Shorts Brothers started off as an seaplane manufacturer on the Isle of Sheppy, but later moved to Rochester in 1913 due to the need for larger facilities. Here they expanded considerably over a 3.4 hectare site. In 1936, they opened a factory in Belfast. During the Battle of Britain, the Rochester factory was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, which meant most of the manufacturing was then concentrated in Belfast. However, the Rochester facility was still useful, and in 1941 they secured permission from the Ministry of Aircraft Production to build an underground factory next to their overground factories. The original tunnels were two large, brick lined vaults, which were used by the company as a workshop area. These were later connected, by a 1,300 ft tunnel, to a series of underground passages, which were constructed as a public air raid shelter. The air raid tunnels contain a number of original stencilled signs, for 'No Smoking' and for toilets, and are formed of two main parallel tunnels with intersecting spur tunnels. Both the factory tunnels and the air raid shelters have emergency escape adits, which exit in the cliff face at regular intervals or lead to shafts with manhole covers on the surface. There is a great deal of interesting WW2 graffiti to be found in the air raid tunnels, including drawings of planes etc. After the war, Shorts moved entirely to Belfast – where it still exists – and the underground tunnels were used by construction company Blaw Knox as storage, and detritus from this time can be found scattered around. The tunnels have remained abandoned since the 1990s, when Blaw Knox left, and a housing estate has been built on the factory site. The tunnel system has now been sealed (mostly!) to prevent further vandalism.
History mostly stolen from Sub-Brit.
Entry was a nice bit of a climb, but pretty relaxed after the locals were in bed. A big thumbs up to Wevsky for details on this - I've been searching around the esplanade for far too long on this one and despite finding sealed entries, the actual entrance always eluded me. Cheers for that one!
History mostly stolen from Sub-Brit.
Entry was a nice bit of a climb, but pretty relaxed after the locals were in bed. A big thumbs up to Wevsky for details on this - I've been searching around the esplanade for far too long on this one and despite finding sealed entries, the actual entrance always eluded me. Cheers for that one!
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