At work today when discussing a few underground oddities that Sheffield has it occurred to me that we weren't too far from an interesting tunnel.
The Charlton Tunnel passes from above the recreation ground on the Ponderosa on one side of Crookes Valley Road to a point in the bushes in Crookes Valley Park behind the bowling green huts. There is a large shaft leading down from within the bushes that connects with the tunnel. There is valve gear within. This shaft used to be surrounded by a high wall until sometime in the 1980s when the wall was removed and the top of the shaft was capped with concrete. There is a metal grill in the concrete cap and it is possible to see into the shaft. I’d always assumed that this shaft had been an overflow for the reservoir that was there before it had been drained and turned into the park, although would the wall have withstood the pressure of all that water? Maybe the level wasn’t that high or it was assumed not to be a problem if the level did raise and the wall collapsed.
It is thought the name ‘Charlton’ came from the name on the cast iron cover to the entrance which read ‘Charlton Iron Works’. I’d never heard it called by this name other than from the various expeditions down there in the late 2000s.
There are plenty of other accounts and photographs, a search for ‘charlton tunnel’ will find many, and there are plenty of others where that name isn’t used.
There is speculation about the purpose of the tunnel. It has been suggested that it was used for horses to get from one side to the other, or that it was a storage space for barrage balloons. No doubt there are other ideas. I’d suggest it was as mundane as enabling access to the valve gear. The idea that it was a storage space for barrage balloons doesn’t seem right. It is true that there were barrage balloons anchored to points at the top of the Ponderosa, there are photographs of them in the Sheffield archive showing them being raised.
I’d say that given the difficulty of getting in and out of the tunnel, down a narrow shaft with iron rungs in the wall, that it was not used to store much of anything larger than a wholemeal loaf. Never mind storing something as large and unwieldy as a barrage balloon which would need rapid deployment if not already available. It would have been difficult to store anything in there, even equipment that didn’t need to be accessed quickly.
Unless there is another entrance.
There are rumours of another entrance but none of the reports I’ve read suggest seeing anything that would resemble another passage or doorway in.
This site has some good photographs, none of them show another entrance or even signs of one.
Hard luck if you wish to visit as the entrance shaft has been filled in with earth, rendering the possibility of getting into the tunnel non-existent. So unless there is a third way in then other than digging the earth out the only other option would be to use bolt cutters and climbing gear to lower yourself down the main shaft.
That doesn't rule out the possibility other underground channels, although perhaps slightly more hazardous to explore without sub-aqua gear.
There was a series of Linked reservoirs from Redmires down to the various service reservoirs which ended with The Great Dam, now the site of Crookes Valley Park. From Redmires there is a conduit to Hadfield (formerly Pisgah Dam) just down from The Grindstone pub in Crookes where the sports fields are. There is a small dam, Lydgate, which is behind the TV mast at the top of Lydgate Lane, which may be fed in some other way, but most likely from the Redmires Dams. Down from Hadfield Dam was Ralph’s Dam, which is where the Arthur Willis environment centre now is. Then down to Misfortune, which is on the site of the Northumberland Road category B car park. On the opposite side of Northumberland Road was Butchers Dam which is now nicknamed Naz’s big hole, and then down to The Old Great Dam in Crookes Valley park. There were also Godfrey dam which is now occupied by the University sports fields (opposite Weston Park Hospital), and below that on the other side of Northumberland Road behind the Psychology building was New Dam now also now the location of University sports facilities.
Ey up Andrew I used to play in Charlton tunnel wen I was a young un in the sixties and the entrance was on Canada Street wich no longer exists and the entrance was covered over with the rubble from the houses that wer on mushroom Lane. Canada St. Blythe St and Bromley St. None of these streets exist now. And the banking from all the old houses that wer demolished is now covered in trees and shrubs
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