Derbyshire's Secret Tunnels - RAF Harpur Hill
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Hello and welcome to episode 13 of Buxton Barrow Man my volunteering series! Today's episode is about Harpur Hill quarry, past and present including the bunkers of RAF Harpur Hill.
Shot on: GoPro Hero11/ DJI Mavic Mini
Music:
A Kind Of Hope - Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0.
www.scottbuckley.com.au
• 'A Kind Of Hope' [Cont...
I have read that the military use of Harper Hill dates from WW1 when the Frith Artillery Range was used to test trench mortars which were reportedly very unreliable. There are a number of articles about this on the web which viewers might find interesting. Thanks for the informative Video.
I believe that was the case unfortunately I hadn’t found that out before scripting and recording.
Thanks to yourself for watching and commenting :)
I worked at the college built on the site in the 80’s & 90’s - there were so many reminders of the RAF days there, and even the rifle storage clamps in some the accommodation blocks. Lovely place, now sadly no more.
That’s amazing to know, thank you :)
I was a student for 2 years at "High Peak Catering College" on Harpur Hill from 1979. We were specifically banned from visiting the 'blue lagoon'. I remember the lazy wind which didn't go round you, it went through you! I understand the college became part of Derby University for a while after.
Was claimed as and moved down there.
Good stuff. Love these bits of history. I'm over in Lincolnshire, so plenty of old airfields to poke around
Thank you so much :)
Back in 1966\8 I was a student at the college which was based in ex RAF buildings at the top of Harper Hill and a field trip from the catering college (Rather pretensiously called High Peak Hotel School)
We toured the mines which were used as a mushroom farm.
There were still signs on the walls saying where each type of bomb should be stored.
Amazing, I saw markings like that in Llanberis’ store very interesting to see :)
It is not know if this was the intended target but during WW2 air launched V1s landed over an area just to the west of this site. The closest landing to the west of the old Cromford & High Peak railway summit tunnel in the Goyt valley. The tunnel used at the time for storage of munitions. Another operation of this site was to recycle bombs, as aircraft got larger so did the bombs. So a lot of rebuilding also took place on this site. According to grand parents who lived close by, the fields where full of old and new bombs, under trees, in old quarries and charcoal boles.
It’s quite possible, Earl Sterndale isn’t too far away and their church was bombed during the war as well. There is also one picture circling online that is possibly from the site as you explained with munition stacked on the side of a road and under trees.
From what I remember reading... The Llanberis bomb store collapsed because they skimped on the amount of steel and cement in their concrete, something about it being in short supply for some reason. Then they overloaded with too much munitions. It must have been fun for those who were tasked with retrieving all the munitions.
That’s really interesting and would explain the way it collapsed.
From the 1960s (?) through to about 5 years ago there used to be a University of Sheffield presence on that site. My department had a microwave test range and an anechoic chamber (an indoor lab for RF testing) in a bunker. It was heavily used in the 70s but was winding down by the late 80s. It's a great place though and some interesting work went on there.
I did hear recently that they might be demolishing the bunkers at the top now Sheffield have left.
@@Leock Quite possibly. We were told that there is one collapsed bunker with a car still in it but I'm not sure of the truth of that.
"i cant feel my face!" really made me laugh, thanks for the epic history vid,
Thank you!
I seem to remember going to a Rock festival there in the early 70's , It was bloody cold . The bill included Steppenwolf , Roy Wood's Wizard and Curved Air
Interesting I’ve never heard of a festival being around Harpur before.
@@Leock There is a website for all the Buxton Festivals 1971-1974 .this one was 1972 . At a place called Booth's farm . the site was scattered with various Bunkers and concrete military structures
Awesome thank you!
Thanks Leo, this video answered a lot of unanswered questions for us. My Wife and I spent our honeymoon in a cottage close to New Lodge Farm near Flash, 41 years ago. From the kitchen and front room window we could look out over towards Chrome Hill, Parkhouse Hill and the area this video is about. After 41 years of wondering what all the buildings and works in the area were for we finally know. Although we live in Hampshire we try to get up to the Buxton area at least once or twice a year, the next visit will be in mid-March. We will look out for you as we take our Granddaughter for a train ride in The Pavilion Gardens. Keep up the good work, and look forward to the next video. David and Alma
Thank you for watching and leaving a comment, it means a lot to me.
It’ll be my pleasure to take you all around on the train :)
keeping history alive, its good to remind oneself that this area / county used to make do thing.
Indeed Derbyshire was once a completely different county.
As a child I can remember seeing a long string of wagons stored on the rump of the CHP line where it crossed the road to Macclesfield. There was also a head on collision between 2 trains on the site. Later I worked there , my office being in the old officers accommodation. A very interesting place indeed.
