Local history videos - Lewes Rd to Kemptown tunnel

[Buzzer]

http://www.dumpman.co.uk/page3.htm

apparently this bloke also does guided tours. There was one a week ago that sadly I missed where he did a tour of the now closed tunnel between Elm Grove and Kemptown. I know the Kemptown end is by Springfield Road by that industrial estate but where's the Elm Grove end? I presumed (wrongly) that it went through the William Clarke park (known locally as the Patch) and went under Elm Grove School.


I know it sounds a bit sad but I find this stuff fascinating.

 

[queens park pete]

No you were right- the patch/ Elm grove is the route of the old line. It then crossed the Lewes Road on a viaduct by what is now Sainsbury's. You can see the old tunnel exit at the back of the Freshfield Industrial Estate. Look also for the little train outside Gala Bingo!

 

[Bry Nylon]

http://www.dumpman.co.uk/page3.htm

apparently this bloke also does guided tours. There was one a week ago that sadly I missed where he did a tour of the now closed tunnel between Elm Grove and Kemptown. I know the Kemptown end is by Springfield Road by that industrial estate but where's the Elm Grove end? I presumed (wrongly) that it went through the William Clarke park (known locally as the Patch) and went under Elm Grove School.


I know it sounds a bit sad but I find this stuff fascinating.

I know what you mean. Lots of brick tunnels criss-cross under the highstreet in Uckfield, a legacy back to the times when the Oose was navigatable (by barges) as far as Shortbridge. (Between Uckfield and Piltdown).

Bootleg booze, smuggled onto the coast at Newhaven would be shipped up the Oose as far as Shortbridge, then hauled up to the Ye Olde Maiden's Head. There are tunnels from the cellar there that run to the Cinque Ports (pub) over the road and further tunnels than run under the highstreet, allowing the booze to be redistributed and whisked away to London.

When I was a student, and working as a gardener at Horsted Place, at the southern end of the town, we discovered a brick tunnel, right by the bend, in the road that ran from the house to the church. V spooky....

 

[Buzzer]

How come the guided tour starts at Elm Grove then? Is there an opening because I can't recall seeing a blocked off tunnel at the Patch.

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/bh/messages/topic/2cL5qKlrNot4RTLA6dTKqX


Cheers anyhow QPP!

 

[Deleted User X18H]

I have always been fascinated by this as well it was used for storage a while ago and featured in some drama serious set in Brighton in around 1999 featuring Emily Woof and bizaarly Howard Donald

 

[Buzzer]

ahhh....was that the one with the virtual computer game thingy? I remember that.

Glad I'm not the only one who likes this stuff. I'm not as sad as I thought then!

 

[Deleted User X18H]

The wife reckons it was Jason Orange..........anyway it was some cyber game there is a site that shows pics of the tunnel and Hartington Road Halt I will try and find it later

 

[Deleted User X18H]

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/h/hartington_road_halt/index.shtml

 

[Deleted User X18H]

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/k/kemp_town/index.shtml

 

[Deleted User X18H]

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/l/lewes_road/index.shtml

 

[Marty McFly]

http://www.dumpman.co.uk/page3.htm

apparently this bloke also does guided tours. There was one a week ago that sadly I missed where he did a tour of the now closed tunnel between Elm Grove and Kemptown. I know the Kemptown end is by Springfield Road by that industrial estate but where's the Elm Grove end? I presumed (wrongly) that it went through the William Clarke park (known locally as the Patch) and went under Elm Grove School.


I know it sounds a bit sad but I find this stuff fascinating.

I take it the river he talks about (Brighton sewer tour and Patcham floods) would be the Wellesbourne that goes under the Steyne?

 

[cannedheat]

Hope this helps.
http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8192.aspx

 

[dougdeep]

Hope this helps.
http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__8192.aspx

By Tim Carder no less.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

I have not tried any of the links above so sorry if mentioned in more detail.

Once crossing Lewes Road, where Sainsburys now is, you can follow the route by 'new' buildings.

You can see Melbourne Hse then, go to hartington Rd. There was a low bridge over this road, quite near the bottom. This low bridge meant buses could not use this road.

If you walk up hartington, on your left is the new St martins School and on your right is a care home. Both of these are newer than surrounding buildings (70's), the line would have entered the tunnel soon after.

 

[Buzzer]

Excellent - thanks everyone. Funnily enough, Freddie, both my 2 boys go to school at St Martins CoE school and we walk through the Patch when I take them to school.

I presume then (if anyone else knows the Patch) that the actual entrance was the steep bank behind the nursing home just by the asphalt area. I've always thought it would be so cool if the Lewes Rd viaduct was still up but que sera - that's progress for you.

 

[dougdeep]

I remember watching the steam engines shunting in the Kemp Town goods yard, back in the old days.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Back in the days where you could turn into Upper Lewes Road on the wrong ide of the road and not hit anything. The house on the very right near the person with the white trousers is the only thing left standing in that picture.

 

[The Large One]

Back in the days where you could turn into Upper Lewes Road on the wrong ide of the road and not hit anything. The house on the very right near the person with the white trousers is the only thing left standing in that picture.

That's Alfred Cox & Sons - the pill factory on the left there.

 

[bailey]

http://www.dumpman.co.uk/page3.htm

apparently this bloke also does guided tours. There was one a week ago that sadly I missed where he did a tour of the now closed tunnel between Elm Grove and Kemptown. I know the Kemptown end is by Springfield Road by that industrial estate but where's the Elm Grove end? I presumed (wrongly) that it went through the William Clarke park (known locally as the Patch) and went under Elm Grove School.


I know it sounds a bit sad but I find this stuff fascinating.

http://maps.live.com/#JndoZXJlMT1ic...3NjA1Njc1NjAxMjI4JTdlLTAuMjM5Mjk1OTU5NDcyNjUy

Don't know the name of the park but it's the one to the left of Bonchurch Road in this aerial map. There's a grass bank at the Elm Grove end in the school grounds that was the entrance to the tunnel.

A little further to the south in the "V" created by Pankhurst Avenue and Down Terrace at the Queen's Park Road end there's a small metal grate that apparently goes down to the tunnel below.

I went into the storage place about a year ago and chatted to the guy in there and he said to phone their head office and they were quite happy for people to arrange to go in.

 

[The Large One]