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Secret Places in cambridge

Anyone know any good not very well-known places in and around cambridge

eg

- Like the anthrax bomb shelter on Brooklands avenue
- The miles of underground tunnels below addenbrokes
- Handbrake Hill
- Pill boxes by the river

Published by batty (not active) at 11:08pm on Thu 18th October 2007. Viewed 51,518 times.

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Published by superstarphotographa (not active) at 12:14am on Fri 19th October 2007.

hey batty
the obelisk at Hauxton -just before (or after depending which way your coming from) the M11 bridge is a small parking area .go up the hill and there is an obelisk .this is used by the planes at Duxford air shows as a marker for their landing , so come the air shows you get spitfires , wellingtons etc passing very low overhead .

Published by bigmal at 1:02am on Fri 19th October 2007.
This reply has been edited, last edit at 1:08am on Fri 19th October 2007.

The underground mock-up of the German Reichstag under the Fitzwilliam Museum - part of the World War Two aborted plot to kidnap Hitler, drug him and bring him to Cambridge in a hypnotised state to make him end the war. There's no point in asking any officialdom about this - it will simply be denied or passed of as deluded nonsense.

Published by Kuryakin at 7:03am on Fri 19th October 2007.

Brooklands Avenue shelter was for Nuclear War. See this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/features/2003/10/bunker_gallery/ga...

There is also a big "space" under Parker's Piece that was exposed in the 1980s as a "safe bunker" for the area. There were plans to turn it into an underground car park a few years back but it was vetoed... enough traffic in Cambridge already. I have heard of a lbryth of channels under the old University buildings, that goes without saying.

I have a big concrete block covering up something at the bottom of my garden... probably an old cess pit or well. But my friend beleive it holds the secret to a tunnel that goes under the back fence and leads to a tunnel system under Castle Hill mound.

Published by ababoonsass at 8:27am on Fri 19th October 2007.

can i come blow up your big block and release the people form down below?

Published by General lee at 8:32am on Fri 19th October 2007.

The concrete block is the size of a regular dining table top... it's placed on a concrete/steel sill so it's not just a block of concrete. It'd been purposely placed there.

Published by ababoonsass at 8:42am on Fri 19th October 2007.

You could get a nice person with a jackhammer to come over and remove it, then go pot-holing/exploring :)

Published by Talullah at 8:54am on Fri 19th October 2007.

...or find out that you've uncovered a cess pit. :/

Published by Silent Rob at 8:59am on Fri 19th October 2007.

i love wallowing in filth

Published by General lee at 9:37am on Fri 19th October 2007.

are there any these places you can get into?

Published by earle at 1:25pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

-The Bunker on Brooklands avenue is locked (and looks like it will be used for storage). Even when I worked for MAFF (or modern name) they wouldn't let me in. You might be able to arrange an appointment but I don't know who you ask.
-No idea about Fitzwilliam or university tunnels.
-The tunnels under Addenbrookes you can see on yearly open days. You can also go and see the Morgue. This is very appealing to me. I like talking about death.
-Pill Boxes by the river are easy to access if you're prepared to walk / cycle a few miles to them.
-I have no idea what Handbrake Hill is.
-I'm sure that ababoonsass will offer a tour of his concrete block if you ask him.

Published by Silent Rob at 1:37pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

handbrake hill is a hill , it provides a illusion , u park your car looking down the hill in the middle of the hill slop, but the car rolls up it , or something , think its around the comberton area , i cant remember

Published by batty (not active) at 1:50pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

there used to be a abandoned hospital in bedfordshire , that u could go into , with beds and chains laying about , very creepy at night , the dark coridors were very eerie, place not sure if its still there now

Published by batty (not active) at 1:53pm on Fri 19th October 2007.
This reply has been edited, last edit at 1:53pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

thats the old main bedford hospitial.....that i was born in.....

Published by General lee at 1:58pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

Published by space_echo at 2:00pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

is it true it was guarded by a armed guard ? heard this a while ago

Published by batty (not active) at 2:01pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

Why - who is going to break into a Nuclear bunker? Or how? I'm sure it's vandal proof... be a big useless if it wasn't. I used to work next door to it... the staff at the Eastbrooke government offices were allowed to visit the bunker on special trips... I thought Space-Echo went...

It was on the market but you could only buy it then... just look at it, no planning permission allowed. can't live there, can't work there...

