Question - East Goscote / Leicestershire / Tunnel System?

[roget]

Apologies. I've created a folder 'East Goscote' and added the two images. I've checked and this works. Good luck,

Link: https://imgur.com/a/luCyV

 

[SMILEmcgee]

Fantastic, thank you

 

[Clive Beasley]

I used to live in East Goscote as a child in the early 1970's, the village was still being constructed by Jelson, they stored their lorries inside the air raid shelters that guarded the entrance to the underground tunnels, known as the mounds. They are adjecent to where the railway sidings ran than collected the munitions that were made beneath the ground. The entrances still exist dotted around the village, now concealed following the departure of the builders, I know of two locations and yes they have been filled poorly by the village councillors to prevent children from gaining access, both main entrances to the Mound were also blocked but during the long hots summer of 1976 cracks emerged at the top and local kids had a few weeks to explore. The local council made a proper inspection during the 70's or 80's and found that the electric system was still working, corridors had machines of various types and signs still marked the walls of its former use.. so quite a historic site and worthy of a proper investigation. I am considering preparing a documentary, not least to be able to interview the last few people who may still be a live and remember the site. Long Furrow road marks the perimeter of the obove ground complex of buildings that existed.. and were once displayed on the wikipedia site before someone removed it... however, I have a printed copy. I can also confirm that during the 1970's .. as a student attending Wreake Valley Community College, Syston, and regular visitor to their library I found amongst brown boxes located on their shelves, maps of the underground tunnel complex for East Goscote and they are extensive. For those who wish for further proof above ground, visit the small river that runs from the Melton Road wes towards the railway line.. bordering the southern edge of the village.. the entire length has been concreted incontrast to the normal muddy riverbank.. in order to stop the river water entering the tunnel system! The offical reference to the munitions depots are: ROF Queniborough, (Filling Factory No. 10), Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_Factories_in_the_United_Kingdom

I've uploaded to photos.. 1. outline map of the existing visit East Goscote and 2. Aereal photo of the ordance site in the day.

For more info.. drop me here.. and happy hunting. roget

Hi I have the 2 files at last and it more or less ties in to Holloway Brothers map I have.If you look at the lower part of the 1st image it shows the surface buildings protected by earth revetments the upper half though seems to show the underground area whether it extends under the surface buildings is open to debate.

 

[roget]

Definatey, the tunnels are accessible via various shafts, all were filled in in a very basic manner, earth and rubble mainly but never actually capped and sealed so with a bit of careful planning and permission and a small team they could be openned once again for research and potential commercial / cultural development. The tunnels don't follow the old road network, the cross in many places and lead towards the mound that was the major entrance/exit and connected with the railway sidings that extended acrssowhat is now the playing fields. Many extrances and air ventilation shafts emerge across the whole village, some beanth the Infant school, others behind the factories. The tunnels themselves run under so many private homes and gardens, that would require careful referencing and to those who now live in the village, a considerable surprise!

I have produced a number of tv documentaries for broadcasters around europe, I'd be very interested to discuss with anyone if this could be considered drawing upon the considerable expertise in this forum... revealing such details in the public domain poses zero threat to national security, the fact that such discussion are taking place on an open platform with little no verification about those involved.. but it does create a very exciting opportunity to document and explain their significance at a cultural heritage and education level, where interviews with those who may have worked or protected these instillations back in the day, before they pass. If those in power still consider such installations offer protection the are considerable mistaken.. long before conventional attacks could take place.. cyber attacks would / have already penetrated those digital systems that represent the necessary communication channels governments on all sides believe protect our way of life.. it doesnt.. but for now, thank goodness we are prepared (in our dreams) to convince ourselves it does.

For anyone interested to discuss the tv documentary project.. drop me a line here and we can arrange to take this discussion further in a secure environment.

 

[Clive Beasley]

Hi you have obviously done a fair bit of research about this site which leads me to ask have you entered these tunnels at some point? There are a number of questions I would ask mainly regarding the filled in access shafts and ventilation shafts would not water have percolated into the tunnels over the last 57yrs ? Anyway I would like to be involved in the your proposed TV Documentary as i have an interest in military history stretching back to my teenage years and am still active in visiting former historic sites in fact for the last 3yrs my brother and myself have been to the Maginot line Belgian inter war forts and the Atlantik Wall. So please keep me posted and with some tips as to where some of the filled in shafts are. Clive.

 

[Mr Sam]

there is a small piece of track behind some of the industrial units

 

[CassandraC]

So I asked a friend who grew up in Goscote about this and he's extremely cynical about this and quote "I moved there in 1968 when the place was only 1/3 built and still had a load of army buildings not yet demolished or earthed over. If there'd been any some body would've found them then and they didn't." Has anyone got any detailed maps rather than those here https://imgur.com/a/luCyV] which give no indication of what actually existed underground. I'd like this to be true and to one day have a look, but my friend says that the existence of these tunnels is a myth. Cheers.

