Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: waspy on 26 July 2009, 22:48:45
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Went a good walk with Hanna today & this is what we found
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn231/Waspy_01/alfreton2.jpg)
It's now used as a service tunnel. It was constructed at around 1845 for coal movement, but it couldn't cope with the congestion & so a larger tunnel was constructed in 1901. The old tunnel is 840 yards long & has three vent shafts, one of which can be seen from the A38. It used to be called Cotes Park Tunnel, since i've got back i've done some research, i've found out quite alot about my local Station etc :y
It's very DARK & wet inside, i went prepared with torches, i've taken some photos if anyones interested?
Here's the 1901 Tunnel, obviously still in use.
(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn231/Waspy_01/alfreton4.jpg)
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Looks interesting mate :y
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
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History on your doorstep. Really fascinating. I find it odd but, as one gets older, one seems to appreciate history more. I hated it at school, but am fascinated by it now, whether it's recent history, or ancient history. Just to stand there and imagine the hustle and bustle in that now deserted tunnel must be a great experience. :y
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History on your doorstep. Really fascinating. I find it odd but, as one gets older, one seems to appreciate history more. I hated it at school, but am fascinated by it now, whether it's recent history, or ancient history. Just to stand there and imagine the hustle and bustle in that now deserted tunnel must be a great experience. :y
It's actually very spooky, because it's pitch black & deadly quiet 8-) :o Though when you get near the vent shaft next to the A38 you can here all the traffic whistling passed.
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Here in Mill Hill, in 1950, a Dakota crashed opposite my local (where I partook of a small ale tonight :y). Looking carefully, one see where the long wall of the garden of the large house into which it came down was subsequently repaired - you can see where the bricks don't quite match. Funny thing is that very few locals even know about it...
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19501017-0&lang=fr
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
Was it you that posted this site up the other week? I clicked the link & i too spent a while reading & looking at the pix :y
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Here in Mill Hill, in 1950, a Dakota crashed opposite my local (where I partook of a small ale tonight :y). Looking carefully, one see where the long wall of the garden of the large house into which it came down was subsequently repaired - you can see where the bricks don't quite match. Funny thing is that very few locals even know about it...
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19501017-0&lang=fr
Yes it's suprizing what's happened in the past & we know little of it :-?
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
Was it you that posted this site up the other week? I clicked the link & i too spent a while reading & looking at the pix :y
No but I'd prevously come across it.
I'm with Nickbat in that history used to bore me silly. In fact, the stuff that's all nicely laid out in museums still does. There's an old railway near us (used to run practically through my back garden in the old house). It closed in the 1920's but I saw it on the deeds to the house and have been looking for evidence of it ever since.
You can clearly see where the old track used to lie from the air, and on foot you can tell by the style of the fence posts, buildings, etc. that a railway was once there.
Too little of our engineering heritage gets preserved and opened up to the public, IMHO. It has shaped our lives, IMHO, to a greater extent then art, for example, but art gets preserved without question whereas most engineering relics just get demolished.
Kevin
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
Was it you that posted this site up the other week? I clicked the link & i too spent a while reading & looking at the pix :y
No but I'd prevously come across it.
I'm with Nickbat in that history used to bore me silly. In fact, the stuff that's all nicely laid out in museums still does. There's an old railway near us (used to run practically through my back garden in the old house). It closed in the 1920's but I saw it on the deeds to the house and have been looking for evidence of it ever since.
You can clearly see where the old track used to lie from the air, and on foot you can tell by the style of the fence posts, buildings, etc. that a railway was once there.
Too little of our engineering heritage gets preserved and opened up to the public, IMHO. It has shaped our lives, IMHO, to a greater extent then art, for example, but art gets preserved without question whereas most engineering relics just get demolished.
Kevin
I understand what your saying, Kevin, but museums can be fascinating too. Any OOF members who are at a loose end this summer should take a visit here:
http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/
It's a small place, but really fascinating...and good for for the kids, too. You can even sit inside the flightdeck of a few aircraft (including a Trident). :y
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
Was it you that posted this site up the other week? I clicked the link & i too spent a while reading & looking at the pix :y
No but I'd prevously come across it.
I'm with Nickbat in that history used to bore me silly. In fact, the stuff that's all nicely laid out in museums still does. There's an old railway near us (used to run practically through my back garden in the old house). It closed in the 1920's but I saw it on the deeds to the house and have been looking for evidence of it ever since.
