As a kid in the 1950's I used to explore all these tunnels which were open then and lots more besides the ones that you have visited especially between the eastern heights and St Margret's bay lots of these tunnels were sealed when the 60's atomic shelters where built under the castle as they used to interconnect and run at a lot of different levels between top and bottom of the cliffs. Still carry the scars on one leg when I fell through a rotten wooden floor over one of the counter balance weight pits for some of the underground draw bridges which meant a trip to the A & E in the old Victoria Hospital. The traffic lights to enter the tunnel had just a red and green light signalling stop or go operated by those rubber pads which I think we're installed during WW2 period.
+Ron Roper wow great stuff :) the drawbridge counter weights, yeah Iv fell down one before not as bad as your fall though :) thanks for watching , some amazing info:)
Ron Roper I enjoyed this vlog a lot . In the states we have not any ruins to compare to yours. You are bless to live in a location we’re there is so many historical locations. Being a historian with MS I watch your vlogs regularly. Keep up the fine work.
Glad to see other people have been got by those bloody pits, I wonder how many shins and chins they have claimed over the years? Growing up on the Aycliffe estate in the 70's was great fun, the Western heights was our playground and many a bloody trip to the Buckland A+E was had as the Victoria had shut down it's A+E by then.
I used to walk from Aycliffe up to the 5 a side centre in the early 60s that was at the end of the "Black Road". Not far up the road was HM Borstal. All along the Western Heights were "Pill Boxes" built during WW2. We used to explore everything up there . . . . memories come flooding back .
@@debbiestead I'm assuming you mean the moats? But anyway, back then everything was open and accessible. I recall they did brick up some entrances to the tunnels but some "explorers", for want of a better term, soon knocked some holes in them. There were trees etc growing in the moats but you could walk through easily. Unfortunately I was too young to think about taking photographs to record it all. Still very vivid memories though.
I've been watching your videos and I really agree with you on what you said here. I find all these constructions way more impressive, strong and reliable than the ones today. Even more, the fact that they didn't have today's technology and still could build this. Congratulations on your channel.
I used to explore with my friends all of the tunnels in the Western Heights when I was a boy 55 years ago !! The entrances were not bricked up back then and was a glorious playground for us. I remember there being sort of bridges with huge counterweights somewhere in there. The Grand Shaft was overgrown but still passable. I always wondered if there was an underground way through to the Castle from the Western Heights, a long way, but a possibility?
I thought your film on the North Entrance Western Heights was brilliant and I agree that the destruction was unforgivable. I lived for many years in the house that was demolished to make way for the new road up to the Heights,the three water tanks were I imagine directly under our our house and I remember just a couple of times being allowed to have a peep at these water tanks although it was strictly forbidden.I used the tunnel almost every day going to school and to see it and the draw bridges as they are now is nothing less than sacrilege I was in Dover a number of years ago and couldn't believe how they had let all this history go.I seem to remember the traffic lights each side of the tunnel were on a three minute slot . I loved living in Dover and have many good memories playing in the tunnels going up on what we used to call the island because you could only access it by going down the tunnels.There was even draw bridges under ground.The gun pits were also great and of course all the bombed buildings to play in the empty gymnasium down at the Grand Shaft Barracks I also lived up South Front for a short while a bit nearer to the Citadel. Many thanks for giving me a chance to step back into my childhood.What a fantastic and interesting task you have taken on I am glad I still have a picture of my old house now that its gone Good Luck in your research Agnes Robinson
+Agnus Robinson Wow many thanks for your comment! sounds like you have lots of fun up there when you was a kid! would love to go back in time and film the western heights in all its glory :) Glad you enjoyed my video :)
Fascinating and breathtaking piece of haunting documentation. I've been watching you a short while and have binge watched quite a few of your exploring. Every video is fantastic and fascinates me beyond compare.
I last went across the old Military Hill drawbridge, to emerge on the Archcliffe side, in 1967 when it was a proper entry means to the Western Heights housing area (part of HM Prisons). The bridge looked a bit fragile even then. The traffic lights mentioned were the simple Stop (red) / Go (green) types.
Brilliant stuff!...much appreciated, would be great to see some restoration of such a magnificent slice of history, love your videos and take care out there! 👍🏻🇬🇧
I agree. However, after WW-II Britain was broke. Governments run on money, not sentiment. There was the manpower to keep these places running but not the money or the will. They had served their purpose until the Goths and Vandals found their way inside to destroy what they could for whatever reason what should be looked upon as priceless historical treasures. We have not had to pay out monies for three times the normal historical time period, so the money became available for use, such as spending on cameras to spy upon their own people.
The insurance alone will cost the national trust a mint, let alone the restoration work. Maybe they will make a posh pub and restaurant out of it to pay for everything. Fantastic video. Your videos are very professional as is your conduct, with good well spoken clean language.
Excellent video .Western Heights is a favourite of mine . Just love clambering round in there !! You guys make your videos all so interesting and informative . I'm looking forward to the next one !
+ruth field (ruthie1) yeah I believe the western heights preservation society are opening it up for public on certain days of the year :) thanks for the comment :)
the brickwork on this place was amazing, certainly Quality rather than quantity.!! but was government mod owned not privatised. My grandad remembers driving through this roadway prior to to its closure.
