Devonport Dockyard Deep Air Raid Shelter / Cann Tunnel

Site visits from 2006-2010

When I first came across photographs of this tunnel on Cyberheritage back in 2006, I knew I had to visit & see it with my own eyes, although it took months for me to actually find the point of access & I never actually got to walk the full length until early 2009. Many locals living within the vincinity hadn't even heard of it but they along with thousands of Plymouth people drive above it everyday, driving to & from work or doing their shopping at the large supermarket nearby. Just exactly why one of the world's (yes world!) oldest railway tunnels is not more cared for baffles me. Thankfully it still remains without threat of demolition after being resealed in 2010 as a home for bats & wildlife to thrive within.

The sealed north portal of Cann Tunnel

Built in the 1820's & part of the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway, carriages were horse drawn & it was named "The Dartmoor Gauge" due to it's unusal size being 4'6". The tunnel is a staggering 620 yards in length & was converted during World War II to a deep air raid shelter & underground hospital for the workers of Devonport Dockyard had it taken more bombing from the Luftwaffe. From 1944, it was then used as Naval storage for depth charges. In the 1950's it was noted in the Central Register of Underground Accomodation by the government as a possible deep shelter in the event of a nuclear war. Thankfully this was never used for such a purpose.

To think though, that this would have accommodated upto 3,000 & possibly more, it begs belief & I could only imagine rows of triple bunks alongside one length of the lined corridors where horses once dragged their carts. In an area void of housing at the time, it would have provided the ideal safe haven on the outskirts of the city & much needed relief for workers to rest inbetween bombing raids but little history has been available as to it's actual attendance during raids until now.

Inside the south portal - It's minus 4 outside & a warm mist inside the tunnel

My first visit to Cann Tunnel was solo involving a tight squeeze head first in to pitch black, muddy & wet & it was only when I turned on my head torch to be confronted with a mass of large spiders inches away from my face. I didn't spend long in there as my batteries had died within a few minutes & the entry point was resealed for a couple of years until someone took it upon themselves to open it properly in 2009. Asbestos sheeting that once lined the roof section littered the floors, smashed to bits by youths years back, most probably 70's/80's. A dozen or so more visits were made during the time it was open, each time finding something new like graffiti or artefacts & we had a little experiment with creative lighting along the way after really getting back into my photography again.

Asbestos sheeting littering the floor

Lighting the way 

Taking a moment to reflect around halfway inside the tunnel

Evidence of it's WWII use as a deep air raid shelter still remain with blast doors, dogleg sections with baffle walls, hospital sick bay complete with curtain rails & bed frames scattered around. Ladders lead up high to former emergency exit points, now blocked with huge boulders with service tunnels around three feet in height making for an interesting crawl to another ladder higher up. We will focus a lot more on Cann Tunnel in detail next year but in the meantime we have been working on following up extra research from two e-mails we received to build a better history on the tunnel during it's wartime use & as a naval store.

Blast door a few meters away from the north portal

Baffle sections

WWII hospital sick bay

Dividing curtain rail for two sick bays

Bed frames thought to be from the sick bays

One of the small service tunnels

Ladder of mud to the exit point up high above with a constant trickle of water 

Former exit point now blocked with a precariously perched boulder

Did you or a member of your family ever visit/work at the tunnel during the war?

We need your stories & old photographs to add the history to our fast building archives & for possible inclusion in the forthcoming books. Please get in touch via info@hiddenplymouth.co.uk

Until next time...

The Plymouth Pear

Now for something a little different.....

We received an e-mail a few weeks back from one of our readers kindly asking if they could supply an article for the blog & we were glad to oblige, especially as the subject was a little different to what you are normally used to on here & we would like to thank John Lamb for the article below.

Hidden Site of Special Scientific Interest by John Lamb

I feel very privileged to write a guest post for this blog, I find the discoveries on this blog to be exciting and a real boys own adventure. So please bear with me as I have something a little bit different to reveal to you. I work for a Plymouth self storage company and my job is to find new storage sites and carry out research on the site before we complete the deal.

When we were looking at our Plymouth site I carried out a few searches and one thing that was raised by the landlords was the fact that the site had a TPO on the site – a Tree Protection Order.  Not only that but it was also classed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Not knowing what a TPO was, or indeed what a SSSI is I researched it and it turns out we have one of the rarest trees in the Britain on the storage site. 

The Plymouth pears are only found in two places, Plymouth and near Truro in Cornwall. To develop the storage site we had to work with Natural England to make sure they were happy with the development around the trees and make sure they were protected during construction and once the site was open. Sadly the pears aren’t very tasty to eat, I believe they are edible but they’re certainly not like the pears you buy in your local green grocers. They are very small and quite hard.

So it may not be a cave, air raid shelter or secret passage way but Plymouth has once again revealed it has something rare and worth protecting. The pictures show the trees and their tags, each protected tree being numbered I believe.

