Subterranea II - Corby's Underground Heritage Pt.2

The Dunedin Road Subway Interchange World Heritage Site (pending)

The overwhelming response to the first part of this post was… surprising! Who knew that Corby’s world class Subway Heritage would turn out to be so well loved, stimulate such fascinating discussion, evoke such dewy-eyed nostalgia, and of course invoke undiluted terror in some!…

I have high hopes that part two will wrap the subject up neatly, leaving no niggling subterranean loose ends. High hopes indeed, but in truth highly unlikely given the almost inevitable omissions and corrections that I’m anticipating from the more knowledgeable Corby Subway-eratti. However, as with movies and their inevitable sequels, I feel two posts is plenty. There's no question that Jaws was a great movie, Jaws II an acceptable sequel, but nobody needed the terrible 3D follow-up. So Subterranea III will not happen, not on my watch, not this year...

Copenhagen Road

Perhaps someone with more local Subway knowledge can 'fill in' the details on this example, a subway that appears to have linked a rather overgrown and inaccessible green area to the south of the Copenhagen Road, to a more attractive green area to the north with onward footpath to Danesholme's shopping area, the Viking Club (now The Clansman), and Junior School.

Whatever its past, it's now very much Subway Archaeology having been filled in several years ago, and yet remarkably the original parapets survive on either side of the road. Ordnance Survey Benchmark enthusiasts will be delighted to know that a Rivet and Cut Mark survive on the northern parapet, which surely makes this important historic structure eligible for listed status of some kind! Write to your MP...

Dunedin Road/Danesholme Road/Viking Way

The impressive Dunedin Road Subterranean Transit Complex (as I've named it) is quite widely regarded by those prone to hyperbole as the 'Stonehenge' of Corby's subway system. A complex network of two subways linking Danesholme with another part of Corby, possibly aligned to a solar or lunar sunrise (I haven't checked, probably won't bother tbh), it's a green and triumphant example of how the natural world can coexist harmoniously with modern concrete engineering, and Bollards.

It's slightly breathtaking in fact, and when I visited recently I couldn't help but think of William Morris and his famous quote, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful". Amen to that!

It's also home to some of Corby's most beautiful street art, including several contemporary 'Fast Art' examples (aka Stencils), taking inspiration from the nature that's all around us when we're not inside the subways. If you only visit one of Corby's awesome Subway, make it these two...

Viking Way/Oakley Road

An important outlier of the aforementioned Dunedin Road 'complex', and probably the longest of all Corby's surviving subways. This example has an attractive leafy entrance off Viking Way which leads pedestrians under a dual section of the mighty Oakley Road before emerging at some houses. There's not much to see on this side of the road in truth so I'd recommend a swift about-turn to experience the breath-taking transit in reverse. All the better to examine the graffiti, gasp/tut awhile before heading back to Danesholme for a pint. This subway is blesses with an Ordnance Survey Rivet too, go see it before someone accidentally knocks it off.

Lewin Road/Spread Eagle

More of a leafy rural-ish underpass than gritty urban subway this one. The approach from Lewin Road meanders alongside a sluggish tributary of Harpers Brook before plunging underneath the busy Oakley Road. It’s also an excellent entry level experience for the Subway sceptic, a vista so bucolic you could conceivably have a family picnic down there.

Of course the stated purpose of this particular underpass is to deliver thirsty residents of Great Oakley safely under the Oakley Road, and directly into the waiting arms of the Spread Eagle pub (above). In fact you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of a 'Pubway' this side of the matching one that delivers you to The Domino.

Long Close/ Danesholme

The Long Close subway is one of Corby's most hotly debated mysteries. Reputed to link Long Lane and the wider Great Oakley area to Viking Way, and thus to the bright lights of Danesholme, and yet there appears to be no access to the subway from Long Close itself, and little indication of its existence from Viking Way. It's there... and yet not there! On balance, and based on the facts in front of me, I've listed this one as a rare Ghost Subway, and it will be added to the forthcoming 'Corby Haunted Pub & Subway Crawl', which is forthcoming, when I get round to it.

Corby Steelworks Cycle Underpass - Lloyds Road

Like something from an old Planet of the Apes movie, this long closed subway is gradually returning to the primordial jungle whence it was hewn. The western entrance to the subway, seen here, is still easily accessible from Lloyds Road near its junction with the main Oakley Road through Corby.

This subway was originally a cycle and pedestrian way for workers in the Steelworks, affording safe and easy access to Corby Village via The Nook, and thence onwards to the Town Centre for an after-work pint at The Candle. Effectively a dual carriageway with a raised kerb to separate the directions of travel, it must have been a busy route at the changing of shifts in its time.

Cars shall not pass, but this e-Scooter hints at busier times for this subway.

Substantially reduced traffic as the Steel and Tube Works wound down toward the end of the 20th Century meant the subway would eventually become surplus to requirements, and the entrance is now bricked up at the Western side, filled in and inaccessible to us pedestrians on the Eastern side of the road.

Relatively clear of litter and fly-tipping, the bricked up entrance has been attractively graffitied. Note the central kerb, and stylish recesses for strip lighting in the right-hand wall.