Published by ababoonsass at 2:21pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

I played a gig once at a disused hospital just off Green Lanes that had been squatted by performance art hippies with big sound systems - mental night but was incredibly eeire away from the party bits - all demolished now.

Published by Dr Rhythm at 2:26pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

There is secret caches all over Cambridge and across the world. A hidden pursuit called geocaching where a e.g a tuppeware container is hidden with a notebook and pencil inside and you are given gps co-ordinates to near container with clues and you have to locate container and sign logbook to prove you have found it then log on internet aswell. Sometimes there is trade items like a silly toy to take and replace with your own. Also coins with a tracking number that could travel all the world from cache to cache. Most people have a handheld gps (size of a mobile phone)to locate caches. But you can start out with putting co-ordinates on google earth.

Published by daggg at 2:27pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

I very much like wandering around abandoned places - as Dr Rythmn and I have discussed before.
There's a cottage in my parents village that is fun to wander around. It can't be demolished because it's a listed building, but they can't refurbish it because it has a large tree growing in the middle which is protected under a tree preservation order. How very amusing. It's rather like the house at the end of the Blair Witch Project inside.

Published by Silent Rob at 2:30pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

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Published by Georgie girl (not active) at 2:33pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

I played cricket once in the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital in Arlesey. I think there were plans to build houses instead. Shame.

Published by sam i at 2:36pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

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Published by Georgie girl (not active) at 2:38pm on Fri 19th October 2007.

Not that secret, but if you walk up mill road and go along the path by the chalk pits (left hand side) in summer and look left to the army training site in summer there are a million rabbits, it's like watership down. Keep on that path and you get to a trading estate and you can walk through to coldhams lane and back to mill road, it's a great circular walk if that's your kind of thing.

Published by Doris (not active) at 2:41am on Sat 20th October 2007.

Before the trading estate was built you could climb through the hedge, over the railway line and get to the chalk pits and walk round them. Now there's only one access to the south which is always firmly locked. Spoilsports.

Published by Silent Rob at 10:48am on Sat 20th October 2007.

There also used to be a burn out mansion and barn on the cambridge side of hinton way , shelford , we used to hang out in at night , it was said the whole family perished who lived in it during a fire in the middle of the night , i past the driveway entrance the other day , it was fenced off , dunno what still remains of it , as the sites proposed for a golf course or summink , innit .

Published by batty (not active) at 4:00pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

The houses in the Shelfords are on the Uplands estate. There's two properties - one of which is now a pile of rubble but the other one, which apparently was a bed and breakfast, is still standing although very dangerous now. The guy who owned them (as far as I know) was a self-made millionaire through electronics and suffered a breakdown, split up with his wife and torched both houses in a mental frenzy. It's a lovely place with loads of wildlife - some endangered. There's loads of lovely trees and plants like grapes and a swimming pool in the back garden which has since been filled in but you can still see the mozaic pattern around the edge. Unfortunately, the University has bought the land and is building a golf course and country hotel on it. Not like there's a golf club down the road or anything! Quite sad.

Published by embleywembley at 5:03pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

I dont think anyone was in the houses when he burned them though...

Published by embleywembley at 5:04pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

I remember the houses being burnt down. My grandparents lived in Shelford and she was part of the planning committee there when the fires happened. You are right about the fire - the insurance company was all over the place at one point but as far as I recall the local planning committee refused permission for the golf course and hotel but that was in the 80's or 90's.

So sad. Isn't there three houses - one of which is still standing is White Fields (I think?) that was built by Rattee of Rattee and Kett as his country residence. The town residence was a gorgeous house on Long Road. Kett's house was 18 Brooklands Avenue, which I've worked in and is a beautiful building.

I also had to work in the old vicarage in Great Eversden and some one said that it had a sad history but never explained why, if someone knows I'd be really interested in knowing more.

Published by Smithy at 6:57pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

Sadly there is nothing under the Fitz,i would of found it by now

Published by lancastrian at 7:22pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

As you drive into Bourn village from what used to be the A428 until recently, on the right hand side are some buildings in a field that look like old 30's or post-war prefabs. Totally overgrown but I imagine of some importance not to have been demolished.

We had an air raid shelter in our garden in Silverwood Close when we moved in. It was completed overgrown and dangerous so it had to go but we've always harbored plans to rebuild it. Apparently another house still has one round here somewhere.

Ooh, Mr S and the takeaway have just arrived, perfect timing. Good night WAN, I'm off to drink lots of beer and watch crap telly.

