I think I will add my 2 cents worth of info, pictures and videos I have taken and gathered from Under Longbridge over the last 3 years.
Regarding the open/not flooded bunkers and tunnels dotted around the factory, I have been in virtually all of them.
I am not going to give out the locations to any of these, so please don't bother asking as I won't give you an answer.
There is a bunker with spiral staircases that is flooded on the now St. Mowdem's owned side (in immediate danger of being sealed, if it hasn't already since I was around the area 4 weeks ago).
It is however flooded and St Mowdem's won't allow us to pump it out (we have asked!).
Let's start with
East Works...
Directly under the now demolished factory is a tunnel that was built to carry water from the pond above the site (where they tested plane engines), to the stream next to the railway. This is still there, but very clean and boring.
Next under East Works is a bunker that seemed to have been used to log the planes that were built above (we found a piece of chart marked 'Aero 1, Aero 2 & Aero 3') there is also a complete air circulation unit and up to 10 chemical toilets. In one half of the bunker is a room (now burnt out) with obvious metal pipes leading out the ceiling to the (demolished) factory above, this leads me to believe it had a comms room. There are also many separated rooms with wood braced doorways (I expect this was incase of a bomb hit above).
The other half of the bunker, there are 3 rooms, separated by sand bag walls. I have since learnt from a Firefighter that the sand bags were placed down there by the Fire Service who trained their servicemen to search enclosed rooms in pitch black, and the low entries to each room (you have to crawl) were to replicate a roof collapse. The second room is flooded to shin high as it has been blocked by both sand bag walls.
There are 2 main stairwells and 2 side stairwells, all have been blocked.
Let me take you on a guided tour...
Part 1 (9min 17s)
[video=youtube;TEScOoI5480]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEScOoI5480[/video]
Part 2 (7min 15s)
[video=youtube;G_mBDLU8oO0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_mBDLU8oO0[/video]
Some Pics...
Next
We move from East Works Under the Flight Shed, through the Shadow factory, or the Aero Engine Factory, used during bombing raids.
This was the only purpose built tunnel that was made for manufacturing during Bombing Raids.
There are a few pics of this in use in a book you can see in Birmingham Central Library in the local reference section, or pop into Waterstones and look for the Longbridge book.
The video of our walk through...
[video=youtube;3Ndf40UPAXE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ndf40UPAXE[/video]
Pics...
And some fun in the (pitch black) tunnels...
South Works (Runway) Tunnels
These are the longest tunnels (currently explored) on site, they run from Lickey Road all the way over to the railway on the other side. They run directly across as the earth works did not allow the tunnels to go any deeper in.
They are called the Runway tunnels, named after the runway that was on top before the factory was built in its place. You can see the runway being used in this video...
(from 4min 30s, the hurricane is coming out of the Flight Shed)
Video from
www.austinmemories.com
[video=youtube;vapEDE8jtzw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vapEDE8jtzw[/video]
The tunnels were used as an air raid shelter for the workers and surrounding communities during bombing raids, it was later used as a makeshift mortuary for all the deceased from the bombings.
I do not have a video from down here but do have some pics...
Now we move on to
West Works which I like to call, the 'Body Shop Bunker'
Not much to see here, but here they are anyway...
I hope you all enjoyed my post, if you would like to use the images elsewhere, please contact me through my website (where you can find more Rover pictures in my Archive)
www.photoaddiction.co.uk
D-UK