# Drakelow Tunnels-Rover's Shadow Factory.



## fluffy5518 (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi all !!
I know it's all been seen before but thought i'd post my piccies anyway.!! As you doubtlessly know by now,work on building these tunnels commenced in 1941 and they were handed over to Rover (rather late) in 1943.Their principle function was to build components for aero engines for the Bristol Aircraft Company.Somewhere between 500 - 700 people were employed here and the workshops were housed in the grid of side tunnels (Galleries) that existed in a grid formation from the 4 main entrance tunnels.These main tunnels are nearly one sixth of a mile long each and i'm sure that i read (although i cant remember where) that there are approx 3 miles of tunnel in all !!Not all of the tunnel sections were used by Rover as the North east corner of the complex was used as a store by thr RAF.
This is the entrance to Tunnel 4 showing the air lock doors and the Time Office (Where the employees clocked in.)





Once inside this is the kind of sight that greets you !! Massive tunnels with a warren of side Galleries.












To the left and right of these main tunnels are the Galleries which contained Offices,workshops,toilets etc.Unfortunately most of these have been stripped out and are just empty shells although some still have a bit of individuality.
This is the former Finished parts and jig stores.




This is Battery Room East




This is the view from Gallery 42 Gear Section accross Tunnel 2 and into Gallery 18 Final View.




This is Gallery 25a
Anodising,Chromating and Pickling !!




Gallery 26 The Progress and Waiting Time Office.




This is the rear of Gallery 22 Plating Shop showing the brick lined walls.




.....and this is Gallery 43 The Cylinder Barrels Machine Shop.




Accross to Tunnel 4 now.This is the only tunnel capable of being lit.It was retained in use long after the other 3 were abandoned and bricked up as it was an entrance way to the RSG 9.2 and latterly the RGHQ.
This is the entrance




This is part of the lit section showing an old abandoned motorized trolley,left over from Rover's days.




Looking towards the end of Tunnel 4.




At the end of Tunnel 4 is the entrance way to the former RAF Stores area.Yet another imposing Tunnel.




Staying in this area -now at the rear of the RGHQ this is looking towards the BBC area through what was the Ministry of Works area complete with Lansom Tube equipment on the left hand wall.




...at the rear of this is an old air vent unit and some topical graffiti poss from the early 90's




Back now accross to the centre section and a few pictures of the canteen area with the lights on......












..and lastly some pretty impressive brickwork at the blocked entrance to Tunnel 2.




Sorry for the mumber of photo's,there was just so much to see it is quite difficault to condense it for a report.


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## sYnc_below (Dec 9, 2010)

Very nice, what did you use for lighting the shots if you don't mind me asking?


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## klempner69 (Dec 9, 2010)

Hal,you pipped me to my question!!You sure got the lighting spot on..pray tell,did you crank the ISO or have some mega torch?Excellant shots anyhow.


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## Badoosh (Dec 9, 2010)

I reckon he followed the guy with the rig - anybody else see him on the 27th wheeling his kit round in a specially constructed trolley? Not sure what lighting he was using but it was good enough for night rally stages lol.

Seriously though, some fantastic shots there fluffy, well laid out & informative.


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## tommo (Dec 9, 2010)

at last he gets his report up and it was well worth waiting for, some great shots there fella


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## fluffy5518 (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi Guys !! Thanx for the comments !! I knew it was gonna be a long day down there so i came equipped with enough torch power to light a small village for a couple of hours BUT in the finish all i used was my trusty 1million candle power torch from Argos (£15)and thirty seconds of frantic wrist action !!! (STOP IT !!)
Seriously they are great torches,not too bulky and as they are not LED's they give a nice yellowy light.Usually get about 30-40 phots before the batts die !!


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## night crawler (Dec 10, 2010)

Great report Fluffy as usual you have surpassed yourself but were there any spiders.


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## godzilla73 (Dec 10, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> Hi Guys !! Thanx for the comments !! I knew it was gonna be a long day down there so i came equipped with enough torch power to light a small village for a couple of hours BUT in the finish all i used was my trusty 1million candle power torch from Argos (£15)and thirty seconds of frantic wrist action !!! (STOP IT !!)
> Seriously they are great torches,not too bulky and as they are not LED's they give a nice yellowy light.Usually get about 30-40 phots before the batts die !!



It's true! They would light up Blackpool if the illuminations gave out, and the Fluffster carries a bag of them. The reason why he takes such marvellous shots is because he is very strict about the battery use (e.g. "Turn that f**kin' torch off Godzy!" after I borrowed one for a bit)
Oooh, and there was plenty of frantic wrist action. So much that we considered hiring a couple of teenage boys to do the work for us 
Great pics though Fluff. Thanks for sharing!
GDZ


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## fluffy5518 (Dec 12, 2010)

THANX GUYS !!!!
Cheers for the comments Mr Crawler,but i swear if you mention SPIDERS one more time ...............
Likewise Godzy BUT remember what happend the last time you got involved with a couple of RENT(ed) BOYS !!


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## sYnc_below (Dec 14, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> in the finish all i used was my trusty 1million candle power torch from Argos (£15)



I feel even worse now, the bought for the occasion, 1000 lumen, silly money, LED beast I took didn't produce such 'even' shots as yours 




_I could light up Tunnel 4 from one end to the other though_ :evil::evil:


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## fluffy5518 (Dec 14, 2010)

Hal Chase said:


> I feel even worse now, the bought for the occasion, 1000 lumen, silly money, LED beast I took didn't produce such 'even' shots as yours
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Dont forget mate it takes some serious wrist action ! The problem with somewhere as large as Drakekow is that there is so much area in each phot to illuminate that it really takes some serious WIGGLING to 'paint the scene' in uniformly.!!


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## sYnc_below (Dec 14, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> Dont forget mate it takes some serious wrist action ! The problem with somewhere as large as Drakekow is that there is so much area in each phot to illuminate that it really takes some serious WIGGLING to 'paint the scene' in uniformly.!!




Yeah, lesson learned....I'll do better when I revisit


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