Published by Smithy at 7:56pm on Sat 20th October 2007.

in willingham there is what appears to be a burnt out house. set back from the road totally overgrown with trees, its just a shell. what i can tell form having seen it from the road and looking at google earth it was once a rather large place.

also near warboys there is "spooks hill" i think its called. you put ur car in neutral and let it roll. the lay of the land gives you the impression you are rolling up hill. not very exciting tho, it was ok at the time.

i also have a mildly interesting story about the spinney just by my house but i wont go into it unless someone wants me to

Published by Rob S at 10:57am on Sun 21st October 2007.

Go on, i'm curious now.

Published by simon_b (not active) at 10:58am on Sun 21st October 2007.

back in ye olden times, there was an outbreak of something or other in somersham. members of the village were exiled out to the fen to prevent infecting others. it is said that some lived and subsequently died no more than 10m from my house... i think its cool

Published by Rob S at 1:41pm on Sun 21st October 2007.

that explains a lot.

Published by General lee at 1:48pm on Sun 21st October 2007.

On newmarket road there is a deserted house that can't be sold because it is number 666. normally housing developers miss the number out but for some reason they didn't there. it is said to be haunted and bad things have happened to the people who have lived there.

Published by littlemonkey at 2:25pm on Sun 21st October 2007.

Hey everyone,

Recently i got told about this place called spooks hill/hand brake hill.
Does anyone know anything about it they could tell me??
and does anyone know where it is exactly as i would like to drive there and check it out
for myself.

I heard if you turn your ignition off and sit on either side of the bridge your car begins to roll but you think you are going back when you are actually going forwards. wouldnt it be hard to drive if you thought that?. Apparently there was an old railway track that was there years ago and loads of accidents used to happen there, all the children that died are apparently pushing your car.

Anyone know anything???. either email me babycakes_115@hotmail.com or write back thanks

C

Published by carly18 at 11:03am on Wed 7th November 2007.

Bourges Bulevard in peterborough is said to be haunted,

The story goes ..... Many years ago there was a very old graveyard there and people used to steal the bodies of people that had recently been buried to use as body donors because they were rapidly running out. one day they got court pilling strange looking saks into a carriage of a horse and cart, and they chased them all the way upto where the m11 is now. Does anyone know anything about this??

Published by carly18 at 11:17am on Wed 7th November 2007.

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Published by injoke (not active) at 11:21am on Wed 7th November 2007.

in willingham there is what appears to be a burnt out house. set back from the road totally overgrown with trees, its just a shell. what i can tell form having seen it from the road and looking at google earth it was once a rather large place.

If that's the place up near the old Longstanton railway station, then it always used to be referred to as 'the haunted house' when I were a lad. It was still standing then,though still overgrown as now. A shirt could be seen hanging up in an upstairs window - apparently this once disappered for a while and then reappeared - supernatural or what?

Published by Kuryakin at 12:30pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

The old chesterton sidings are good for a poke around. Not sure how the MGB work is affecting access to the site.
It used to be fairly straight forward to head down cowley road past the driving range and in past the aggregate works.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukepowers/sets/72157594156583064/

Published by dukepowers at 12:55pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

images

I thought the Brooklands Ave shelter was for use by officials after a Nuke attack....
On the anthrax front, the corner of Station Rd and hills road, under the current office block, is meant to be the sight of a mass grave of sheep that have been use in anthrax experiments during WW2.
Boffins ant the uni were at the forefront of 1940s chemical/biological weapons research.

Published by brenda (not active) at 1:23pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

There was also an anthrax burial ground just off Milton Road, where the Woodlands Road development is.

The walk along Hobson's Brook, from Long Road to Brooklands Avenue, is quite interesting and a bit "off the beaten track" ...

Published by Old Rocker at 1:28pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

I remember as a kid hanging out inside Highsett (Tennison Av), in the centre around the small wood were a couple of stone pillars. What was straight about them was that they appeared to be constructed from Bone bricks, Each brick had the same colour and shape as animal bones.

Anyone been there recently and can confirm if these pillars still exist?

Published by WARNING at 1:30pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

Tindle's Farm off of Milton Road... I think they've just demolished the last part of the animal labs Downham's Lane. My playground as a kid... big concrete blocks covered the area where anthrax infected horses were buried. Ther eused to be old delapidated building whicxh we turned the attacs into secret dens, old long greenhouses with weird shit in them... I still have a scar oin my hand where a foot long shard of glass fell from a window to the animal labs and could easily have sliced my wrist... all this to steal animal technician manuals for the ALF... and I should shut up.

