The Army Rowing Club (ARC) in Abingdon is owned by the Army Sport Clubs Association and so is not MOD land. The Army Rowing Club exists to encourage and promote the sport of rowing within the British Army. They supports two main disciplines of rowing; outdoor rowing (scull and row) and indoor rowing.
As ARC redevelop the land off the Wilsham Road in Abingdon, the buildings at the back are designed to house outdoor rowing boats, and the building near the river will give access to indoor rowing. The indoor rowing will take place in an underground area that was built before the huts. The underground area is a tunnel under the River Thames with an emergency trap door on the far bank, covered with vegetation. At this early stage the mismatching vegetation can be seen by anybody who looks closely. If anybody is walking along the far bank and can take a picture I would like to add it to this blog post.
And there was I think that the hole led to a new submarine rowing facility, Nice one, Backstreeter.
and I will later on in 34mph gusts go and get a drone photo of the trap door the other side.
Missed that when going by on bike ride. All that work and clay, earth, whatever is under the water. Must have taken it away quickly on lorries each load 🙂
There’ll be trouble now you’ve “outed” this Backstreeter. The tunnel is actually a top- secret, consultant-advised road crossing under the Thames to take the pressure off Abingdon bridge and the town centre. That a substantial number of houses in the marina area and Wilsham road area would have to be demolished, along with roads laid over cricket and rugby fields, was to be announced soon.
You know…the shame of it all is that there actually WAS an opportunity mooted for completing the ring road (near here).
One of the reasons the ” Council said no” was because “the land owner would be unlikely to agree”.
The punchline…the council was the landowner!
Anyway, doesn’t matter now…all being well we’ll be in a carless society soon so it would have been a waste of money anyway.