Dear Sir / Madam,
After reading your article in the June 2007 issue of Burngreave Messenger, on the Fiery Jack Tunnel, it brought back memories of the war years.
As a teenager, the tunnel was used as an Air Raid shelter by the people who lived in the vicinity of Champ Hill, as it was called by the local people. It was classed as the safest place to be in an air raid, after the Blitz on Sheffield in December 1940. It was said that the bombs would never go through those rocks on top!
The tunnel was used to transfer wagons from the old LMS Goods Yard, to the LNER Goods Yard at Bridgehouses. At the time, my father was the Checking Clerk at the LNER end of the tunnel and had a cabin there. He worked two turns, days and nights. When he was on nights, I went to work with him and slept in the cabin at the end, the reason being, if we had an air raid in the night, my mother only had to look after herself and my sister getting down to the tunnel, as we lived in Verdon Street at the time.
We had a blanket as a ground sheet to lay on, which was placed at the side of the track. We had plenty of company as a lot of our neighbours used the tunnel also.
Years later, I ended up on the engine that shunted the wagons at the tunnel’s LNER end, following in my father’s footsteps on the railway.
The tunnel was never used as a rifle club. The club was in the Arches at the bottom of the long hill in to Bridgehouses Goods Yard and was LNER Horse Stable.
Mr. L. Middleton (address provided)