's entrance on Boundary Road where we desended the ladder underground. Witnessing this area of the tunnels for the first time was incredibly overwhelming with plenty of iconic features and periodic graffiti. My personal highlight was the intact Wardens Post situated just near the entrance way. Towards the end of this network it become apparent that we had arrived at the main Victorian Railway Tunnel known during World War II as Tunnel Town. This area was great to learn more about the stories and people that played a part in the Ramsgate Tunnel story.
Overall it was a superb opportunity for The Team to learn more about local histories and discover additional areas of network that are closed to the public. I would like to say a special thanks to The Ramsgate Tunnels for such an informative and all round amazing experience.
Below I have included some history surrounding The Ramsgate Tunnels and we hope you all enjoy our experience.
The History of The Ramsgate Tunnels:
The Tunnel Railway (also known as the Ramsgate Cliff Railway, the Ramsgate Tunnel Railway, the Ramsgate Underground Railway and the World Scenic Railway) was a 2 ft(610 mm) narrow-gauge underground railway in Ramsgate, Kent, England. Following the restructuring of railway lines in Ramsgate in 1926, the section of line between Broadstairsand Ramsgate Harbour including a tunnel to the seafront at Ramsgate was abandoned. The narrow-gauge Tunnel Railway was opened within the disused tunnel in 1936 to connect tourist attractions and shops near Ramsgate harbour with the new railway main line at Dumpton Park.
Except for its two stations-one at each end of the tunnel-the line ran entirely underground. The line was built in less than three months, and on its completion in 1936 was one of the shortest independent railway lines in the country. It was open for only three years before being converted to a major air-raid shelter during World War II. After the war's end, it was not included in the 1948 nationalisation of British railways but remained in private hands.
Passenger numbers fell during the 1960s, and the line became economically unviable. Following a train crash in 1965, the owners closed the line at the end of September that year. The tunnel still exists, but no trace remains of either of the two stations.
Wartime:
In the late 1930s, war between Britain and Germany began to seem likely. Ramsgate's location on both the English Channel and North Sea and its proximity to the Thames Estuary, its large port facilities, and its close proximity to RAF Manston made it a likely target for heavy aerial bombing and as a landing site for any German invasion of Britain. With this in mind the town's borough engineer and surveyor, R. D. Brimmell, devised a scheme in 1938 for a network of tunnels beneath the town, to serve as a vast deep-level air-raid shelter for the town's inhabitants.
A 3 1⁄4-mile (5.2 km) semi-circular network of tunnels was dug beneath northern Ramsgate, connecting to the existing railway tunnel. It was opened by the Duke of Kent on 1 June 1939, three months before the outbreak of war, and visited during the war by Winston Churchill. The network was capable of sheltering 60,000 people, although Ramsgate's civilian population at the time was approximately 33,000.
12 май 2018