You can clearly see where the old track used to lie from the air, and on foot you can tell by the style of the fence posts, buildings, etc. that a railway was once there.
Too little of our engineering heritage gets preserved and opened up to the public, IMHO. It has shaped our lives, IMHO, to a greater extent then art, for example, but art gets preserved without question whereas most engineering relics just get demolished.
Kevin
You're so right. I was reading about the local Train Station that was demolished to make way for a new 70's style one :P The old one was beautiful in its design, but the 70's one's crap >:( >:( >:(
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I understand what your saying, Kevin, but museums can be fascinating too. Any OOF members who are at a loose end this summer should take a visit here:
http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/
It's a small place, but really fascinating...and good for for the kids, too. You can even sit inside the flightdeck of a few aircraft (including a Trident). :y
I haven't come across that one before. Looks interesting. :y
Kevin
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Oh dear, this all sounds very familliar!
I've been locating the sites on http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/index.shtml whenever I'm passing one.
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Here in Mill Hill, in 1950, a Dakota crashed opposite my local (where I partook of a small ale tonight :y). Looking carefully, one see where the long wall of the garden of the large house into which it came down was subsequently repaired - you can see where the bricks don't quite match. Funny thing is that very few locals even know about it...
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19501017-0&lang=fr
This makes history come alive, and when shown how historical events have shaped our immediate environment, we suddenly see the relevance in it. 8-) 8-) :y
We ignore history at our peril ;) ;)
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Oh dear, this all sounds very familliar!
I've been locating the sites on http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/index.shtml whenever I'm passing one.
Not going to be a very productive day for me, methinks. ::)
Kevin
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I love stuff like this.
I try to avoid the following site because I end up wasting half my life looking at pictures like yours:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/
;)
Kevin
Was it you that posted this site up the other week? I clicked the link & i too spent a while reading & looking at the pix :y
No but I'd prevously come across it.
I'm with Nickbat in that history used to bore me silly. In fact, the stuff that's all nicely laid out in museums still does. There's an old railway near us (used to run practically through my back garden in the old house). It closed in the 1920's but I saw it on the deeds to the house and have been looking for evidence of it ever since.
You can clearly see where the old track used to lie from the air, and on foot you can tell by the style of the fence posts, buildings, etc. that a railway was once there.
Too little of our engineering heritage gets preserved and opened up to the public, IMHO. It has shaped our lives, IMHO, to a greater extent then art, for example, but art gets preserved without question whereas most engineering relics just get demolished.
Kevin
This is all what I love of course and right down my historian / railway historian street!!
The railway you talk of Kevin I think (I assume it is an old line near you now??) would be the LSWR Alton to Basingstoke line closed after the Great War, reopened, then finally closed in 1932. It was used (after closure) in the film Oh! Mr Porter(Gainsborough 1937) with the famous Will Hay playing the lead part as the station master of Buggleskelly, but in reality was Cliddesden, which was still visible in the 1980s when I last looked.
The other old lines near you, apart from the Mid-Hants, is the ex double track LSWR Alton to Fareham Meon Valley line closed in c.1957, and the continuation of the Alton to Winchester line, from Alyresford to Winchester which closed c.1976. You then have the old GWR line from Newbury to Winchester ;) ;) ;)
Then there is the old line to Andover from Romsey.........the great Somerset & Dorset line from Bournemouth to Bath...........oh yes Kevin you live in a great area for old lines and I have walked them all!!! :D :D :D :y :y :y
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Yep, that's right. it was the Basingstoke to Alton line. It's amazing how clear the route of the line is when you consider how many times those fields must have been ploughed since.
Kevin
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Yep, that's right. it was the Basingstoke to Alton line. It's amazing how clear the route of the line is when you consider how many times those fields must have been ploughed since.
Kevin
Yes it is amazing Kevin how after 70 years the scares are still evident and you can follow a lot of the old route whilst driving from Alton to Basingstoke. It was only built as a 'light railway' single track line, so the earthworks were not of large and significant construction, but still it is visible despite as you say of agriculture taking the land back. ;) ;) ;)
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:D i love dark wet tunnels :D
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:D i love dark wet tunnels :D
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D :P :P
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Explored that a few years ago Pete, very interesting, runs parralel to the new tunnel from memory.
Also worth a visit is here:
http://www.multimap.com/s/RB1ydgxL
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=55554