# Bridge Valley Road Deep Shelter, Bristol, September 08



## silverstealth (Sep 6, 2008)

Many Thanks To Tumbles For The Tour over the weekend.. 

Possibly originally a railway tunnel and then converted into an air raid shelter for use during the war, In recent years it has been the venue for a local gun/rifle club. 

Bristols Clifton Rocks Railway is a short walk away. 

At the end of the tunnel there is the remains of the toilets beyond this there are further sections but this area is bricked up.

Bristol’s most crowded bomb shelter - the Portway Tunnel. Today it stands locked and derelict, its entrance half hidden by thick undergrowth. But during the worst of the Bristol blitzes in the winter of 1940/41, people would walk for miles to find shelter in the tunnel that lies beneath Bridge Valley Road in the shadow of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The tunnel gained a near-mythical reputation as the safest place to be when bombs were falling over Bristol, and families shoved and squeezed their way into the dank, unhealthy interior to pass the night. So many began walking to the tunnel each night that the authorities acted, fearing riots or, worse, an epidemic from the increasingly filthy conditions in the tunnel.

Hundreds of people were forcibly evicted from the Portway refuge and ordered not to return. A small number of treasured passes were issued to the lucky few. The action caused bitter resentment among a hungry, blitz-weary population. But as the fear of blitzes began to die away after the final great raids of the spring of 1941 faded, so did the ill-feeling. 

http://silverstealth.fotopic.net/c1572714.html


----------



## krela (Sep 6, 2008)

It was a railway tunnel at one point in time yes, part of the original port and pier railway but the line was demolished to make what is now Bridge Valley Road / The Portway in 1922.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Beach_Line

More recently it was used by Bristol Gun Club who disbanded when handguns were banned in the UK.


----------



## rookinella (Sep 6, 2008)

There's a reason I didn't post this on a public forum for obvious reasons  Did Tom not warn you to do the same?


----------



## silverstealth (Sep 6, 2008)

rookinella said:


> There's a reason I didn't post this on a public forum for obvious reasons  Did Tom not warn you to do the same?



Didn't you have all the pictures up in your pretty vacant site up until very recently, hardly a private site 

And no he didn't warn me..


----------



## rookinella (Sep 6, 2008)

Ahh right, he said he told you not to post it in public. I took the photos off my site and there are no reports on a public forum.


----------



## silverstealth (Sep 6, 2008)

rookinella said:


> Ahh right, he said he told you not to post it in public. I took the photos off my site and there are no reports on a public forum.



in relation to your site I was under the impression he was concerned about one photo in particular only..


----------



## krela (Sep 6, 2008)

Can't really see why this would be a sensitive site. The other one perhaps but not this one.

The only reason I can think of to keep it off the web is to stop it being closed again, but it's been open/closed on and off for the past 5 years, and has been on the web on and off for that time too. It hardly stops people posting other sites up.


----------



## rookinella (Sep 6, 2008)

..............


----------



## spacepunk (Sep 6, 2008)

Nice photos, those wide angle shots are great.


----------



## Sabtr (Sep 6, 2008)

Very good photo's these. 
I don't understand why they should not be posted.


----------



## thecollector (Sep 6, 2008)

Very conciderate to leave the power & lights on for you!!!!!


----------



## thecollector (Sep 6, 2008)

OOps typo error...


----------



## silverstealth (Sep 6, 2008)

thecollector said:


> Very conciderate to leave the power & lights on for you!!!!!



Thats what I thought, It certainly helped..


----------



## chizyramone (Sep 7, 2008)

Great pictures, interesting history.

Nice one


----------