Published by ababoonsass at 1:33pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

They are only now building houses on that land. Somthing to do with 50 year life of Anthrax spores so ive been told?

Published by WARNING at 1:44pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

Published by Old Rocker at 1:46pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

The railway track next to the looney bin ( fulbourn hospital )
Has a story of a phantom seen on the railway at midnight on a cold december night or something , a very scary looking spirit i hear .

Its supposed to be a ghost of a goon from the hospital that ended there life on that track , As many people will know a lot of poeple have killed themselfs on that track , one just the other month also.

Published by batty (not active) at 2:02pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

"Hey everyone,

Recently i got told about this place called spooks hill/hand brake hill.
Does anyone know anything about it they could tell me??
and does anyone know where it is exactly as i would like to drive there and check it out
for myself."

spooks hill is up by warboys, its nothing supernatural, merely a trick of the land, it looks like you are going uphill when in fact you are going down. i went up there a couple of months back, wasnt that exciting

Published by Rob S at 2:05pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

i thought it was near comberton

Published by batty (not active) at 2:08pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

i think theres several about to be fair

Published by Rob S at 2:10pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

"If that's the place up near the old Longstanton railway station"

yeah it is

Published by Rob S at 2:11pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

not in cambridge but there's always been rumours of a tunnel from Ely Cathedral to Stuntney Manor house, but its a long way and would mean going under the river, and yards of fen soil before you get to clay, so seems unlikely, anther rumour of tunnel from Cathedral to Kings Arms is more believable.

Many years ago my family used to run The Cutter Inn, and apparently there was a skittle alley that ran under Broad Street, which was just filled in at the entrance and forgotten about, keep waiting for something to disappear into a hole. :)

Published by steve w at 3:22pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

interesting topics !

Published by batty (not active) at 10:25pm on Wed 7th November 2007.

There is also a big "space" under Parker's Piece that was exposed in the 1980s.

Are you sure? I grew up in Park terrace and knew of the network of Coal-holes linking the houses but never heard of any bunker?

The Avery side of Parkers Piece has a deep down spring underneth, noticeable as it is always the 1st side of the Piece to become foggy in the winter...

Published by WARNING at 12:15am on Thu 8th November 2007.

If you google for "bunker" and "Parker's Piece" on google the only result that comes up is an earlier thread on WAN about this.

Published by simon_b (not active) at 8:48am on Thu 8th November 2007.

There were plans to turn it into a car park many years ago... this was in the paper I am sure. It was vetoed because of the increased traffic concerns of nearby roads.

I read an article in the 80s about the bunker and theere were diagrams/original plans for the layout... apparently built the same time as the Parkside police station.

There was also something about in in the literature which came with the first Flux of Pink Indians LP... I think.

I'm interested to find out but Google gave no answers... then again, I tried to find Crocodile briefs on there and came up blank.

Published by ababoonsass at 8:53am on Thu 8th November 2007.

Published by ababoonsass at 8:57am on Thu 8th November 2007.
This reply has been edited, last edit at 9:06am on Thu 8th November 2007.

So its under the Police Station then?

Google only brought up this tread :(

Published by WARNING at 10:43am on Thu 8th November 2007.

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Published by skxqrgoyb (not active) at 3:43am on Thu 15th May 2014.

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Published by hzfoprlyj (not active) at 6:51am on Thu 15th May 2014.

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Published by jwirhubmr (not active) at 8:15pm on Mon 26th May 2014.

Just found this page: http://www.hiddenea.com/cambse.htm#ely

So, is WAN now considered to be an archaeologically authoritative source?

Published by Wrongfellow at 4:40am on Mon 2nd November 2015.

Cool website:

www.28dayslater.co.uk

and on subject.

Published by Foxsch at 7:24pm on Sun 8th November 2015.

It seems wrong that the top 20 threads on their "UK Draining Forum" all relate to places in the Manchester / Leeds area, when the most interestingly drained part of England is the bit round 'ere.

(Is this where uk.rec.subterranea ended up when Usenet died?)

Published by Wrongfellow at 8:16pm on Sun 8th November 2015.

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Published by Xavier Bollo (not active) at 1:50pm on Sun 22nd November 2015.

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Published by WilliamChago (not active) at 2:42pm on Mon 3rd April 2017.

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