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Underground (Miscellaneous: Tunnels, Roads, Bunkers Etc.)

“I’ve spent – oh, I don’t know how long – hours and hours and whole days at a time in the records’ office with the ladies there bringing my wall-paper sized plans. I would just photograph them – photograph everything. A lot of the time I didn’t even look at the plans but just keep going until the memory on the camera was full." :joyf:
 
Underground & underwater:

Dive sites in the abandoned Kőbánya mine, Budapest.

Great photographs and video:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20180514-a-hidden-world-30m-below-budapest

There are four dive sites in the abandoned Kőbánya mine. Only one, called Park kút (Park well), is accessible to divers with basic Open Water Diver certification. “This is because the chambers and staircases at the Park kút site have open areas with fresh air above them, and it is safer to dive here,” Bolgar explained.

The other flooded wells are enclosed and only accessible to experienced divers with advanced and special skilled certification. The water temperature remains at approximately 12C.

At Park kút, where divers can dive 17m below the water surface (47m below street level), it takes up to 40 minutes to explore the chambers where disused mining and factory equipment can still be seen. “You can actually see how the stones were mined,” Bolgar said.
 
Finger sniffing good.

US authorities have found a secret drug tunnel stretching from a former KFC in the state of Arizona to Mexico.

The 600ft (180m) passageway was in the basement of the old restaurant in San Luis, leading under the border to a home in San Luis Rio Colorado.

Authorities made the discovery last week and have arrested the southern Arizona building's owner.

They were alerted to the tunnel after the suspect, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over, according to KYMA News.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45291978
 
Finger sniffing good.

US authorities have found a secret drug tunnel stretching from a former KFC in the state of Arizona to Mexico.

The 600ft (180m) passageway was in the basement of the old restaurant in San Luis, leading under the border to a home in San Luis Rio Colorado.

Authorities made the discovery last week and have arrested the southern Arizona building's owner.

They were alerted to the tunnel after the suspect, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over, according to KYMA News.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45291978
Oh, those secret 'herbs and spices'.
 
Finger sniffing good.

US authorities have found a secret drug tunnel stretching from a former KFC in the state of Arizona to Mexico.

The 600ft (180m) passageway was in the basement of the old restaurant in San Luis, leading under the border to a home in San Luis Rio Colorado.

Authorities made the discovery last week and have arrested the southern Arizona building's owner.

They were alerted to the tunnel after the suspect, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over, according to KYMA News.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45291978
Here is the KFC:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@32.4...vjyei7iIiTFTgNhQzXhA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
 
Finger sniffing good.

US authorities have found a secret drug tunnel stretching from a former KFC in the state of Arizona to Mexico.

The 600ft (180m) passageway was in the basement of the old restaurant in San Luis, leading under the border to a home in San Luis Rio Colorado.

Authorities made the discovery last week and have arrested the southern Arizona building's owner.

They were alerted to the tunnel after the suspect, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over, according to KYMA News.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45291978

Sounds a bit like Breaking Bad.
 
A river emerges from the underground.

An ancient river could see the light of day again, thanks to a collapsing tramline in the centre of the Greek capital Athens.

Years of lax maintenance and natural erosion have left the route in such a poor state that trams stopped running last October, but this very modern problem could also turn into an historic opportunity, the Avgi newspaper reports.

The River Ilisos was mentioned by Plato, and saw philosophers from Socrates to the Cynics teach on its banks.

But it was paved over as part of the post-war urban development drive, in what the Kathimerini daily called "one of the many crimes that took place in Athens in the name of progress".

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-47385140
 
"one of the many crimes that took place in Athens in the name of progress".

Athens has a reputation as one of the least-Green cities on the planet. I am glad some modern-day Athenians want to reverse the trend. This concentration of population, commerce and pollution in one place reminds me of some other countries . . . :thought:
 
Recent article about the Ramsgate Tunnels, some interesting old photos too,

Inside the Ramsgate Tunnels - Kent's hidden underground city which is long forgotten about
Hundreds of Ramsgate residents lived for months at a time without seeing the light of day

By
Lauren MacDougall
16:49, 2 MAR 2019

Decades ago, far beneath the surface of a coastal Kent town, scores of families lived for months at a time without seeing the light of day.
In fact, hundreds of Ramsgate residents adopted a completely subterranean life during the Second World War, after 500 bombs fell in just five minutes on August 24, 1940, destroying people's homes and businesses.

