From Your Roving Mark Mason Reporter.      A Trip Back In Time
 
Stockport’s Underground Air Raid Shelters.  1st July 2017
 
Stockport’s intriguing network of underground tunnels offer visitors unparalleled insight into life in 1940’s Wartime Britain. When they were officially opened in 1939 they could accommodate 3,850 people and were the largest purpose-built civilian shelters in the country, with extensions in 1940/41 this figure eventually rose to nearer 6500.
Thin Tunnels
Yuch
Sick Bay
They were excavated into the natural sandstone cliffs in the centre of the town, the same cliffs which were dug into to accommodate The Plaza Theatre which I did a report on several months ago. The system is just over six miles south of Manchester and was to protect local inhabitants from the bombing however it became so popular that local officials had to issue season tickets limiting the number of people who would be allowed to seek refuge inside, it was really the only way of damping down demand but nobody was ever denied entrance in an alert.
Wall Sign
Toilet with De Luxe Paper
Where’s my bike
The complex was fitted with electric lighting, wooden benches, bunk beds, wardens post, first aid post and flushing toilets which many people living close by in back to back terraced cottages of the town centre wouldn’t have had at that time. Because of these top quality facilities it became known to locals as “Chestergate Hotel”.
General Seating
Rock Cutting
Tool Store
Stockport was heavily bombed in 1940/41 but escaped serious damage unlike nearby Manchester which as an industrial hub came under sustained attack, so much so that residents who had been bombed out in Manchester, Salford and as far as Eccles would turn up to seek refuge. 
Tool Sign
Wall signs
The cliffs were first dug out to create cellars for houses along Chestergate, one of the towns busiest streets, then as a plan to widen the road the council bought and demolished the homes, (does that sound familiar) next they planned to convert the cellars in to an underground car park, an engineering survey showed that the space was in fact unable to become a car park after they had knocked the houses down, oops, it looks like the war may have saved the councillors bacon when work was commenced to create the shelter.
Bomb Damage
Mayor at opening
Tunnels
People are always surprised at the extent of the tunnels some of which are still in darkness but can be visited with one of the guides on the first Weds of each month, if you are not far away from Stockport and would like to see a piece of our history then why not enjoy a visit down in the tunnels.
Wall Sign
Sandstone Slab
Stockport in general is a great mixture of old and new, lots of shops, a large outdoor market up the hill especially on Saturdays, a Victorian style glass food hall which was built around 1861 and behind that the lovely Parish Church of St Mary’s Parish built in 1817.
At the side of the Market Hall is the Staircase House, Stockport’s oldest town house built in the 15th Century complete with its Jacobean cage-newel staircase, here you can take a historic journey back in time to discover how our ancestors lived from the 15th to the 20th Centuries.
Entrance cut into the Sandstone
Entrance
Anyway that’s enough from me for today, I will be back with some more reports during our Masonic quiet period and look forward to meeting with all my friends in the Mark Degree, those I already know and those I have yet to meet.
Entrance Tunnel
Signs
Staff Gordon and Ruth
Welcome Signs
New Entrance
Toilet Sign
Mens Toilets
Sand Bags
Ladies Toilets
Entrance 1940
First Aid Rota
First Aid Post
Canteen Signs
Canteen
Menu for Tea
Admission for the Air Raid Tunnels:- Adults £5, Concessions £3.75, kids go free.
Opening hours:- Tue – Fri 1 till 5, Sat – 10 till 5, Sun & Bank Holidays 11 till 5pm.
Guided tours suitable for adults & 11+  Adults £6.50, Concessions £5.50 every first Weds in the month and booking is essential on Tel. 0161 474 1940.
 
Best Wishes to All.   Mark Well.  Austin N. Fletcher.   Flixton Shepherd Eastwood. 1173.