Devonport Dockyard Deep Shelter/The Cann Tunnel, Plymouth

The Cann tunnel was built in the early 1820’s as part of the Plymouth & Dartmoor railway. Used to transport granite from the kings & swell tor quarries from the moor to Sutton pool, Plymouth.

In 1916 all the track was removed…..

During the second world war the Cann tunnel was reused and a contract was tendered to turn it into a deep shelter for 3000 essential dockyard workers…..they would essentially move into here for the duration of the war….

Evidence of beds & some sort of sick bay still exist, as do baffle (“blast walls” to prevent a direct hit killing all in the tunnel)

Also there are a few service tunnels above, old electric light remains and piped water…

We’ve been working on this one for a year or so, and finally it welcomed us in for a short period….literally spent hours and hours, loads of hard work, and even blood, to sort access….

Nemesis and the Kernow expeditionary force were in first… Access secure…we toasted with a beer & dare say we woke one or two people up with a txt in the early hours!

The group visit was sorted….

Visited with Nemesis, Scrub, Scotty, Sarah, MrB, The Stig & Lycos…..

we had to work for this one....
Enjoy!


kernow expeditionary force at the sealed enterance


door to shelter


bast wall (been removed to run sewer pipe)


one of the three escape hatches...allowing occupants to get out if the shelter took a direct hit....


service tunnel?? only 3ft high at most....


nemesis & kernow expeditionary force....


sick bay with curtain rail....










decent group shot... a top top evening after much hype...

thanks guys & hope you enjoyed it as much as we did

i'm happy that your hard finaly paied off, i know this has been on your list for some time.
well done dude and thanks for the invite.

o and the 2am wake up call. lol

i dont have many that will show any thing thing new but here they are.

Well great trip out and 10/10 to Kernow and Nemesis for their hard work. Fantastic report and pictures, as always. Great history on this tunnel, far more than i ever knew

On to some pics of mine,
The far end showing remains of a cut up car!


Part of the new drainage system running through the tunnel


Very, very long.....


Random graffiti


A crevis in the wall

So glad you finally cracked this one!

Well done everyone, didn't realise the amount of effort you'd put in or how long you'd been at it, heard an awful lot of chat about it in the short time I've been exploring,so thanks for the invite...exceptional achievement!

As usual you've all done a cracking job with the report and pic coverage so I'll get a few more in too..

Lined roof at the exit - entrance



Rusting junk...



Nifty drillwork...



Anyone know what these were for?



Another ladder almost concealed...



Hands up who didn't get covered in that mud?



Thanks again everyone, deffo one of the goodies, keep yr batteries charged...

Wow, excellent stuff. Well done kernow...this must be the biggie you mentioned...good work and pics everyone. Very interesting site.

Foxylady said:

Wow, excellent stuff. Well done kernow......good work and pics everyone. Very interesting site.

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Yes good work, even got the alien in pic 8

Excellent work by kernow & nemesis for getting us in! thanks again guys
the history has already been covered so heres a couple of my pics...

one of several service tunnels...


some random junk near the remains of a car...


a lantern that got left behind once apon a time...


and a couple of the escape hatches.. one of which had a HUGE boulder teetering et the top...




all in all an enjoyable evening and good to meet the rest of you guys.
till next time...

Excellent report & pics by all you peeps! This looks a really interesting explore & i'm glad you've got so many good pics from down there! :jiggy:

A further contribution

Time for some more images, nothing as fancy as the SLR pics just a compact and utilising other's light.

The first image was taken in Aug 07 when I was first introduced to the site, I like this picture due to the vivid blue compared to the relatively dull background.


Once in it was a trek down to the other end, here can be seen rather recent graffiti, no doubt made when the site had a more open entry.


Now the return leg to our entry point and a more thorough look-around.
First the entry through a door which has only fixings on one side (the 'outside' as it would be, can only have been placed post-ww2).


This next image I believe, out of the photos I took, best illustrates the blast baffle sections that k.e.f. described at the start of the thread. The photo is taken at the corner of the first blast wall looking into the section that wraps around another wall before returning to the original tunnel route. With the walls having been drilled out for the large-diameter pipe the baffle section is now superfluous.


Here is another view of the baffle section facing the other way back towards the iron door, with k.e.f. setting up for one of his shots.

And another in much more pleasing light. Ignore the can, we're not rich enough to afford an advertising licence.


K.e.f. also posted an image of one of the 'service' tunnels which could be accessed from the 'escape' ladders. The tunnels did not run for very far and were small in diameter as the following two images show.



More of an arty picture.

The precarious rock (I would call it boulder) at the top of one of the 'escape' ladders.


Picture of one of the bed-frames left in the tunnel. There appeared to be only room for four beds in the sections which looked to have been screened by curtains (the poles and their rings - Scotty, pics 3 & 4), this was confirmed by there being only four bed-frames in the whole tunnel.


The majority of the rubbish on the floor around this image is the sheeting used for the tunnel roof, some still remains where it was meant to be, making head-room at times a bit tight. The next two images illustrate the amazing natural structure when not covered by the roof sheeting.


Image showing the void between cavern ceiling and sheeting .


Image showing the drainage blocks regularly distributed down the tunnel, on the first trip down the tunnel it was possibly to see the water draining past the blocks to the void between the breize blocks and the natural rock behind.


More graffiti and playing with some light-painting.


Shots showing the immense length of some sections of the tunnel.



This image shows the slight curve that the tunnel had in certain sections.


Another 'escape' ladder, a much larger entry-point, again this had a 'service' tunnel running from it. More graffiti to boot, and some creative light. K.e.f. couldn't help but investigate this ladder and he has his ideas where it leads to.




Image of the piping which ran the length of the tunnel, this one has a stop-tap and t-sections, others had metal junction boxes showing both water and electricity was piped into the tunnel.


Some creative red-light pictures, well I think they are ;p



Finally, you can breathe a sigh of relief, the end we entered once more. Some back-lighting and three shopping trolleys, don't say I don't set my shots up to be interesting!!


This has been near the top of mine and k.e.f.'s list of sites for a while, it might not appeal to everyone but it was definitely a mind-over-matter site. Not much to see but the history of the place really sparked our adventurous nodes and we were hooked to explore it. Thanks to everyone who made our second night that bit extra and hope to do more with you all. Have to choose a more isolated affair next, covert with 8 people who have the kit of a miner's lighting convention is a hard one to pull off!

Nice pics Nemesis, and good to see you again

Cann Tunnel

Excellent pics chaps

The entrance a couple of years ago



The only way in



Entrance behind shadows

G

rockin pics all,

thanks for all your comments & will pass em on to nemesis, great trip

What can I say? WOW!

Cracking explore and a fabulous collection of pics! Very well done!

kernowexpeditionary said:

rockin pics all,

thanks for all your comments & will pass em on to nemesis, great trip

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Nice one mate, yeah great trip

Looks like a great time was had by all and is that a tin Of Carling I spy in one of the pics?

lol, yeah we had a beer to celebrate...defo needed after all the hours of research to get in

kernowexpeditionary said:

lol, yeah we had a beer to celebrate...defo needed after all the hours of research to get in

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LOL yes lots of "Research" on Kernows part! Possibly tho nearly as much beer involved as his amount of "research"

WOW, well i've got a massve case of the green eyed monster right now.

I used to love in the Estover area as a young-un and i knew where a few the entry points were (being about 10 i was scared to even try and get in, not that i would have been successfull) it wasn't untill i got in to Urbex i realized quiet what the tunnel was or what it was used for. The pic's are great the history awesome nice work guys

tah silverfox, it was a good one....