Some 300 families took to living in the tunnels on a permanent basis. Life underground became normal for the people of Ramsgate and street signs, canteens, shops and other services were set up.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/nost...b88OUT0nr_HNPU-bTKbdNGGu02FRZA13FIxQDL3ijxlxI
 
Impressive. I'd not heard of those.
 
I went there a few months ago - worth a visit. The tunnels are fairly extensive & the design I think was to shelter up to 60,000 people at a time. Some of them followed the line of the street above & there were several strategically placed entrances to make them accessible.

As said above many took up permanent residence as their house had been bombed.
 
HIDDEN beneath Scotland’s historic capital city lies a veritable warren of chambers and passageways, some of them well-known, others long-forgotten. We take a close look at eight of Edinburgh’s hidden tunnels and vaults.

South Bridge Vaults
Mary King’s Close
Gilmerton Cove
Barnton Quarry’s ‘top secret’ bunker
Waverley Vaults
Scotland Street Tunnel
The Crawley Tunnel
Innocent Railway Tunnel


https://www.scotsman.com/regions/ed...inburgh-s-hidden-vaults-and-tunnels-1-4474816
 
So while just trying to find some information about a local building I came across a facebook page which, if you believe every post on it my entire town is criss crossed with secret underground tunnels, linking every where to either/and the church, the gaol, ye olde castle (destroyed in the civil war!) or ye olde out of town castle!

Although quite industrial now, until pretty much post ww2 this was a small market town serving farming and the wool trade.

So, as there are 27 pages in this thread and I can't be bothered to read them all (sorry!) , does this seem likely?

I can easily believe lots of the older buildings have cellars, and maybe even some linking tunnels to next door, which I can also see why people think 'tunnels' when doing building work they come up against a bricked up cellar, it much be terribly exciting and spooky!

But why would anywhere need tunnels? Some of the suggestions I saw said 'transporting prisoners'. From where to where? Even back in castle days wouldn't they have just used, ooh a cart?

Some of the much older buildings may have had priest holes. One place, now a hotel, does have a lot of nooks and crannys, and also legit cellars. That building could plausibly have a tunnel to the church over the road, although its too modern a building , but I think there was an older church.

All my life there was stories, again linked to the english civil war, about tunnels running from a quarried area on the edge of town leading to a tudor era castle 3 miles away. But thats a long old tunnel.

Another on the fb post suggested

..There is a tunnel which used to run from out of town to the underbelly of the town hall.. I believe they used to use it for running ammunition in and out of the town during the war...

eh? this was not a centre for 'the war' which I've taken to mean ww2. wouldn't you use the road? If the post meant the civil war then well ok except for the fact the town hall wasn't built until centuries later!

So anyway, as I said without reading this whole thread, does any of this seem remotely likely?
 
So while just trying to find some information about a local building I came across a facebook page which, if you believe every post on it my entire town is criss crossed with secret underground tunnels, linking every where to either/and the church, the gaol, ye olde castle (destroyed in the civil war!) or ye olde out of town castle!

Although quite industrial now, until pretty much post ww2 this was a small market town serving farming and the wool trade.

So, as there are 27 pages in this thread and I can't be bothered to read them all (sorry!) , does this seem likely?

I can easily believe lots of the older buildings have cellars, and maybe even some linking tunnels to next door, which I can also see why people think 'tunnels' when doing building work they come up against a bricked up cellar, it much be terribly exciting and spooky!

But why would anywhere need tunnels? Some of the suggestions I saw said 'transporting prisoners'. From where to where? Even back in castle days wouldn't they have just used, ooh a cart?

Some of the much older buildings may have had priest holes. One place, now a hotel, does have a lot of nooks and crannys, and also legit cellars. That building could plausibly have a tunnel to the church over the road, although its too modern a building , but I think there was an older church.