Don't forget to check out my channel, I've got a few Pegwell bay Caves & Tunnels Uploading this week, Including my attempt of the Frank Illingworth Tunnel! :)
This place reminds me of fort Paull near hedon & hull theres is well under restoration too i think they have a website you can check out if your intrested
Me and my mates used to go in there all the time in our teens, camped on top of if quite a few times, had so much fun in there, spooky as hell at night
I used to explore with my friends all of the tunnels in the Western Heights when I was a boy 55 years ago !! The entrances were not bricked up back then and was a glorious playground for us. I remember there being sort of bridges with huge counterweights somewhere in there.
8;01 / 29:10... Not a communications room but a mess hall. Various things (clues) give away the nature of the rooms. 1) the medium size and shallow hearth, indicating (given the room size) the number of men (or women) housed in this area to be between 10-15 per shift. The wall separating would likely have been a food store and, possible kitchen / food preparation area, given away by the deep hearth and the air ducting above. The bricks, their composition and mold type give away the place or area of manufacture and a rough time period of use and manufacturer. In this place, London Clay (light orange) was used. You will notice no flecks of dark ash or charcoal in the brick composition. I'm not sure I like the idea of the description of Gun Room. There would be a lot of Deaf and Chocking personnel in those rooms. The rubber tubing outside was 1950s and to set the operation of traffic lights perhaps cold war installation? The water tanks, as noted by the pipe on the left-hand side of the wall protruding with a downward exit indicate it was water cooling reservoir for later engines of WW-II.
The WHPS have done a fantastic job and continue to do so. If you can get along to one of the guided tours they run through the year, you won't be disappointed. Things continue to get done, despite DDC's lack of care.
That bit of Cast Iron pipe with the cable going into it has very old style sockets which were sealed with oakum and rammed lead wool then sealed over with white lead putty Circa 1900
Hi Ian, this is probably the best video I've seen of the North Entrance. I have a question though... on the map overlap of the tanks there appears to be a road running the length of the tanks and beyond. Is this the North Ditch or some road that isn't there any more? It's where the red arrow is at 23:43.
@3:29 I climbed that wall with the blue blob on and at the top climbed over a beam with a drop below and that is how I got in there, I am wondering if you did the same and if so do you pictures of this? Over the other side it was blocked off but someone had smashed through(lucky for us)
Great to see that. A shame you never found a way to turn off the internal pa, the music was annoying. Especially when you said 'you can hear the wind', whereas all i heard was more crap mood music
They should resurrect this and do it all up and make it a museum or something like that it's an amazing place love the video I hate to see something like this left to die
5.06 minutes you walk along a corridor to a blocked up entrance, on the right you mentioned that the gaps were bricked up. I think thats how they were built. If that entrance was breached soldiers could shoot out of those narrow slots at the attackers. Numerous slots, so if a defender was killed the attackers still had more defenders waiting. As they only had single shot muskets other soldiers would have passed loaded muskets to the firer.
One thing I noticed close to the start of your video is that what you state as being the bricked up Sally Port door to the Lines is not actually true. Whoever did this had bricked up the doorway that you saw, beyond which there is a short hall, with what was a metal spiral staricase to the left that went up to a small room on the left of the main tunnel entrance, with gun slit, etc. This was to cover the gap between the raised drawbridge and the usual two half doors at the start of the tunnel. Then the actual outside Sally port door at the far end of the short hall is the bricked up portion that you can see from the lines outside. Good video and explanation. I saw all this in the 60's when, before they ripped the road through the two cisterns, at least one of those had more than a few feet of water in it.
why was the building of the road "unthinkable", infrastructure comes over history in specific cases, such as this; you even say yourself it only "opens the fort" anyway good vid
I recently came here as I live quite close, but how did you manage to get in here? (3:39) I really wanted to but couldn't find a way in.. Do you have to cross the rusty beams where the locked gate is?
+x.mxllxe.x the place is sealed now. its opened up sometimes by the Westen heights preservation society for public tours. Please google there name for more information:)
Ah that's a shame! Is it that big entrance with the stairs next to it? We noticed it was properly sealed but we still found a different way to the fort, but we couldn't find a way in... It went on for ages! Thank you anyway :)
Amazes me the history European countries have. It's beautiful.. and crazy to understand what is around you was built and used for several hundreds of years. Not like here in the states where a 1900 building is considered historic for being one of the oldest standing :)
from a construction point of view those tanks would have been a hassle to fill but probably done as a bund to prevent any voids under or next to the new construction, it wouldnt have been done to save money by having somewhere to lose spoil, also, at the time of any road building these tunnels would have been recent enough not to be considered not worth keeping or showing much care.
Woah, Woah!! Stop! Look. What was the very first thing on entering the site you missed? Well, I will tell you. Forget for now the damaged wooden floor that was there to protect gunpowder from igniting, due to sparks off iron wheels on stone, etc. You came to an entrance where you took the flight of stairs down, but before you did, at the entrance, you noticed iron rings set into either side of the wall, then you ignored the foot balustrades either side, both these and the rings told a story of projectile or powder egress. Common lads, get a grip. It's the small thing you should pick up on. You have taken on a responsibility both to inform and educate. I might suggest you verbally ask the viewer if he/she might have any thoughts on what you have found. Some things are obvious, others not so, and some, downright mysterious. I have been following you for some short while and appreciate your willingness to put yourself on our behalf in some danger: viz the Cliff Deep Level Shelter. Keep your eyes peeled and, ASK those questions, because there are those out here who know the answers. Cheer.. Merf the serf... and so forth.
Cool video but 1 major gripe, the stupid over the top music when talkign about the destruction of the 2 water tanks "this is what it looks like now" queue the over dramatic slasher horror music soundtrack.