Further information can be found here;

http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/environmentandplanning/natureconservation/wildlife/wildlifespecies/plymouthpear.htm

Central Park Leisure Pools - A Hidden View

On the day of the brand new Plymouth Life Centre opening, a strange twist of fate led to the opportunity to photograph the swift demise of the Central Park Pools. Taking a brief break from a full day trying out the new facilities I popped outside mid-afternoon to take advantage of the clear blue skies to capture some photographs of the old buildings only to find the fencing compound open along with a door to the main pool area. Thinking it must be workmen, I walked into a corridor with alarm bells ringing out & walked into the pool area shouting 'Hello' only to be greeted by a few teenagers who were about to hoist a ladder up to the high dive board. Upon seeing me they scarpered back to the park so I set about taking a few photos whilst waiting for security to come. My theory being that someone would already have been notified of the alarm, then my presence may dissuade the lads to come back & climb that ladder, & run the risk of falling in the almost empty pool which would have caused serious injury as it was let alone climbing higher.

End of an era

Inside the open door I came across

Fire exit from the main pool area, alarm bells blaring  - time to take a look

Barriers lying at the bottom of the deserted pool

Raised spectator seating lies empty

At the deep end of photo reportage

I quickly realised & to amazement, that the buildings was already becoming pretty vandalised within such a short space of time & let's make one thing clear, none of the kids was trashing stuff when I disturbed them so whoever was responsible we will never know - I'll touch on this again a little later in the post. Around 15 minutes had passed & the silence was rudely interrupted by the sound of the doors slamming shut. At this point I was on the diving board section & ran back thinking it was security locking back up only to hear several loud thuds against the door. When I reached the door, it was checkmate for the teenagers had returned & jammed the entry with around 10 barriers & stood with smug grins - okay think.....I'm barricaded in........may as well take some more photos then & wait for the cavalry of yellow jackets to arrive!

In the shadows of it's former glory

Numbered lanes

1

.75m shallow pool

Deserted shallow pool 

The play park outside buzzing with families oblivious to the blaring alarm that is pounding my eardrums

Apart from the obvious barriers that had been thrown in the pools, there hadn't been much damage but the first floor in parts was full of glass from broken cabinets & glass door panels. A couple of fire extinguishers had been let off  & I found that most of the lighting in the building was turned on, another hazard for kids scrabbling about in a derelict building intent on wreaking havoc, live electrics aren't to be taken lightly & a phone call was made to a contact at the Life Centre to get the building locked down & returned to taking photos while waiting for the security firm to arrive. Time to get up close & personal with the diving platforms!

Walkway to the spectators area littered with broken glass

No barefeet today!

Follow the yellow hand rail

The dizzy heights of the dive platforms

Dive dummy

No longer in use

Here it is - Tom Daley's old dive platform!

Overlooking the six lane pool

The dive pool from the top platform

The dive platforms offered an amazing view of the derelict complex, the height for me wasn't a problem but there would be no way I would even jump from that height into a full pool. After taking in the views from above, it was over to the spectators seating area to soak up the alarming atmosphere.

Time to get the spectators view

Here we are

Silent rows

The derelict scene on a busy Saturday afternoon

Silence in the changing rooms

Shower humour

An hour later - alarm still blaring & flashing

Fire doors

Gym Tots area

Height chart

It was just over an hour later I found a way out of the building by the rear entrance where the kids had also barricaded to an extent, but with many sites like this, climbing has come in to play & on my return to the outside I was greeted by more kids trying to get in. I locked the door behind me so will never know if they regained access. None of the teenagers were hostile, more inquisitive as to why I was taking photos & I explained about make a photo archive of the building. Their response about the building getting trashed was 'It's getting demolished anyway'!

Goodbye Central Park Pools

So there it is, documented by accident & now gone forever. I waited around for another ten minutes & still no sign of security so headed back to the Life Centre to notify them & it was swiftly dealt with, although more kids managed to gain entry again later that month from what a contractor told us, to begin another wrecking spree & smashing further windows. C'est la vie!

Hidden Plymouth - A Tribute to Tom Daley

A little different to what we normally post on here but we couldn't not do our own tribute to Plymouth's very own Olympic Bronze medalist, Tom Daley. We had the privilege of watching Tom dive in a British Championship back in April 2012 at Plymouth Life Centre where he won gold with some amazing diving in the 10m platform. This young chap is never out the media spotlight nowadays & is an inspiration for youngsters worldwide. Not only an inspiration to the young, but also the older generations who yearn for a Brit to do well, especially after getting knock-backs with whatever life throws our way & if you have followed Tom for the past few years you will know the story, if not read his book or watch him & his team mates relaxing from training doing their own version of LMFAO's "Sexy & I Know It" on You Tube, we love it!

TRIBUTE TO TOM DALEY - THE DARK KNIGHT OF DIVING!!

WELL DONE TOM!!

Okay, okay there's a little more than makes out to this tribute after a strange twist of fate would see me stood on the old diving board where Tom Daley cut his teeth & we have some exclusive images from within the Central Park Pools after closure.......coming up next on the blog!

Tom Daley's old diving platform in the now demolished Central Park Pools