All my life there was stories, again linked to the english civil war, about tunnels running from a quarried area on the edge of town leading to a tudor era castle 3 miles away. But thats a long old tunnel.

Another on the fb post suggested

eh? this was not a centre for 'the war' which I've taken to mean ww2. wouldn't you use the road? If the post meant the civil war then well ok except for the fact the town hall wasn't built until centuries later!

So anyway, as I said without reading this whole thread, does any of this seem remotely likely?

Any stories of sending drummer boys or pipers down a tunnel to track the route and the music suddenly stops?

If a city is old enough, it likely will have lots of tunnels. In the case of Edinburgh (see above link), new was built on top of old, layer on layer, entire streets getting buried as the city grew up and sideways. Sometimes the empty spaces would become cellars, sometimes they'd be forgotten about and rediscovered decades or even centuries later and turned into ghost walks. Some cities have Roman sewers. Paris is built over an estimated 200 miles of limestone quarry mines (some of which became the famous Catacombs).

As for your tunnel to the town hall... what was the site's purpose in the Civil War era? Perhaps it was a central building that was later chosen as an ideal site for the town hall?

P.S. I've heard that the cellars and tunnels under Edinburgh Castle go down a LOT further than the tourists get to learn about. That's somewhere I'd love to explore.
 
I've never heard any drummer boy stories. The town is mentioned in the domsday book but wasn't really a populated until saxon times. I can't imagine there are any ancient sewers. Nor mines, the tradional quarrying in the general area is from, well, quarries not mines.

The more I think about the town hall, its plausible, abstractly. I'd have to consult my mums epic collection of local history books but, I guess the current town hall could be roughly near one of the castle gates?

the castle was built in the 1100's, then added to. then much of the town burnt down in the 1600's then the civil war destroyed the castle.

The town did play quite a role in the civil war so again, it's plausible that all sorts of tunnels were made then.

The thing that I thought strange is I have never heard of tunnels below the town hall. They did/do have 'secret' underground cellars and the such from the cold war era,- fall out shelters. This is a fact because post cold war they opened them up for public use! So of course, they rooms could have been built from something older, or the poster that tunnels could be muddling it up with bunkers.

intriging....
 
Tunnels Under Alcatraz

https://www.sciencealert.com/archaeologists-have-found-civil-war-tunnels-under-alcatraz-prison

"Alcatraz is less known in its former military role as a 19th century coastal fortification protecting the interests of a rapidly westward-expanding nation during the turbulent era of Manifest Destiny, the 1849 Gold Rush and the Civil War."

These hidden tunnels and rooms are all that's left of the military base on the 20 hectare (50 acre) island, a facility built to keep San Francisco safe from invasion.

Although historians had some idea of what had existed before the prison thanks to historical documents and limited artefacts, this study gives decisive details of what was actually there, shedding light on a part of Alcatraz that was relatively unstudied.

"This really reinforces what several historians and archaeologists had long suspected," said one of the researchers and Alcatraz historian John Martini to PBS. "Up until this point, we had nothing to go on except for a few visible trace remains and maps - and a lot of suspicion."
 
Earthfasts?

Hadn't heard of that one!

There's quite a few tales of musicians being sent down tunnels to track their progress before disappearing.

Richmond Castle to Easby Abbey - Drummer Boy
Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace - Drummer Boy/Lone Piper
Binham Priory, Norfolk - fiddler
Culzean Castle - piper (and his dog)

Seems being a piper or drummer-boy in the old days was a dangerous job - never knew when you might get shoved down a dark tunnel and told to start walking.

Some interesting related links : Ley Tunnels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_in_popular_culture#Examples
 
Hadn't heard of that one!

There's quite a few tales of musicians being sent down tunnels to track their progress before disappearing.

Richmond Castle to Easby Abbey - Drummer Boy
Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace - Drummer Boy/Lone Piper
Binham Priory, Norfolk - fiddler
Culzean Castle - piper (and his dog)

Seems being a piper or drummer-boy in the old days was a dangerous job - never knew when you might get shoved down a dark tunnel and told to start walking.