 

[Clive Beasley]

Hi if it is a myth it's a long running one and I can see why your friend is a sceptic. So what do we know first off it was a filling factory where high explosive was packed into shell and bomb casings. I wrote to the company who built the site and received a photo copy of the surface buildings which differed from the aerial photo in that it was much smaller.It shows the buildings probably wooden sheds surrounded by earth revetments to contain any accidental detonation and starting a chain reaction. Now, to protect the workers during an air raid there would have been shelters below ground level so Jelsons would have found these at least and filled them in.In 1944 things changed as the site was taken over by the War Department it had previously been an agency factory run by Lever Brothers why was that? according to the myth they were developing new types of Ordnance and being out in the sticks the site would be ideal. I was looking into this 4yrs ago along with many others and it sort of reached fever pitch when someone posted 2 photos showing a flight of steps going down maybe 25 to 30ft into a tunnel with smooth concrete walls and an arched roof one photo was taken at the bottom showing a further tunnel going off to the left I would estimate they were 6ft wide. But of course they could be of somewhere else there was a caption to them which read " i'm in " all of this is couched in mystery but I am going to the National Archives to look at the original documents relating to it's construction so watch this space.

 

[Clive Beasley]

So I asked a friend who grew up in Goscote about this and he's extremely cynical about this and quote "I moved there in 1968 when the place was only 1/3 built and still had a load of army buildings not yet demolished or earthed over. If there'd been any some body would've found them then and they didn't." Has anyone got any detailed maps rather than those here https://imgur.com/a/luCyV] which give no indication of what actually existed underground. I'd like this to be true and to one day have a look, but my friend says that the existence of these tunnels is a myth. Cheers.

Just a question about your friend what did he/she mean regarding buildings were they brick or wood ?

 

[Clive Beasley]

Definatey, the tunnels are accessible via various shafts, all were filled in in a very basic manner, earth and rubble mainly but never actually capped and sealed so with a bit of careful planning and permission and a small team they could be openned once again for research and potential commercial / cultural development. The tunnels don't follow the old road network, the cross in many places and lead towards the mound that was the major entrance/exit and connected with the railway sidings that extended acrssowhat is now the playing fields. Many extrances and air ventilation shafts emerge across the whole village, some beanth the Infant school, others behind the factories. The tunnels themselves run under so many private homes and gardens, that would require careful referencing and to those who now live in the village, a considerable surprise!

I have produced a number of tv documentaries for broadcasters around europe, I'd be very interested to discuss with anyone if this could be considered drawing upon the considerable expertise in this forum... revealing such details in the public domain poses zero threat to national security, the fact that such discussion are taking place on an open platform with little no verification about those involved.. but it does create a very exciting opportunity to document and explain their significance at a cultural heritage and education level, where interviews with those who may have worked or protected these instillations back in the day, before they pass. If those in power still consider such installations offer protection the are considerable mistaken.. long before conventional attacks could take place.. cyber attacks would / have already penetrated those digital systems that represent the necessary communication channels governments on all sides believe protect our way of life.. it doesnt.. but for now, thank goodness we are prepared (in our dreams) to convince ourselves it does.

For anyone interested to discuss the tv documentary project.. drop me a line here and we can arrange to take this discussion further in a secure environment.

Hello you've been quiet regarding ROF 10 but I have been investigating the other filling factories and suprisingly none were underground due to the equipment and the size of the buildings needed to heat the Amatol till it becomes liquid so it can be poured into the bomb/shell cases.I can't find any production figures or how many train deliveries of Amatol from start and end of wartime production.

 

[Clive Beasley]

Hi I did not see this coming up to the end of 1942 Rearsby was No 60 Filling Factory ! So why did they build another on the Goscote site ?

 

[Steve123]

Hi this all sounds very interesting I would be very interested in working on the Tv documentary. I only live down the road also so that makes it easy for me.

 

[Clive Beasley]

Hi this all sounds very interesting I would be very interested in working on the Tv documentary. I only live down the road also so that makes it easy for me.

Hi last week I visited the National Archives I pre booked the files i needed which were those related to the contract awarded to Holloway Bros for the erection and building of Filling Factory No 10.One of the files was a list of materials/equipment and sub contractors involved and there was no mention of tunnelling taking place no mention of the employment of miners or bulk mixing of concrete except for the water reservoir a 24" Penstock and some screening walls. The course of the brook was altered Leicester Council supplied a 6" water main, boiler houses were built to raise steam for heating all the assembly buildings and the pipe lagging was done by Kitsons in Leicester. The site was used for the assembly of fuzes and detonators no mention of shells or bombs needless to say there are many more files but they will have to wait for the time being.So at the moment i'm inclined to say the whole thing is a myth.

 

[Yorrick]

So at the moment i'm inclined to say the whole thing is a myth.

The parish council don't seem to think so -

http://eastgoscotepc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/east-goscote-parish-plan.pdf

This is from halfway down the fourth page

"A feature of the landscape of East Goscote is the mound. Under the mound are two shell filling factories built of reinforced concrete. Jelson could not demolish them and they were refused permission to blow them up. Eventually they were filled in and landscaped."

 

[Yorrick]

A little more digging on http://eastgoscotepc.org.uk/galleries/pictoral-history/ has turned up these. The first taken from about 104 Long Furrow around 1965, they show the 2 entrances.