Drakelow Shadow Factory (pic heavy)

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borntobemild

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Discovered this place completely by accident whilst exploring the Kinver edge area by bike.

Pics are a bit ropey, lots of vegetation, cr*p camera and photographer huffing and puffing a bit from cycling.

Cycling down a narrow gully, I noticed a brick building on the right. Either they had used a natural quarry or dug out a lot of sandstone.

The building is about 40m by 30m. Double doors at one end into a large room with a well-finished concrete floor. 2m channels running down either side. Single door at the other end

drakelow001.jpg



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At the back were four brick bays.


At the opposite end to the double doors was some sort of lift/hoist

drakelow002.jpg


drakelow003.jpg


At the other end of the hoist was a really strange construction. Couldn't decide whether it was a lookout tower or headstock for a ahaft

drakelow008.jpg


drakelow007.jpg


Further down the valley, another brick building. Couldn't get into this one, but it had two large bays at right angles to each other (blast protection?)

drakelow012.jpg


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To the side of this was a blocked up tunnel

drakelow010.jpg


Followed a vaguely level area towards the road and noticed another tunnel entrance on the right. In good condition and obviously still in use.

drakelow016.jpg


Made my exit as by this time, I was a bit concerned i might be somewhere i shouldn't be.
Saw numerous other entrances, all heavily fortified, on road back to Kinver.

Looked it all up on t'interweb yesterday.

History of the place is fascinating. Miles and miles of tunnels dug into the sandstone below Kinver edge. Originally built as a shadow factory in the war, then converted to a RSG.
Location is still supposed to be secret ;)

Loads of web sites - this one was particularly useful.

http://www.drakelow.info/tunnels.php

I think the first building i looked at was an electricity sub-station described here.

more of my pics here

http://s201.photobucket.com/albums/aa101/borntobemild/drakelow/
 
This website by Paul Stokes has loads of information. Quite a few people went on the tour last year (? can't remember when it was). Really interesting and absolutely huge inside. Sadly, the current owners don't allow pictures to be taken of the interior.

http://www.stokes277.freeserve.co.uk/

M :)
 
I went down Drakelow with the Forest of Dean caving club about 6 months ago. I can't remember the name of the chap whoshowed us around but he really knew his stuff. Unfortunately the owners are gutting the place. They've got a JCB working underground just riipping out the old ducting and everything. No care is being taken. So any potentially interesting artifacts such as hygrometers and signs and the like are just being smashed up.
 

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