Ley Tunnel - Examples - England

England

At Furness Abbey a tunnel has been said to run underneath the Abbey to both Piel Castle and Dalton Castle. This was said to be how the monks travelled to and from each monument to receive foodstuffs and keep watch upon the towns. It has also been rumoured that the Holy Grail and King John’s missing jewels, are actually hidden somewhere inside.

Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire stands in an impressive cliff-top position overlooking the River Swale. A potter named Thompson is said to have discovered a tunnel entrance at the bottom of this cliff. Following it deep into the hillside, he came to a large cavern where slept King Arthur and his knights around the famous Round Table. On the table lay an ancient horn and a mighty sword. Thompson reached out and picked up the horn, but the sleepers began to awake and, fearing for his life, the potter fled. As he raced down the tunnel back to daylight and safety, he heard a voice behind him declare:

"Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson!

If thou hadst drawn the sword or blown the horn,

Thou hadst been the luckiest man e'er was born."

The tunnel appears to have been well known, though the cave remains hidden. A second story tells how this subterranean passage is supposed to run from the Castle to nearby Easby Abbey. Some soldiers once sent a drummer-boy along it to test the theory and followed the sound of his drum almost halfway to the Abbey. Then the drumming stopped and the boy was never seen alive again, but his ghost is said to haunt the tunnel, from where a slow drumbeat is still sometimes heard. A memorial stone marks the spot at which the drum beat was last heard. It is believed that the legendary tunnel was constructed in medieval times as an escape route to the castle for the abbot and canons of the abbey in case of an attack from the Scots, who were continually making raids into the northern counties of England.

A smugglers' tunnel is said to run from Smugglers' Farm in Herstmonceux, Sussex to the Pevensey Marshes, a good distance away. A whole network of secret Knights Templar tunnels is said to run beneath Hertford Castle, running to Dinsley and other local places.

A 'secret tunnel' exists at Pevensey Castle in East Sussex, although not open for public access. It links the keep with the former market square and is thought to be Norman in origin; it was reused during the Second World War.

A series of tunnels are said to lie beneath Glastonbury Tor. The most famous tale is about a tunnel from Glastonbury Abbey to the Tor. At one time some thirty monks were rumoured to have entered the Tor via this tunnel, but only three came out again, and two of them were insane and one was struck dumb. Another widely believed legend is that of a long-distance tunnel leading from the crypt of the Lady (or Galilee) Chapel, under the River Brue to a distant point, possibly to the village of Street, where a passage exists from an outlying building in the grounds of the old manor house. A dog is said to have been put into the tunnel at Street and found his way out at the Glastonbury end.

A tunnel is said to run from King's College Chapel to Granchester Manor, Cambridge, passing under the river Cam.

Evidence of tunnels has recently been found beneath Saint Luke's, Leek's old church, reinforcing legends of a ley tunnel running from the church to Dieulacresse abbey.

A tunnel is said to run from Newbury Town Hall to St Nicolas Church. This belief may have started because there are east-west flowing brick Victorian service tunnels running from roughly the Newbury arcade towards this church; these were exposed to the public's gaze during construction work. A tunnel is also said to run from Newbury Castle (400 ft above sea level) and Shaw House (260 ft, thus 140 ft below it). The point of entry is said to be a hollow space (now blocked) in the south-east angle of the enclosure. In 1930 workmen investigated the legend by excavating the entrance, but found nothing.

At Necton in East Anglia a tunnel is said to run from the restored 14th-century church of All Saints to Necton Hall, in possession of the Mason family since the time of Henry VII.

The first of a number of legendary tunnels under Norwich leads from the Castle (TM232085) to the Guildhall (TM231085) near the market-place, erected 1407-13 on the site of the old tollhouse. It still has a 14th-century vault below it that was the crypt (and prison) of the former building. A second tunnel (in which a pig was once lost) heads from the Castle for Carrow Priory (TM242073 area), a Benedictine nunnery whose scant 12th century remains on the outskirts of Norwich are incorporated into a residence of the Colman family, near the junction of King Street and Bracondale. The third tunnel from the Castle ran to the Norman cathedral to the north-east (TM235089), begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga and finally consecrated in 1101-2. Yet another subterranean way links the Castle with the Crown Derby near the Guildhall.

At Norwich Cathedral another tunnel begins, running for about nine miles to the ruins of St Benet's Abbey (TG383157) on the marshes at Ludham. A much shorter one, allegedly used by monks, was said to run from the cathedral to Samson & Hercules House. The Anglia Restaurant in Prince's Street has a splendid groined crypt for a cellar, and two tunnels from here are said to lead to the cathedral and to St. Andrew's Hall. Monks supposedly used a tunnel from the cellars of the Shrub House at the corner of Charing Cross Street to the site of St. Benedict's Gates.

In early January 1644, Cromwell sent his forces to Norwich to demand the surrender of a small group of Royalists, whom he heard to be present at the Maid's Head Hotel. According to legend, as the Parliamentarians entered the hotel, the Royalists retreated through a secret tunnel, stretching steel ropes across the way behind them. Many of Cromwell's men (and their horses) were beheaded as they raced through the tunnel in pursuit, and this incident is used to explain the sound of ghostly hoofbeats often heard emanating from under the ground around the Cathedral Close.

One smugglers' tunnel was rumoured to run from Kinson, now a Bournemouth suburb, to the coast some four miles away.

In the 19th century, it was said that an underground passage ran from the remains of the 12th century Gisborough Priory, immediately south of Guisborough parish church, to a field that lay in the parish of Tocketts. Halfway along was said to be a chest of gold guarded by a raven or crow. In Cleveland almost every old castle and ruined monastery has its legend of a subterranean passage leading therefrom, which someone has penetrated to a certain distance, and has seen an iron chest, supposed to be full of gold, on which was perched a raven. The raven may suggest a Scandinavian origin of the legends.

Bracknell's Old Manor is a beautiful 17th century brick manor house complete with priest hole. It is said to have secret passages connecting to various locations.

Droitwich Spa is said to have a passageway that leads from St Augustine’s church, Dodderhill, to Friar Street in the town centre. A system of tunnels is said to run from there to St Augustine’s and St Andrew’s churches.

The story that Thomas Becket fled from Northampton Castle is a well documented part of 12th century history, but how the persecuted Archbishop of Canterbury managed to flee from the fortress remains a mystery. One myth is that he fled from the clutches of Henry II through a tunnel that linked the castle to All Saints Church in Mercers Row.

At Binham Priory in Norfolk a fiddler entered the tunnel which ran beneath the building and could be heard for some distance before all sound of him suddenly ceased. The fiddler was never seen again.

The rhyme below dates from the 17th century and recalls the tradition that a tunnel connects what is now Syon House with the friary of Sheen at Richmond in Surrey, a considerable distance away.

"The Nun of Sion, with the Friar of Shean,

Went under water to play the Quean."

The origin of the legend remains a mystery.

In Leicestershire a subterranean passage is said to connect a nunnery which once stood near the Humber Stone with Leicester Abbey. In the cellars under Leicester Castle a witch known as 'Black' or 'Cat Anna' is said to have lived. She is said to have journeyed to the Dane Hills through an underground passage.