So, the underground tunnels...

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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jtaylor
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Post by jtaylor »

The other memorable visit from the emergency services was when the cleaners managed to mix two "do not mix with..." chemicals in the toilets in the quad between the art school, library and old science block.
Formed cyanide gas if I recall.
A number of staff went in and said "yes, it does make your eyes sting doesn't it", one after the other!

Next thing we saw were firemen in space-suits doing stuff....

J
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Great Plum
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Post by Great Plum »

I remember the bomb disposal stuff - it must have been my squits I guess...
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marty
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clipboard man

Post by marty »

anyone remember the clipboard man ? He used to wander the grounds (with clipboard) randomly talking to people. Don't think he ever managed any kind of crime but we were warned against talking to anyone answering his description...
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Post by paddy »

Who was it that was demonstrating the amusing combustion talents of hydrogen, and succeeded it blowing out half the windows in the Chemistry lab? Did I hallucinate that, or did it actually happen? I'm thinking it was a teacher, and a lot of windows were involved.
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Post by Andy Friend »

I remember the "bomb" well. It happened on my second form and provided us with much amusement. You are quite right; the bang was dissapointing but the arrival of the bomb squad was quite entertaining!
jtaylor wrote:Anthony Moss was indeed a very bright guy, and do recall he was quiet and unassuming, but people did wonder what he was capable of, and what he was up to!

I was in the choir, but don't remember that incident - maybe a rehearsal I didn't make it to (and there were quite a few!) I don't remember hearing about it though.

On the subject of chemicals, anyone else remember when we had the bomb disposal guys turn up, to remove a bottle of TNT from the chemistry labs?? Builders were moving a cupboard, and found a bottle behind it. On inspection it was clearly something which would have turned into TNT (sure a chemist will tell me what this might have been?)
Bomb squad turned up, army-man-in-jumper walks into the lab, picks up the bottle, puts it in a padded box.
Taken out to big-side and blown up - quite a bit of entertainment!

J
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Post by FrogBoxed »

I was in the Art School when the TNT was discovered - got me off art prep that night. Result!
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Re: clipboard man

Post by Guest »

marty wrote:anyone remember the clipboard man ? He used to wander the grounds (with clipboard) randomly talking to people. Don't think he ever managed any kind of crime but we were warned against talking to anyone answering his description...
Yes, I remember the clipboard man, but thought it was a joke made up by people! I used to wander around school quite a bit from early morning measuring temperatures for my Geography project till late at night after a session of Wing Commander on the only 386 with a EGA card in the 'zob' [computer] room, but never saw this bloke.

I also remember the cyanide incident in the old loos by the library (they were so victorian, did anyone use them?!?) and this was also attributed to Mr Moss at the time, (who indeed was good at karate or judo or perhaps both, and extremely clever as well) but I don't know whether this is correct.

Also there was a source of keys around in Maine A, I wonder where they are now? :wink:

Legendary stuff...
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Post by mattw »

Post above is me by the way, now set the logon automatically when visting here bit :oops:
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Re: tunnels

Post by mamz24 »

mattw wrote:
marty wrote:It runs under most of the original buildings (someone once released a stink bomb in chapel from under the floor).
Anthony Moss allegedly (I’d better add for legal reasons!) made a home-made stink & smoke bomb that was placed in the Tube under chapel and went off during the choir rehearsal for the 1992 leaving service…

The doors had to be opened to let the stinking green smoke out!

Julian, you were in the choir weren’t you – perhaps you remember this?
I remember that one!!
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Re: tunnels

Post by Simon Kerruish »

marty wrote:The tube went all way out to the station (if you go down the steps you can see where they blocked off the tunnel). It runs under most of the original buildings (someone once released a stink bomb in chapel from under the floor). What I want to know is if it went out to Sharpenhurst as legend suggetsed. There was a vent that people used to climb to have parties in and it was "supposedly" linked by the tube at one point. We never discovered if this was true. As for the asbestos we always considered it to be a fabrication to discourage us from venturing down there.
Hi. In 1968 and 1969 I and a couple of mates got 'tubemania' and explored every foot of the tube over several months, including out to the 'old' swimming pool near the farm (couldn't get beyond that to the station much as we tried) as well as beyond the 'sicker' where they had bricked it up. We had a go at smashing the bricks but gave up. There were plenty of rumors of a Shelley's Wood tube (rather than Sharpenhurst) and we hit a lot of dead ends in trying to find it. I can't say that it didn't exist but we never found it and on balance I think it was myth.

