Hello,
this might be a bit of a strange request, but anyways...
A few years ago I happened to come accross the town of Alston
and was looking for a campground to stay for a night.
I found the place in walking distance from the town centre.
If I remember correctly, there was a railway museum nearby and
something looking like an abandoned filling station.
When I entered the showers in the morning, I noticed two
strange things:
The entry into the building (a relatively big brick-building)
lead through some kind of 'tunnel' made of corrugated steel.
The tunnel looked as if it would have been an 'entry into the
underground' but ended after about 5 metres. The shower
building was accessible through a 'hole' in the tunnel wall.
The second strange thing was the fact, that there ** was **
a shower building with plenty of showers, which did not look
like 'ordinary' camp ground showers (much older, but not
with the usual modern 'quick-and-cheap-to-install' technique).
As I did not know, that Alston used to be a coal mining area
(shame on me), the idea, that this unusual camp ground shower
might have been part of an abandoned small coal mine, did
not come to my mind until I read about small mines in Alson in
one of John Cornwell's books.
So, is there anyone, who can confirm (or not) my assumption?
Thanks and greetings
Harald
--
Harald Finster, Aachen, Germany
http://www.finster-stahlart.de industrial history and architecture
http://www.astrid-aix.de gallery: watercolours and oil paintings
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