[Talk-gb-westmidlands] Old Longbridge building outlines

[Jonathan Harley]

Hi Brian, the mining tunnel is certainly true - when I was a student 
there was a ventilation shaft into it just behind the Guild. I'd guess 
the entrance into it was destroyed when the multi-story car park between 
the Guild and the Gun Barrels was built.

There were also rumours of steam distribution tunnels under 
Physics/Aston Webb - which is plausible given their late-Victorian age - 
but my pals and I never found a way into them. And we found our way into 
some odd, forgotten parts of those buildings, including a storeroom full 
of 1950s student records which should probably have been locked :-)

Jon.


On 22/08/14 11:58, Brian Prangle wrote:
> When I worked at the University there was chatter about a model mine 
> underneath the Edgbaston Campus that was used by the now defunct 
> School of Mining, also  that the School of Physics used the tunnels 
> for a minor branch of research for the Manhattan Project.
>
> Regards
>
> Brian
>
>
> On 21 August 2014 22:23, Andy Robinson <ajrlists at gmail.com 
> <mailto:ajrlists at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Matthijs, that’s some useful searching. I knew that BT had some
>     cable tunnels but had not realised they were cold war facilities
>     and as extensive as they are. When I was at Aston in the 1980's
>     there was a longstanding rumour surrounding access to a bunker
>     system from there but the info suggests perhaps anything at Aston
>     may have been limited, I was always sceptical.
>
>     Mapping the BT Anchor exchange facility and cable tunnels into OSM
>     would be difficult because these facilities are very three
>     dimensional and rarely do the plan representations properly depict
>     the underground layout, especially as proposed plans and as-built
>     drawings often differ wildly.
>
>     Cheers
>     Andy
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: Matthijs Melissen [mailto:info at matthijsmelissen.nl
>     <mailto:info at matthijsmelissen.nl>]
>     Sent: 21 August 2014 21:32
>     To: OSM Group WM
>     Subject: Re: [Talk-gb-westmidlands] Old Longbridge building outlines
>
>     On 21 August 2014 20:23, stuart lester <stulester at googlemail.com
>     <mailto:stulester at googlemail.com>> wrote:
>     > Also I wondered if anyone had any good sources for mapping
>     underground
>     > Birmingham. I am interested in both tunnels, etc. but also
>     underground
>     > infrastructure.
>
>     User bigfatfrog67 has mapped (part of) Anchor ( in a way that does
>     not render on osm.org <http://osm.org>). I think he copied from
>     http://www.ringbell.co.uk/ukwmo/Page241.htm. There is also some
>     information on
>     http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/b/birmingham_anchor_exchange/index.html.
>     I'm not sure how reliable these sources are, and they certainly
>     don't include the whole system. It would be nice if we could get
>     more reliable information, but this might be rather hard.
>
>     There is also a tunnel linking the Mailbox with New Street station.
>     This tunnel has been open during events for the public, so for
>     this one we probably should be able to figure out where the
>     entrances are by asking people. We currently don't have it mapped.
>
>     I also know there are tunnels in Longbridge at the car factory,
>     but I have no further information about them. See also this
>     freedom of information request:
>     https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/shadow_factory_tunnels_longbridg
>
>     For the Birmingham tunnels, this freedom of information request
>     might be of help:
>     https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/underground_structures_in_birmin
>
>     Did you have any other underground structures in mind?
>
>     -- Matthijs
>
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-- 
Dr Jonathan Harley   :    Managing Director    :   SpiffyMap Ltd

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