Secret Room 2 ....... "Nazi Bunker"
Discussion
Some of you may recall that in the "Secret Room" thread a few months ago, I said that I thought I had a nazi bunker buried in my garden. Well, since then I decided to get off my backside and excavate it. 
Our house is in an old quarry, and when we bought it five or so years ago, the previous owner (an old guy) told us that there was a tunnel built by the germans during WW2. He said it was big enough to drive into, and that his father had buried the entrance during redevelopments, but not before filling it with stuff that lying around the property (?). He showed me the rough location, and I've marked it on this little map with a red dot....
Because this is Pistonheads, to illustrate another way, here is the location immediately behind my MX5
.
Since then, an old gardener has told me that it was full of nazi vehicles
, but i've taken that with a pinch of salt.
However, i knew that there were in fact several tunnels nearby on other properties. My neighbours have one, now used as a store which can be seen from the road....
ETA: Pic removed (Apologies)
and there is another one further up the road, in a roadside bank, which is also being used as a store....
(from the outside)
But, the problem with mine is that is far more buried!
So I traced some WW2 reconnaisance photos of the property, which appeared to show the entrance road. These were taken in 1945, and i've marked the entrance in red - you can just see the road turning into the shadow cast by the entrance...
Armed with all this info, a few weeks back I started clearing the undergrowth around the entrance....
What started like this....
quickly became this....
and then this...
The steps in that last one aren't anything to do with the bunker, and will be sacrificed. Oh, and that boulder on the left is going to cause problems too....
I soon realised that, as mentioned in the last thread, I needed heavy duty equipment to continue. So today, a digger was delivered
And I got impatient....
so i got some guys in and we got stuck in this afternoon....
As we dig down, the boulder starts to look precarious....
It eventually starts to topple.... and the digger driver has to steady it down...
As I was taking the picture, he was actually shouting at me to move my car, which was behind the digger at the time and at risk of being hit as he reversed.
(from the yard)
(from where it came)
As the huge rock rolled away though, the spotter shouted that he'd seen something that had been uncovered....
We shift a few more rocks and.... reckon we found the entrance ..
Unfortunately.... the boulder was too big for the digger to move (we estimated about 8 tonnes) and we needed to get behind it to keep digging. So we had to call a halt to proceedings while I source a rock-breaker attachment for the digger!
oh, and I hadn't warned the wife either... so I had this to explain when she came home
More updates this weekend
Edited on 12th June to add:
As at today this thread stands at 106 pages. Its full of the drama, comedy and heartache that PH legendary threads are known for. If you would prefer not to partake of the adventure, I've created a blogsite where only the information that I post appears (although only in summary form). I would thoroughly recommend reading the whole thread (if you have time because the contributions of many are often not to be missed)
Otherwise for the blog click here... Yes, I have a short attention span
Our house is in an old quarry, and when we bought it five or so years ago, the previous owner (an old guy) told us that there was a tunnel built by the germans during WW2. He said it was big enough to drive into, and that his father had buried the entrance during redevelopments, but not before filling it with stuff that lying around the property (?). He showed me the rough location, and I've marked it on this little map with a red dot....
Because this is Pistonheads, to illustrate another way, here is the location immediately behind my MX5
.Since then, an old gardener has told me that it was full of nazi vehicles
, but i've taken that with a pinch of salt.However, i knew that there were in fact several tunnels nearby on other properties. My neighbours have one, now used as a store which can be seen from the road....
ETA: Pic removed (Apologies)
and there is another one further up the road, in a roadside bank, which is also being used as a store....
(from the outside)
But, the problem with mine is that is far more buried!
So I traced some WW2 reconnaisance photos of the property, which appeared to show the entrance road. These were taken in 1945, and i've marked the entrance in red - you can just see the road turning into the shadow cast by the entrance...
Armed with all this info, a few weeks back I started clearing the undergrowth around the entrance....
What started like this....
quickly became this....
and then this...
The steps in that last one aren't anything to do with the bunker, and will be sacrificed. Oh, and that boulder on the left is going to cause problems too
....I soon realised that, as mentioned in the last thread, I needed heavy duty equipment to continue. So today, a digger was delivered
And I got impatient....
so i got some guys in and we got stuck in this afternoon....
As we dig down, the boulder starts to look precarious....
It eventually starts to topple.... and the digger driver has to steady it down...
As I was taking the picture, he was actually shouting at me to move my car, which was behind the digger at the time and at risk of being hit as he reversed.
(from the yard)
(from where it came)
As the huge rock rolled away though, the spotter shouted that he'd seen something that had been uncovered....
