ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

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eddieg
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ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by eddieg »

Look like they're digging it out .Passed a couple of times this week and there's a digger pulling it to bits.
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by hencree »

re WW2 bunker. i dont think it was a WW2 bunker ,I think it was built in the 1950s as a atom bomb shelter and command post for civil defence and the like, I may be wrong, can any one else shed any light on its purpose :?:
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siam sam
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by siam sam »

that is how i understand it a civil defence installation at the time of the cold war. it has been raised before somewhere else on the boards.
zip me up in my oilskins and jumper.
no more down the docks i'll be seen.
just tell me old shipmates.
i'm taking a trip mates.
and i'll see them on fiddler' green.
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rusty
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by rusty »

from what i remember the place was used as a youth club of sorts,and the Civil Defence area was all locked up.The area from the Shelter up to the Ridgeway was supposedly gifted to the council for recreation and no buildings allowed just sport.There was an exception a wooden church was built near Park Avenue and a small Scout hut.
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by Delilahcat »

Nothing to do with digging out a bunker. There is some electric cabling work being done.
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siam sam
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by siam sam »

the wooden church was there long before the bunker rusty.
zip me up in my oilskins and jumper.
no more down the docks i'll be seen.
just tell me old shipmates.
i'm taking a trip mates.
and i'll see them on fiddler' green.
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by hencree »

I walked past the "bunker" this morning and read a notice tied to a lamp post and it stated that it was something to do with an old landfill site, it certianly didnt look like anything to do with cable work, also it was only next to the old civil defence bunker and the excavations were not taking place on the old bunker itself....... so there! Was the old wooden church St. Cuthberts, was there a landfill site there at one time, and finally the whole site was left to the shields council by the local mine owner Samuel Temple who owned a mine in what we now know as Templetown, on the condition that it was only to be used for sporting purposes, nothing else should be built on it
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by Delilahcat »

The wooden church was St Cuthberts. Temple Park was land given to the townsfolk by the Church Commissioners and is named for Archbishop Temple.
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eddieg
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by eddieg »

There was big slabs of concrete lying there on friday must have been at least 9 or 10 inches thick.Thats what made me think the bunker was being removed.
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rusty
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by rusty »

as a side line what happened to the church ?
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by jimmywizz »

the whole park was a landfill site at one point, you can still sometimes just make out the old barbed wire fence that used to be around the old army camp
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by heaintheavy »

I have it on good authority that the then Bishop of Durham many years ago actually gave permission for this underground bunker to be built to Newcastle United as their trophy room.
Obviously it has largely been unused and now tales of it's purpose are passed down from generation to generation.
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by Jarrow Pete »

jimmywizz wrote:the whole park was a landfill site at one point, you can still sometimes just make out the old barbed wire fence that used to be around the old army camp
Can remember when it was a rubbish tip opposite the end of King George Road, can also remember the church but have no recollection of an army camp on there.
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by rusty »

if i really blow the cobwebs of i can remember army huts and shelters way over the far end of Temple Park probably 1944/5
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eddieg
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by eddieg »

My Dad used to say that American troops were on there.And that there was a murder commited by one of them .There was a dispute over a lady.?Any Ideas?
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rusty
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Re: ww2 bunker at the leisure center.

Post by rusty »

In 1945 the place was empty just timber huts and concrete shelters,my friend and i were chased of by sqauters.
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