Some interesting related links : Ley Tunnels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_in_popular_culture#Examples
A clever drummer would just fake it. Get just out of sight then drum quieter and quieter. Pop back up ten minutes later saying he has no memory of what happened!
 
Any stories of sending drummer boys or pipers down a tunnel to track the route and the music suddenly stops?

If a city is old enough, it likely will have lots of tunnels. In the case of Edinburgh (see above link), new was built on top of old, layer on layer, entire streets getting buried as the city grew up and sideways. Sometimes the empty spaces would become cellars, sometimes they'd be forgotten about and rediscovered decades or even centuries later and turned into ghost walks. Some cities have Roman sewers. Paris is built over an estimated 200 miles of limestone quarry mines (some of which became the famous Catacombs).

As for your tunnel to the town hall... what was the site's purpose in the Civil War era? Perhaps it was a central building that was later chosen as an ideal site for the town hall?

P.S. I've heard that the cellars and tunnels under Edinburgh Castle go down a LOT further than the tourists get to learn about. That's somewhere I'd love to explore.
well still not found any references to tunnels.

I did find an illustration of where the old castle would've been in relation to current buildings. the town hall is in the market place outside of what would've been the southern wall. plus

Leland tells us that there were five bargates and three crosses in the town, and he also says that most of the roads were in a very poor condition, full of ruts and very dirty. However, the Cuttle Brook*, which was a stream which ran down into the Market Place, was kept clean and no-one was allowed to let geese or ducks swim in it.

... was famous for its market in Tudor times, [and the main trades were]
Leatherworking 34%
Suppliers of food and drink 26%
Cloth Trade 16%
Wood Working 9%
Metal working 8%
Building Trades 3%​

none of which really cries much of secret tunnels. though of course they probably would come later. the search continues...


*i have never ever heard of cuttle brook.
 
well still not found any references to tunnels.

I did find an illustration of where the old castle would've been in relation to current buildings. the town hall is in the market place outside of what would've been the southern wall. plus

Doing a quick overlay of that 1800s map and current map, it appears the town hall is built on the site of an old school and a "Pump Pound". Only unlikely thing I can think of is that the Pump Pound was connected to a navigable water source like an underground river/stream/tunnel linked to the Cherwell. But as you observed, it's outside the city walls - rather useless as an ammo supply route if the castle's under siege (especially as it's next to a barbican - the entrances are going to be under constant watch.)

It could be the commenter is thinking of the WW2 air raid shelter under the Town Hall. It apparently had a capacity of 250.

https://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/war-children-had-to-hide-under-pews-1-598249

Have you tried asking at the town hall itself, or the local library? Maybe the shelters still exist, perhaps converted into storerooms. (Libraries often have old maps and clippings not online and librarians know everything)


EqdqROx.jpg
 
Just off to the left, not on the map...gropecunt lane. :0

Parsons Street in Banbury was first recorded as Gropecunt Lane in 1333, and may have been an important thoroughfare, but by 1410 its name had been changed to Parsons Lane

Do locals still refer to it by its former epithetical name? Is the trade still plied there?

And just noticed your comment about Cuttle Brook - could be that the Pump Pound (also in Market Place) was a water pump that tapped into the now-underground brook?

Edit : Looks like your Cuttle Brook fed into a cucking-pool!

Also mentioned here : https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol10/pp18-28
 
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In Lancaster we used to have Swapcunt Alley until it was renamed Bashful Alley. Because well to do visitors would have a knee trembler down the alley without getting caught.
 
In Lancaster we used to have Swapcunt Alley until it was renamed Bashful Alley. Because well to do visitors would have a knee trembler down the alley without getting caught.

Why would “well to do” people need to have a “knee-trembler up an alley”? That’s for shop stewards and works conveners. The affluent would be drinking Roederer Cristal out of the navels of supermodels, like any rational human being.

maximus otter
 
The rationale as I understand is that they would avoid the social shame of what they were doing as visitors hoping not to get caught. This is what I have read in a couple of local books anyhow. I'm no history expert. And we are also talking of over a century ago.
 
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