We shift a few more rocks and.... reckon we found the entrance
..Unfortunately.... the boulder was too big for the digger to move (we estimated about 8 tonnes) and we needed to get behind it to keep digging. So we had to call a halt to proceedings while I source a rock-breaker attachment for the digger!
oh, and I hadn't warned the wife either... so I had this to explain when she came home
More updates this weekend
Edited on 12th June to add:
As at today this thread stands at 106 pages. Its full of the drama, comedy and heartache that PH legendary threads are known for. If you would prefer not to partake of the adventure, I've created a blogsite where only the information that I post appears (although only in summary form). I would thoroughly recommend reading the whole thread (if you have time
because the contributions of many are often not to be missed)Otherwise for the blog click here... Yes, I have a short attention span
Edited by CY88 on Friday 27th June 08:26
Thanks for the encouragement, people!
Logistically the next step is going to be difficult. My wife mentioned last night that it all looked a bit messy! And I fear things are only going to get worse once that big boulder is broken up. I think at the moment that its still holding up a bank of loose rocks. Does anyone know how exactly a rock breaker works? Is it like a pneumatic drill?
Logistically the next step is going to be difficult. My wife mentioned last night that it all looked a bit messy! And I fear things are only going to get worse once that big boulder is broken up. I think at the moment that its still holding up a bank of loose rocks. Does anyone know how exactly a rock breaker works? Is it like a pneumatic drill?
Colesy21 said:
CY88 said:
oh, and I hadn't warned the wife either... so I had this to explain when she came home
And how does that conversation start?"You see that big hole in what used to be our garden, well there's a good reason for it. I was bored, hired a digger and thought I'd look for a Nazi bunker..."
I hope for your sake there are a few home comforts in that bunker, you may be spending a few nights down there!!!
"So you haven't been at work today then?" followed by "They don't leave things very tidy do they?"
The latter comment may also have had something to do with the "practice" holes we dug in another part of the garden, so as to get a hang of operating the digger
hora said:
Mornin'. The neighbours stores etc arent covered over and even if they were not with boulders THAT big! Surely its blasted rock etc covering something that someone wanted hidden for a while.
I thought exactly the same. I'm also puzzled as to the depth of it compared to the ones nearby. If that concrete hip you can see in one of the last photos is at the apex of the roof, we're going to have to excavate down well below current ground level. f@tboy said:
CY88 - If you're in Guernsey then I'd love to come and help. I spent a lot of my early teens illicitly getting into bunkers and tunnels, and have been fascinated by them ever since. It would be great to help out legitimately.
The "other one", unfortunatleyEdited by CY88 on Friday 6th June 11:16
Munter said:
I dont think blasted rock is nice and round. I'm wondering if it's just been filled with earth and rock that someone dug out of someplace else and had knowhere to put.... Still I want more pictures over the weekend damn it, or I'll come down their with my beach bucket and spade!...
It was apparently blasted - they collapsed the quarry face over it. Aren't round boulders glacial?Rochester TVR said:
Great thread! Bookmarked!
Dont know if this has been mentioned - is it possible that the 'store' in your neighbours land (or the one down the road) may have a linking tunnel to your one?
Maybe you could get inside using a back door?
I had a chat with the neighbour recently about this. He had some theories too, which I will share in a future update (and which have involved me rummaging round in undergrowth in another part of the garden!) Dont know if this has been mentioned - is it possible that the 'store' in your neighbours land (or the one down the road) may have a linking tunnel to your one?
Maybe you could get inside using a back door?
hora said:
Wow, that would solve a few storage problems!And Odyssey, I can't carry on digging until we move / destroy the boulder. They never had to deal with this problem in the Temple of Doom.
Edited by CY88 on Friday 6th June 11:24
"shorts" it is 
Oh, and I saw this in another unrelated thread this morning....
Seems like I have unwittingly further implicated myself
Oh, and I saw this in another unrelated thread this morning....
Benni said:
Maybe it´s just me, cuz I am german, but :
The name of the original video poster puts me off.
I am very suspicious about people who have a name that ends with 88,
because this is neo-nazi coding,
the 8 standing for the 8th alphabet letter H,
and 88 standing for HEIL HITLER.
Looking at the users profile puts me off even more,
if someone here likes that stuff think what you dad/grandpa would say about it.
Benni
http://www.petrolheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=141&t=490474 The name of the original video poster puts me off.
I am very suspicious about people who have a name that ends with 88,
because this is neo-nazi coding,
the 8 standing for the 8th alphabet letter H,
and 88 standing for HEIL HITLER.
Looking at the users profile puts me off even more,
if someone here likes that stuff think what you dad/grandpa would say about it.
