The History
The railway tunnel, opened in 1848 by George Stephenson and the York & North Midland railway company, ran 400 yards directly below Langcliffe Avenue from the A61 Leeds roundabout to the opposite side of Tewit Well Road. Initially, the locals opposed the railway being built, so the tunnel was built around the railway to keep it out of sight. The branch from Brunswick tunnel and the station was then abandoned after 14 years in operation.
The abandoned tunnel was later converted into an air-raid shelter during WW2, with steps leading down to it from the Leeds road roundabout area. A concrete floor had been laid with a 6ft high brick wall lining the tunnel, and the remains of makeshift toilet cubicles in the four corners of the shelter were present.
The air-raid shelter finally became abandoned in 1943 due to the bombing of The Majestic Hotel in 1941.
The tunnel is mostly free from vandalism, apart from some minor graffiti which dates as far back as the 1970's. The indents on the ground from the sleepers are still evident, and the portal has 2 fixed metal grills to allow bats to use the tunnel.
The Explore
It's taken me a while to get round to doing this report but better late than never I guess
Me and @plod did this one together, after spending hours on research and putting together a detailed map it actually turned out much easier to find than we had anticipated. Getting to the entrance was pretty tricky though (as well as actually accessing the tunnel) and when we arrived it soon became clear that our £8 wilko torch was not going to cut it, so with this place being pretty local we decided to do a more detailed explore in a return visit
Even with the return trip & better torches my camera really struggled with the poor lighting so picture quality isn't its best.
We knew that the tunnel was basically a straight line so we headed right towards the end where we came across a wall with a doorway. Through here was an empty brick room with toilet cubicles in the corners, and past that room through the opposite doorway was a staircase leading to a pile of rubble underneath the Leeds Road roundabout, which had been dug into by the workmen in the 1960's who didn't know it was there, so sadly that's as far as we could go.
This is a neat little place in Harrogate that not many people actually know of
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEzb]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY68Q]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEr5]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMLr]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMz4]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEdE]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMFr]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6a3]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6cC]
[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEzb][url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY68Q][url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEr5][url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMLr][url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMz4][url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEdE][url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMFr][url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6a3][url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6cC][url=https://flic.kr/p/JipE89][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]The railway tunnel, opened in 1848 by George Stephenson and the York & North Midland railway company, ran 400 yards directly below Langcliffe Avenue from the A61 Leeds roundabout to the opposite side of Tewit Well Road. Initially, the locals opposed the railway being built, so the tunnel was built around the railway to keep it out of sight. The branch from Brunswick tunnel and the station was then abandoned after 14 years in operation.
The abandoned tunnel was later converted into an air-raid shelter during WW2, with steps leading down to it from the Leeds road roundabout area. A concrete floor had been laid with a 6ft high brick wall lining the tunnel, and the remains of makeshift toilet cubicles in the four corners of the shelter were present.
The air-raid shelter finally became abandoned in 1943 due to the bombing of The Majestic Hotel in 1941.
The tunnel is mostly free from vandalism, apart from some minor graffiti which dates as far back as the 1970's. The indents on the ground from the sleepers are still evident, and the portal has 2 fixed metal grills to allow bats to use the tunnel.
The Explore
It's taken me a while to get round to doing this report but better late than never I guess
Me and @plod did this one together, after spending hours on research and putting together a detailed map it actually turned out much easier to find than we had anticipated. Getting to the entrance was pretty tricky though (as well as actually accessing the tunnel) and when we arrived it soon became clear that our £8 wilko torch was not going to cut it, so with this place being pretty local we decided to do a more detailed explore in a return visit
Even with the return trip & better torches my camera really struggled with the poor lighting so picture quality isn't its best.We knew that the tunnel was basically a straight line so we headed right towards the end where we came across a wall with a doorway. Through here was an empty brick room with toilet cubicles in the corners, and past that room through the opposite doorway was a staircase leading to a pile of rubble underneath the Leeds Road roundabout, which had been dug into by the workmen in the 1960's who didn't know it was there, so sadly that's as far as we could go.
This is a neat little place in Harrogate that not many people actually know of
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEzb]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY68Q]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEr5]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMLr]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMz4]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JipEdE]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JBkMFr]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6a3]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HMY6cC]
[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
