Stairfoot Lane Air rade shelter

An unusual thing about Leeds airrade shelters is that most were built in 1938, we tend to be a bit ahead of the rest of you, it's a genetic thing.

As a young lad, on a similar mission to the first escallations of Moortown Water tower, we went in to the underworld. Just off Stairfoot Lane in Adel Woods there was a small bricked up hole that had been kicked in leaving an opening just big enough for us to get inside. Terrifying pitch black, two floors of subterranian terror. This article from The Yorkshire Evening Post oct 21 2006 explains;

Bunker was vital to hommes front

Howard Williamson

The mystery of a wartime bunker found in overgrown north leeds woodland has been solved.
Speculation in the village of Adel was rife that it was a second world war air rade shelter and in a way that was true.
But the real story has emerged thanks to some timely information from the halifax bank, which took over Leeds Permanent building society in 1995.
Bosses have revealed that the bunker was a wartime store for the deeds of property worth nearly £100 million, together with other building society records.
These documents had been lodged in strong rooms at Permanent house in leeds where they were vulnerable to German airrades.
Safer quarters were hard to find. The solution was to build the bunker in a 4 acre quarry in SAdel Woods, the plans being prepared in 1939.
The bunker provided 25000  cubic feet of storage space on two decks. It was built of reinforced cocrete and a watertight envelope of asphalt and brick.
Heavy doors and grilles protected the entrances and an armoured steel door guarded the main entrance
It was essential to bring electricity to the bunker and a road up to the entrance had to be made so vehicles could take deeds to and from the site.
Boxes of deeds began to rustbecause of condensation and several methods of drying were tried before a cure was found.
A survey of One Hundred years of Leeds Permanent Building Society 1848-1948 states; 'in spite of all the difficulties the project was highly successful,
the best proof is the fact that Leeds Corporation stored many of its historic documents there including the charter granted to the citry in the 17th century by Carles the 2nd.
these together with the deeds deposited in the safe were in excellent condition when removed in september 1945. In 1946, the place wasdismantled and bricked up.'

Similar to my memories, perhaps someone I was with posted this on Secret Leeds, 'the entrance had a small opening wide enough fpor 3 12 year old boys toclimb through and shimmy down a short knotted rope ladder, my friends had previously had the courage to creep down two flights of concrete stairs, but never to go any further. Madness overtook this day and we went all the way to the bottom. We came across an underground room at least 100 yards long [slight exageration] . Every 3 or 4 yards were pillars that had what looked like bunk beds. The room was pretty dusty and looked like it had been kept in good condition.'

I recall my own trips, terifying for clostrophobes. There were two floors, the legendary third, we never found though it may have caved in. Skreeworld plan a return trip, if we can still squeeeze through the opening.