BenniSeems like I have unwittingly further implicated myself
Edited by CY88 on Friday 6th June 12:11
Mahatma Bag said:
That boulder.
I am assuming the previous owner's father didn't roll it up the bank, so was it there when the bunker was in use (which seems unlikely as it would be a danger and therefore diminishes the possibility of a bunker existing) or could it have rolled down from above?
Like i said before, the boulder is a puzzling part. Its very smooth and round, unlike all the other rocks that are strewn over the entrance. And whilst we live in the bottom of a valley (meaning it could feasibly have been smoothed by historic running water) the bunker / tunnel entrance (whatever it turns out to be) is clearly located right under it, which in my mind means it must have been placed there. The entrance road going into the tunnel on the wartime picture is unobscured too. I am assuming the previous owner's father didn't roll it up the bank, so was it there when the bunker was in use (which seems unlikely as it would be a danger and therefore diminishes the possibility of a bunker existing) or could it have rolled down from above?
Primitive booby trap? Perhaps a bit far fetched! I'm loathed to break it actually, because it would make a nice sort of monolith feature in the garden
. But I guess unless someone has a chinook handy to airlift it, I have to break it up if I want to explore furtherEdited by CY88 on Friday 6th June 14:14
It wasn't easy at all and it wouldn't budge. The digger just tipped up! I'd rather not break the hydraulics.Gretchen said:
CY88 - I posted earlier asking if you get to keep any/all future found treasure??
I guess it would depend on what it was? Its all on my property, so in theory I bought it along with the house, but I guess they'd always be an argument that something was of such significance (as if!) that someone else would lay claim to it.I actually found several things while digging the practice holes yesterday (although these were kinda insignificant to everything else). I don't think any of them are wartime articles - some interesting old bottles and jars, and something I was quite excited about - a small carved granite trough. I was quite pleased with that as it is fairly vaulable - £300ish? I haven't got round to cleaning these up yet, and will probably do that and photograph them tonight / tomorrow whilst waiting for the guy to come back with the digger bits.
Davi said:
Stick the bucket against the floor under the base and curl the bucket, so it's levering against the floor and under the boulder, rather than trying to pull it over with the diggers weight
I guess that may work, although its in a tricky position. Guess I need to get hold of some shutter ply to protect the tarmac?Munter said:
CY88 said:
and something I was quite excited about - a small carved granite trough. I was quite pleased with that as it is fairly vaulable - £300ish?
I see a water feature or raised herb garden or something of that ilk. I'm guessing it's a animal water/food trough size?@ Zeek 
Well, although I'm not busy digging, I have been doing some more research...
Here is another old photo (together with the first one again). The new one was taken after the war. You can see that the big warehouse structure that was shown to the south end of the property almost in the centre of the wartime photo, is not there after the war (it was in that area that I did some test holes and found the trough etc). I guess that must have been some kind of storage facility?
(during war)
(after war)
There is clearly still a path to entrance of the tunnel, and the rockface appears intact. I've also found a better copy of a very recent ariel photo which I will scan in later for comparison.
Well, although I'm not busy digging, I have been doing some more research...
Here is another old photo (together with the first one again). The new one was taken after the war. You can see that the big warehouse structure that was shown to the south end of the property almost in the centre of the wartime photo, is not there after the war (it was in that area that I did some test holes and found the trough etc). I guess that must have been some kind of storage facility?
(during war)
(after war)
There is clearly still a path to entrance of the tunnel, and the rockface appears intact. I've also found a better copy of a very recent ariel photo which I will scan in later for comparison.
Just a quick update....
I took a few pictures just now, having swept a little more dirt off the part of the entrance we exposed....
(1)"the boulder"... i'm growing quite fond of it..
(2)view of the boulder blocking the part of the entrance that we uncovered
(3)depth of the roof of the entrance under the soil to one side
(4) the granite trough that we dug up when digging "practise holes" (still needs a wash)
(6) a jar found at the same location
(7) the holly tree which unfortunately had to be sacrificed from the shrubbery
On a more productive note, a friend of mine is on his way round to see if we can stick some sort of camera through the rocks around the tunnel entrance
I took a few pictures just now, having swept a little more dirt off the part of the entrance we exposed....
(1)"the boulder"... i'm growing quite fond of it..
(2)view of the boulder blocking the part of the entrance that we uncovered
(3)depth of the roof of the entrance under the soil to one side
(4) the granite trough that we dug up when digging "practise holes" (still needs a wash)
(6) a jar found at the same location
(7) the holly tree which unfortunately had to be sacrificed from the shrubbery
On a more productive note, a friend of mine is on his way round to see if we can stick some sort of camera through the rocks around the tunnel entrance
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