The Friends of Drakelow Tunnels

Roger Bryan's Virtual Tour

Back in 2001 Roger, aided from time to time by the rest of the team, set about the huge task of photographing the site from one end to the other. It was very fortunate that he did.
Locked securely away for over 40 years, slowly decaying away, were the remains of an almost unique U.K. WWII underground factory*. In 2008 the site's owners set about stripping it out for the scrap iron and steel. By the end of 2008 tunnels 1, 2, & 3 and all their interconnecting galleries had been stripped bare. Now, as I often said on the tours, where there used to be the remains of a WWII underground factory are simply a set of empty tunnels that used to house a WWII factory. Thanks to Roger's foresight we still have a record of what it used to be like. There are literally hundreds of photos to sort through, scan and build into these pages, so this will be a long on-going task. The scans do not do justice to Roger's original prints, but they will offer an insight for those who never had the opportunity to see it all for real. It is easier to follow the virtual tour in conjunction with the factory layout plan on pages 10 and 11 of Drakelow Unearthed (Revised Edition), or on Pages 8 and 9 of the original version. (You can get copies by post if you are not near one of the distributors, please email for further info).
Paul

On then to the first installment - Tunnel 1 and its galleries. The 4 main tunnels are parallel and aligned roughly East-West. We start at the Western end of Tunnel 1, where the entrance would have been.

TUNNEL 1

© 2009 J.R.Bryan

All images on this page are protected under copyright law. They may not be reproduced in any form or location electronically or in print without prior written permission from the copyright owner.

Index
Tunnel 1
Tunnel 2
Tunnel 3
Between 3&4

Tunnel 4

North of Tunnel 4
RGHQ 9.2
Tunnel1-1
Enter through the doors to tunnel 1 (You can't actually do this as it is bricked up, concreted in and backfilled!) and look behind you towards
the outer steel door and wooden airlock door that you would have just come through.

 

 
 
Tunnel1-2
Turn around again to face into the tunnel. The time office is on your left and ahead are the
second set of wooden airlock doors.
  
Tunnel1 bay1
To the left is Gallery 1 - Welfare and Overalls.
Tunnel1-3
Pass through the second airlock doors into the main tunnel and turn back to look at them.
Tunnel1 bay30
To the right is Gallery 30 Tropical Packing
Click Here to view the galleries to your left
Tunnel1-4
Turn around and walk about 1/3rd of the way up tunnel 1. Then turn back to see where you've been.
Click Here to view the galleries to your right.
Click Here to view the galleries to your left
Tunnel1-5
Turn around again and proceed roughly another 1/3rd of the way down the tunnel. Then turn back again to see where you've been.(Looking back towards the entrance)
Click Here to view the galleries to your right
Click Here to view the galleries to your left
Tunnel1-6
Turn around yet again to look onwards through the last 1/3rd of Tunnel 1.
Click Here to view the galleries to your right

Turn left to go through Gallery 16 - Fettling Shop Towards Tunnel 2

The end of Tunnel 1
The metal partition at the end conceals the housing for a mercury arc rectifier.
Photos of this will be added in the future. The rectifier itself is now on display at Broadfield House Glass Museum Wordsley.
* There were only 4 major underground shadow factory schemes in the U.K. along with a few smaller schemes or tunnels at existing factories. The Germans constructed over 200. Of the U.K's schemes, Drakelow was, up until 2008, probably the best preserved.

© 2009 J.R.Bryan

All images on this page are protected under copyright law. They may not be reproduced in any form or location electronically or in print without prior written permission from the copyright owner.