This is FUN!
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Re: tunnels

Post by Great Plum »

Simon Kerruish wrote:
marty wrote:The tube went all way out to the station (if you go down the steps you can see where they blocked off the tunnel). It runs under most of the original buildings (someone once released a stink bomb in chapel from under the floor). What I want to know is if it went out to Sharpenhurst as legend suggetsed. There was a vent that people used to climb to have parties in and it was "supposedly" linked by the tube at one point. We never discovered if this was true. As for the asbestos we always considered it to be a fabrication to discourage us from venturing down there.
Hi. In 1968 and 1969 I and a couple of mates got 'tubemania' and explored every foot of the tube over several months, including out to the 'old' swimming pool near the farm (couldn't get beyond that to the station much as we tried) as well as beyond the 'sicker' where they had bricked it up. We had a go at smashing the bricks but gave up. There were plenty of rumors of a Shelley's Wood tube (rather than Sharpenhurst) and we hit a lot of dead ends in trying to find it. I can't say that it didn't exist but we never found it and on balance I think it was myth.

This is FUN!
I don't think there are any tunnels to Shelley Wood -what would have been the point of them?

I guess that somewhere must be the original plans for them? Have the museum got them Jenny?
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Post by Richard Ruck »

Well, a lot of us used to use the tube for a quick smoke. A bit risky, given the visibility of the entrances in the courtyards of the houses, but handy for when time was at a premium (e.g. morning break).

Only ever got caught twice down there.

Aaah, the nostalgic smell of damp, Old Holborn smoke and, I'm afraid to say, stale urine emanating from certain side-rooms.

I also remember being given special permission to miss second prep once a week to watch "I Claudius" with a mate from Thorn. B (their TV room was in the tube). As we were both doing Latin and Ancient History A-levels, it was considered educational for us to watch Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart et al camping it up in togas.

Finally, the tube was indirectly responsible for my last exposure to corporal punishment (an archaic form of legalised assault, for younger readers).

A number of us stayed at school for an extra night at the end of one term (a few of us going to France the next day, others going on a rugby tour).

Needless to say, an evening piss-up ensued down the tube. The resulting noise attracted the attention of the then Mid. B housemaster, Revd. Ian Atkinson, who, as most people present were not in his house, went running along to the headmaster.

Result - around a dozen of us getting "six of the best" each from the headmaster at around midnight AFTER term had ended.

We were all a bit merry, though, so we thought it was a bit of a laugh.

72 strokes - I imagine Dr. Newsome must have had a very sore wrist that night........

Funny to look back on a priest and a theologian being so keen on "whacking". Who would have thought it?
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tobeconfirmed
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Post by tobeconfirmed »

Hi there.
I'm really impressed and amused how fully-aged people have such great humour, and can still have a good laugh about doing those things that only young teenagers could do, but what the teachers would (profesionally and publicly, anyway) consider unacceptable!

I'm loving reading your stories, and I've got some to tell myself on this subject, but if I do whilst still actually on site, which I am as I write now, I'll be in deep merde! Oh well, only another 1 1/2 terms until I can!
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marty
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Post by marty »

tbs wrote:I'm loving reading your stories, and I've got some to tell myself on this subject, but if I do whilst still actually on site, which I am as I write now, I'll be in deep merde! Oh well, only another 1 1/2 terms until I can!
TBS - you must be more brave - you don't think any of the teachers are gonna understand this forum do you ??!! Failing that simply use an alias - that always works. To give you a good example a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) had a grudge against another pupil. Whenever this pupil pissed him off he would go to the library and sign out amusingly titled books in that guys name. The books would then be thrown away. At the end of term the guy would get all these nasty notes from the librarian telling him to return Karate for Beginners/Human Reproduction/How to Boil an Egg/Communism for Fun (etc..) or face a fine.
My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We’ll see about that.
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graham
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Post by graham »

What a fantastic idea!! I wish I had thought of that! Do they still have that retarded system of signing books out? It's such an "honesty" based system that they must lose hundreds of pounds worth of books every year. (Obviously I'm not a firm believer in the moral integrity of blues)
lol - so much for CH instilling a sense of honesty and respect! I guess it does imbue a sense of ingenuity though......what a creative idea!

J
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