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North Featherstone and the tunnel to Pontefract castle

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Author Topic: North Featherstone and the tunnel to Pontefract castle  (Read 7920 times)
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yetion1
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« on: June 21, 2008, 06:28:39 pm »

Heyup Banter,
It’s great to hear a good opinion. I am a total virgin to all this. My interest is pure intrigue to the many stories heard. From what you have said who knows, we might answer some questions?
Going through your points I agree to dig a long tunnel would have caused many problems.
Your first point I believe is the key. To know what they were for would answer many questions. To dig a tunnel and not a bell pit for coal seems daft unless we don’t know something they did. The tunnel does have small seams of coal but not what I would bother to dig for. Is it just a long fridge? The tunnels steam in winter so I assume they have the under ground water heating effect. To be a tunnel from one pit to another is a lot of effort.
To dig a tunnel would, I agree cost much and make lots of spoil. A few ideas would be monks who are free, a rich man such as Cromwell, Cromwells men for something to do or keep the armies supplies, free labour to pay for staying in the 3 times sieged castle. As for the spoil, the tunnel I have seen so far is at most 4.5ft sq. this would cut down spoil. Are some of the spoil heaps around the area just that and not from bell pits? Did they fill in bell pits along the route?
The air supply is a good one. I don’t know what I am talking about I admit. I can say I could hear outside noise and that roots are coming out of the roof and sides. Would that be enough to suggest air flow via cracks?
Your 4th point is the most damming to the ledged of a fully connecting tunnel. What I saw at the end of the tunnel was a dead end in the rock not a block. The chisel marks on the wall are the same but to me at the end change in direction. Again no expert but a got the feeling the tunnel was going down. It would take some clearing to prove this right as that was where there was most debris. An attempt to find the other severed half of the tunnel has been made by digger. After 15ft down of soil they hit the same rock the tunnel is carved from. The lay of the land is on the brow of the hill. Could this make it above the water table? The tunnel I saw was dry but damp.
The value of this tunnel is again a big question. I just don’t know. Its value to us is intrigue of our ancestors.
One other item I have found is that at the back of the church is a large grave/ vault. Many years ago the flag stones above gave way. Upon inspection there was a very deep crypt with 9 coffins stacked towards the church. The room was tinder dry. On the wall was an arch that had been bricked up. It is believed this is an entrance to the tunnel.
Thanks for the interest.
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