Shornemead Fort August 2011

Hi all

Well the boys have been out and about for 3 days of underground fun and games in Kent.
Myself, Fluffy and the mighty Godzilla first decended on Shornemead fort. Work was started on the fort
in 1847 and it took 6 years to finish, though the marshy ground was to soft for the heavy fort so it
was rebuilt. There`s lots of info on this place but not what remains under ground (and there is a lot)

These first few pictures are from what remains of the surface building.





Now Fluffy said there was some underground goodness to be had, so Fluffy and Gogzilla both kitted up
with there wellingtons and I got my waders on (I DID TELL FLUFFY TO BRING HIS) and guess what, yep
the water was deeper than the boys could cope with, I think people on the Essex coast could hear him
swear, not a happy boy. So just to rub much salt in to there wounds....

Lets go underground........

This is a small passageway that leads to the main passage that links all the underground magazines (All 20 of them)
as you can see from the black tide mark the water is normaly deep, it was over 2 feet deep when I went in.



This is the view looking along the magazine passage.(That water is over 2 feet deep)



And a few pictures of the magazines the branch off the passageway.





There is plenty of other stuff to see along the magazine passageway.







This is as far as I went as I was on my own and by this point I could not hear the boys so if I
did get in to trouble I was going to be on my own, not good and it`s only about half way.
The last shot is looking back along the curved passage way.



Well thats it for Shornemead fort, thanks for looking and all comments are most welcome.
There are lots more pictures on my FlickR site, so pop over to:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157627451229969/

Cheers Newage

Fabulous place.Gives new meaning to the old cry 'keep your powder dry'

Oooh nice.

They came out even better than I thought they would - great shots Newage! As the man says, a lack of waders prevented me and Fluffy from getting any really good shots of the mags, but there were some interesting features up top, particularly in terms of ironwork.

We reckoned this might have been for a hawser that allowed the guns to be moved toward and away from the embrasures (these were originally muzzle-loaders)



These probably allowed guns to be lifted on and off gun carriages for repair


Some interesting little passages and also what is probably the emplacement and rail mounting for one of the 5.5 inch guns that were positioned at either end of the battery in WW2





We decided we are definitely going back (with waders) for another attempt at the rest of the underground stuff!
GDZ

Awesome stuff guys', I thought fluffy would have had some waders in that dam great bag he Carry's about.

nice shots very interesting

I wanna go here, looks amazing!

Nice stuff

Great place and some fantastic remains. Excellent work, boys.

krela said:

Oooh nice.

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Come on Mr K. You must be due for a trip down to Kent. Shall we give you a shout when we go back?

Can we come too??? Great stuff!

TeeJF said:

Can we come too??? Great stuff!

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All welcome. Book with Fluffytours now!

Fluffy Tours !!!
Yep, book now !!! Only requirements are a pair of waiders and a sense of humour !!!! (so that rules a few out )

them tunnels look good! shame about the casemates... they look demo'd? or was that apart of the plan and leave the fronts standing?

Timmy said:

them tunnels look good! shame about the casemates... they look demo'd? or was that apart of the plan and leave the fronts standing?

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The back of the fort, and all the above ground structures were demolished in the 1950's. Apparently, there was so much ironwork and masonry in the front that they didn't think they could blow it up without causing damage to shipping in the Thames estuary, so they just left it!
GDZ

I went and had look at the weekend as in the area, well i thought I was, a bit of a trek. Looks as if I entered the tunnels from the other end to you, as the numbers on the walls are different, and I didn't see the whinch or metalwork in your photos.

Unfortunately they don't do waders in my shoe size, so I went bare legged, a little numb when I came out, but done wonders for the skin!

A phew photos from the other end.

Oh look! On the next to the last picture there's a U Boat sailing past!

Is this place easy to find only we're down in kent from tomorrow for a couple of days...?

Local

Hi All

The fort is on public land and is just east of Cliffe fort, it`s a good walk.

Tank2020 it looks like you went in the same way as me, how far did you go in ?
There is a back fill along the passageway which I climed over and the wintch and big steel
beams are past that.

Looks like there was a lot more that I did not see.

Cheers Newage

Newage said:

Hi All

The fort is on public land and is just east of Cliffe fort, it`s a good walk.

Tank2020 it looks like you went in the same way as me, how far did you go in ?
There is a back fill along the passageway which I climed over and the wintch and big steel
beams are past that.

Looks like there was a lot more that I did not see.

Cheers Newage

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I went in from the Gravesend end of the fort. gdz73 pic seems to show a different entrance to mine, being that his has a solid brick arch, wereas the one I went through was brick.

I didn't fancy going past the part that had collapsed, the rubble all seemed to be perching on the end of one bit of stone, which I am sure I would have knocked getting through.

Nice work guys, good to see the the deep water has protected it from the vandals (and the welly wearers)