Hougham Battery Dressing Station
The entrance is quite well hidden in the bushes off the main parth & in a seemingly random field. This has also kept the placce safe from the local Chavs of the area that are renound for there skills in vandalisim & other pointless activertys.
Looking down the entry tunnel a few steps in. Lots of rubble ether side, so careful when going down this passage. Also the ceiling is very low so mind your head if you are of average height or taller.
Looking back up at the entrance I had to craw though. It is recommended to go backwards first.
Some of the light cases left by the people who did channel tunnel fire testing & training down here. This was this places last use sometime in the 90s or late 80s when the tunnel was under construction.
The stairs down this passage show something quite rare in these dressing stations. That is the floor beams that go though the concrete in the floor. They are very degraded, so watch your step going down this passage.
At the bottom of the stairs looking deeper into the bunker. Something catches the eye sitting in front of a chalk wall. Looks to be a bit of motor.
Looking back up the stairs from the bottom you can see the last glimpse of the daylight before you decent into true darkness.
Welcome to the 20 meter under club. Oh wait, you have to go to do certain activity that is not suitable for minors to be a member of that.
At the chalk wall looking further into the bunker you can see a motor fan to one side & a turn into another part of the bunker.
The lonely motor rotor just sitting on the floor, looks to have been in the same spot for along time. It is a little to heavy to move to other locations.
This motor was ether used as part of the ventilation system or for the medical trolley winch system at the very end of the bunker.
The motor rotor seems to have had any copper once on it removed & is mostly a rusty hunk of steel. The gaps are filled with chalk since it has spent its life down here alone & in the dark with only the odd parser by for company.
Looking back at the entrance where I came in. It is currently the only accessible entrance into the complex.
Metal tins no doubt original to the tunnels due to the amount of corrosion on them. It is very damp down here. Humidity is very high. Combined with no natural air flow.
The fan for the motor, the only other part remaining. It looks to be made of aluminum as it is more dirty than corroded. This thing is always in a new location every time I visit the bunker.
Moving toward the end of the tunnel deeper in the bunker you can see a larger tunnel that based on some of the articles dotted down here was probably the living area of the bunker as there is the most room. This tunnel is 90 meters long.
There is one of these bunkers under Dover Castle that has been restored & setup as they were during WWII.
Continuing down the passage way we were first looking down, you can see a pile of rubble & builders rubbish at the end of the tunnel.
The tunnel then continues up a stair case burred under rubble so was not safe to go up. Further up where it would have come out at the field is now blocked off as the original entrances were demolished & filled in.
The piles of builders rubbish at the bottom of the stairs consists of hydraulic hose, remains of a builders lamp, some strapping & an old inner tube. Sadly as you have seen not much original items left down here (that trend continues), mostly old trash is all that is left.
Bolted to one wall about a third way down the big tunnel was a breaker box with one breaker switch in it. Nothing is wired to it any more, but it still have a very satisfying clunk when switched.
Looking down the tunnel there is a wheelbarrow filled with rubbish, it seems to have been used as a bin. There are a few other items laying about but most are just modern junk.
The remains of an old WWII kettle sitting an asbestos laden sheet draped in mud. One of the few original items to the place.
A concrete slab supports a few items & other rubbish on it. There is also an old school chair. In some circles there story's involving this chair.
Hear is a mount for some conduit that would of been used for power. Mostly lights in a place like this. Also they would of provided power to medical equipment although it was pretty basic back then.
There is a line of these brick walls which have sadly been destroyed by vandals. However they look to have been toilet stalls at one point. Not that there is any evidence of any toilets. Could not see pipes under the rubble but everything was striped out this bunker at some point.
One of the few original light fittings that remain on the site. The light bulb is long smashed & the socket has no shade of any type. There is some wire. It was hung over one of the conduit pipe mounts.
An abandoned fire extinguisher was just something left by the builders that striped this place.
Looking down at the end of the tunnel there is an exit off to the right & more random junk at the end. We are nearing the end of the bunker at this point.
The hose of the fire extinguisher is sitting on top of a pile of damp & rotten wood. This end of the bunker is very wet & muddy. Welly boots or other type of waterproof footwear are recommended here.
At the very end is a pip that once went to the surface, what it was for is unknown. Could of been ventilation or a port for a heating system. The pipe has been rammed down into the tunnel & is caped off further up with mud.
Looking into the doorway at the end of the tunnel leads to what I believe to be the operation room based on a few differences compared to the rest of the bunker.
Half way along is another sealed off entrance with a man hole in front of it, the stairs also have a stretcher ramp next to them. So any patients would have been bought in at this entrance. There are a few original parts of the bunker dumped here.
Down the man hole is pretty empty apart from some junk that has been dumped down it. It was potentially where the winch system was. Could of also been where the gas tanks for the medical equipment were kept & then fed out on a pipe system. Would make seance to keep the explosive stuff under ground away from enemy fire. There is also an original Jerry can next to it.
Some old electrical boxes. All rusted & gutted of the fuses & other bits they once contained. One looks to have at one point been an electrical switch.
The end of the bunker & the last room. I believe this to be the main operating room as it is closest to the stretcher ramp. It is also a nice big room that could house all the medical equipment & give room for the doctors to do there thing.
There is also a pip at the end here which could of been used with the medical gasses, but has been rammed down from the surface.
The other side of the medical room. Flooded & muddy. The old walls were to probably provide a clinical environment for any operations that needed doing.
Luckily due to the wet & muddy conditions of the bunker the likely hood of asbestos dust being kicked up is low. It is all mostly at the edges of the tunnel from where it collapsed.
The walls here show evidence of a dump proof membrane that than had a layer of asbestos concrete plastered over them. That has all since crumbled away.
At the bottom of the stairs are some original artifacts from when the bunker was operational. This looks like the rusted remains of a carbide container.
The third & last exit to the surface. Also plugged with mug & rubble. The stairs are quite steep. But interestingly next to that is a stretcher ramp. There was a winch system in place to lower patients in & out of the bunker using this ramp. Which could be what that part of the motor was for, even though it is at the wrong end of the bunker.
The other place the winch equipment could have been is in the manhole in front of this tunnel.
Looking back towards the big main tunnel. You can see a small collapse of the chalk wall, probably from the damp.
Back up at the entrance you can see it was capped off with wire wrapped stones. One of these wire wraps was cut open at some point & the stones removed making access possible.
You do have the slid in backwards & find the bricks with your foot put there so people can get in & out. Getting out is an easy matter of crawling out.
Now For Some Artistic Shots (I Have Returned To This Site A Few Times)
