Wartime Tunnels to be Auctioned
- 6 September 2009 02:2728532A network of of underground tunnels used as a hospital during WW2 and a Look-out point are to be auctioned in Sept 2009.The 16.5 acre site known as Capel Battery is on the cliffs at Capel le Ferne and has a guide price of £80 -100k.
That seems rather cheap to me considering the size of the site?
I'm not exactly sure where all these tunnels are but I'm sure some forumite will know.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 6 September 2009 08:3628536The site is likely to be an SSSI and not have planning permission to build and also the tunnels are highly likely to be entirely collapsed (they atempted to open them in the 1980s without luck and I have been into part of them that have collapsed just in from the cliff face.
The land is also very unstable: !!
Been nice knowing you :) - 6 September 2009 08:4128538And I did not even know they were there ,so this week I will go and have alook over alot of years I have been down alot of tunnels around Dover and the bay.
- 6 September 2009 09:0328539So that was you, Vic!!!!
- 6 September 2009 09:5628542I know now it was wrong to do it but we would go down with fireworks bangers great times some times we would stay down there overnight and we were still at school
My name must still be on the walls some where,my name was on the wall in the old town jail and was still there when they open it to the public,I was put in there by the police for fighting in the town and was waiting to go upstairs to the court house and I was in the army at the time and got seven days in the army nick.But when I was siting in the old jail house I wrote my name on the wall,also if you look at the old tables up stairs you will see where I cut my name into one of them 
That was about 1961 - 6 September 2009 12:3228545I had a little job at the White Cliffs Experience many years ago and used to go round to the Old Town Gaol on saturday mornings to check out the archaic audiovisual equipment. Bit late to look for Vic's signatures now but the old Courtroom housed a depiction of the trial of the railway porter who was sentenced to death for the murder of the station master at Dover Priory and all the old cells had tableaux depicting various horrible things happening.
All pretty macabre but the public seemed to like it and the attraction could very easily have been kept open and making money in the right hands.
Copy of the Old Town Gaol guidebook on my fotopic site at:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/c1751056_1.html
- 6 September 2009 14:4928547Ed thank you for showing that again I would love to see that back again it had lots of the public going round it when it was open to them.
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
6 September 2009 15:2928548yes it was a shame that they closed that down,along with the other one where the libray is.it would have given cruise visators somthing to look at and do during there short stay in the town. - 6 September 2009 21:2728552That's very interesting Marek and Paul, I remember my Dad often talking about the tunnels and the underground hospital which he visited in his younger days.