Mushroom production underground there in the 60/70 s
I worked there as a teenager making the large wooden boxes and filling with the horse manure !
I worked there too, in the 70s - at the 'mushy' picking mushrooms and carting them for collection. I remember a gun picker- Philomena
Went to Harpur Hill College in 1980. Happy memories.
Thank you for sharing
Quality history - thoughtful and informative. Bravo. ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Leo, just found your channel and have subscribed and will catch up on your previous content over the coming days.
Very interesting video, I’ve been fascinated with British history from the Industrial Revolution period and moving forward through the years.
Also want to thank you for cleaning up areas you visit, I wish people would take the time to think about not dropping rubbish and pack it out with them.
Thank you for sharing this brilliant video with everyone.
Best wishes to you and your family and look forward to seeing more from you as the year progresses.
Thank you so much for watching and such a lovely comment!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend :)
Great video. Thanks for producing
Thank you!
I worked for the Ministry of Public Buildings & Works at their Seymour Road, Old Trafford, offices in the late 60s. One of the surveyors there paid regular visits to Harpur Hill - I often wondered why - should have asked him I suppose - and I did wonder what infrastructure the UK Government had in such a remote and unremarkable location. Now I know!
The you tube algorithm brought me here. Nice video and well researched too it would seem. Well done subscription added.
Thank you very much! :)
HSE Harpur Hill was used to evaluate the effects of the devices used in the 7/7 bombings as it's one of the few places in the world where you can blow up an underground train in a tunnel.
I’ve seen a few photos of the tube train they have on site :)
@@Leock I used to work at Fort Halstead where scene of explosion evidence was processed and the IEDs were identified and recreated. Being inside the M25 and not having any suitable tunnels (despite the rumours) it wasn't something that we could test ourselves. As well as the explosive tests, Harpur Hill was heavily involved in investigating the response, e.g. the effectiveness of the firefighting and rescue techniques in the train cars, in the confined space of a tunnel, to identify any potential lessons that could be learned.
Climbed there for years and never knew the history. Cheers.
In the 80s my Dad used to deliver and collect cheese into there for Nestles with artics. If i remember it, he said they used to drive into the tunnels.
That’s really interesting, one of my family has said they did the same as well. Shame there’s not more pictures from that time to show.
i've known it snow in summer in buxton before. it can be a tad volatile weather-wise.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing.
And thank you for watching!
Its a secret weapons manufacturing complex
MoD giveaway fencing surrounding, dead giveaway!!
Not a mention of its relatively close-to site of Fauld, which went BaNg ?!
As a lorry driver i collected cheese from there. Think in 2004, didnt get far past the gates but could tell it was all military and hush....
Thanks for the video very interesting although I think the college was open a little longer than you do as I went there for a short course in early 2002.
Thanks for letting me know! I didn’t have much to go off, I could only confirm it was fully abandoned in 2009.
bloody hell i go in the quary there weeky didnt even know that was there
If you're sneaking into underground places. Aside from giving me a shout ;) Using much more light for filming might help. Used to go caving loads and made my own lights. Much fun.
I’ve invested in more lights the more I’ve been recording underground.
@@Leock This reminded me to have a look through Images Below by Chris Howes. While I've been potholing with him once, played badminton many times :) Great book about undergound photography.
3:42At first sight I thought the SS building plan was intended to confuse the enemy 🤔
One little detail you got wrong in an otherwise excellent programme, the largest ammo depot was Monkton Farleigh near Corsham
Hard to verify but it looks like both are of the larger scale when I comes to depots. Both vary on source if they claim to be the biggest or just one of. Thank you for commenting though, I wasn’t aware of Monkton Farleigh before.
I once worked with a guy who had worked in a bonded warehouse on the site full of wine.
We live about 10 miles away in Macclesfield, backing onto the national park. On and off, for the last 2 weeks a blast or some sort of sonic boom has woken me up about 3 or 4 am, just a single boom each time. It almost sounds like something landing on my roof. I can’t work out if it is supersonic aircraft on their way to the Middle East or a quarry blast. I checked the local press, no mention of it, anyone know what it is please?
I’m curious about that too, not sure there’s many quarries that blast near mac or military sites either.
@@Leock several people in the household were woken, it even set the car alarms off on one occasion.
Hydro Electric Power from the real past.
Weirdly the barracks are in the shape of SS......! I wonder what that's about.
I thought that to but interestingly the map is wrong, not at all the shape of the barracks. It was just made up to look non suspicious on a map so people wouldn’t realise it’s military. In my case at least it has the complete opposite effect.
We have our very own "Terror Tunnels"