Tunnels under Sheffield

[Historyphil 10]

Hello, There is a tunnel from Kelham Island up to Moorhead. Its was dug out to route the electric cables from Sheffield Tramways power station there up to Moorhead. My old mate Terry Trince was working for Carter Horsley and they had to go quite a way in from the Kelham Island end to do some remedial shoring up work putting in steel beams e.t.c. , he said it stank and was full of rats. Also very deep so as to miss the sewers and such. The route would take it past the old Firestation and Snig Hill cop shop.

[biggsy 10]

A workmate of mine used to work at Hetheringtons on Carlisle street and said there was a tunnel that went from a company next door all the way to attercliffe in a straight line! It was a sort of service tunnel with very thick electric cables running through it, It must have gone under the River Don to get to Attercliffe!!

 

 

Biggsy

[Historyphil 10]

A workmate of mine used to work at Hetheringtons on Carlisle street and said there was a tunnel that went from a company next door all the way to attercliffe in a straight line! It was a sort of service tunnel with very thick electric cables running through it, It must have gone under the River Don to get to Attercliffe!!

 

 

Biggsy

 

Hello Biggsy, Thanks. I'll bet there are lots of industrial usage 19thC tunnels under the town, they had the machines, the know how and pride to drill them. All the local pits were joined up during the 192/30's so that the miners could escape and coal still be got out if the Headgear was bombed, the steel works could have done a similar thing. Brightside Lane and Attercliffe Common are/were dead straight and flat, ideal for cut and shut excavations same way as the London Tube was laid. The Tram Depot was at the Rotherham end of the 'cliffe, where the cables went up into the air then all the way into Sheff'. The Depot later became a bus depot its gateway and boundary wall were still standing until a few years ago on the edge of present Meadowhall. I remember it had an offset layout and I think that the patch of green on the corner of Weedon Street and 'Cliffe is whats left of the site.

 

Phil

Edited August 23, 2015 by Historyphil
addditional information

[biggsy 10]

Hello Biggsy, Thanks. I'll bet there are lots of industrial usage 19thC tunnels under the town, they had the machines, the know how and pride to drill them. All the local pits were joined up during the 192/30's so that the miners could escape and coal still be got out if the Headgear was bombed, the steel works could have done a similar thing. Brightside Lane and Attercliffe Common are/were dead straight and flat, ideal for cut and shut excavations same way as the London Tube was laid. The Tram Depot was at the Rotherham end of the 'cliffe, where the cables went up into the air then all the way into Sheff'. The Depot later became a bus depot its gateway and boundary wall were still standing until a few years ago on the edge of present Meadowhall. I remember it had an offset layout and I think that the patch of green on the corner of Weedon Street and 'Cliffe is whats left of the site.

 

Phil

 

 

Hi Phil

 

I work at Forgemasters and was told years ago that there were bomb shelters all over the plant!

 

We have one in the foundry, It's about 50/60 feet long and is very dry, Dry enough to store records down there until the Sheffield flood when everything got soaked

 

 

Biggsy

[Historyphil 10]

Hi Phil

 

I work at Forgemasters and was told years ago that there were bomb shelters all over the plant!

 

We have one in the foundry, It's about 50/60 feet long and is very dry, Dry enough to store records down there until the Sheffield flood when everything got soaked

 

 

Biggsy

 

Hello there Biggsy, in the late 1980's I was working on the site of a disused steelworks which would quickly become a large shopping experience, when I went to a wedding.

 

Socialisng with tu'ther side one asked me where, do you work so I told him and he said its been in the Star that the muck s unstable that true, at which I said, No you should see all the iron thats going into it to firm it up. Said tu'ther un, have they found the Retort House yet? Whats that sez I? Its where they used to make their own Acetylene and store it in 2 large pits, brick lined about 25x15 ft deep and wide with Calcium Carbide warehouse next to it sez e. Heard nowt sez I .

 

Mentioned said conversation to the surveyor on Sunday morning, come Monday afternoon, Tuesday the place was swarming with very concerned important people very unused to wearing boots and hard hats carrying plans, maps, photo's between themselves laying out tapes. Later lots of lorries dumped large loads of limestone near the flyover which quickly vanished into the ground. Surveyor said remind to never again ask you what you did at the weekend.

[darylslinn 10]

That's a great story Phil.

I often wondered what old tunnels under the city were potentially lost when Adolf's lot blitzed it.

[black eyes 10]

Many of the tunnels are tram power line cables

[A wilson 10]

Aparently, there are many tunnels under Sheffield, proportedly under the queens head pub. And I'm sure I've heard about a nuclear bunker under manor top area somewhere.

[Dave-Clarke 10]

I will be presenting an illustrated talk on 'Sheffield's greatest mystery - the legendary underground tunnels beneath the city centre: folklore & fact' at the Friends of Sheffield Castle public meeting @ the Central United Reformed Church on Thursday 22 September, 2016, starting 7.30-9pm (book in advance on 0114 234 6669 or via FOSC website).

I have been collecting stories about them since when, as a teenager, I was shown the entrance to the tunnel in the cellar beneath the Cross Keys pub at Handsworth. Since that time I have been busily collecting stories about them.

Anyone who has contributed to this thread (now standing at 893 posts since 2003!) will be interested in the results of my research... and I would be grateful to receive any information relating to knowledge of tunnels (past and present) in the city and further afield.

[kickstart12 10]

i can remember there was a tunnel at the side of ,a smith motorcycles on spital hill,you went in the back yard over a wall and this gave you access i never went down it but a few of the lads who worked there did

[stpetre 12]

I believe there is a tunnel from The Sheffield castle and goes under the Pitsmoor estate linking the old castle that used to stand in the area were Pye Bank School and the Pitsmoor estate is now.

 

Really? that feat of supposed engineering would (if a tunnel) would have to go at some point under the River Don, maybe at Lady's Bridge. By the time it got to Pitsmoor's highest point-Pye Bank- which is a couple of hundred feet or so above the river level.

 

---------- Post added 23-08-2016 at 23:45 ----------

 

i can remember there was a tunnel at the side of ,a smith motorcycles on spital hill,you went in the back yard over a wall and this gave you access i never went down it but a few of the lads who worked there did

 

That tunnel is 'Fiery Jack' which ran from the Wicker Goods Yard (Saville Street) under Spital Hill to Bridgehouses near Brunswick Road. Not used since around 1948 but hardly a secret as it was British Railways property.

Edited August 23, 2016 by stpetre
Edit

[Meltman 310]

A workmate of mine used to work at Hetheringtons on Carlisle street and said there was a tunnel that went from a company next door all the way to attercliffe in a straight line! It was a sort of service tunnel with very thick electric cables running through it, It must have gone under the River Don to get to Attercliffe!!

 

 

Biggsy

 

I think the tunnel (or one of them!!) you mention was used to feed power to Firth Brown's Atlas furnace from the sub-station on Garter Street.I went into the tunnel after the fire which shut down the Atlas site and the huge cables were all oozing droplets of liquid due to the heat of the fire. I was told this liquid was Sulphuric acid...and don't touch! This was a relatively modern tunnel, made of square concrete sections but i suspect earlier ones were made of brick.