Tunnels under Sheffield

[cartav]

Interesting, the tunnel is made mostly of Red Brick with the odd stone in near the base, its approximately 8 feet high at it highest and five feet at the lowest (lowest being near the Keep, I guess they revised their plans to make things easier and quicker as they went along).

 

So the bit you saw if it was the tunnel would be 9 feet high from its base and about 4 feet wide, does this match your recollection.

 

Interesting indeed. I suppose the 9 feet high bit was for men with spears, but the 5 ft. section seems a little mean, even for Middle Age shorties. Guess it's more likely to be a drain or something to do with Seniors' works which were there before, rather than a walkway. Look... nobody suggests there aren't excavations under the city. Thoroughfares for foot traffic two miles long ARE disputed. Woodhead tunnel was started in the 1830's (I think), they could do it then. But could they do it, secretly mind, in the 13th century? They could dig down for coal, for sure, & lay primitive sewer systems....... There's a legend about tunnels from every old building in the city, but nobody's ever seen one for certain. Short bits, yes, & bits of old sewerage or vent systems. A blocked up door out of a cellar, or a short passage way from it, is no proof of something two miles long.

 

I've done my share on building sites, was there when they found an old forgotten room beyond a cellar wall in the Hutt Hotel, close by Newstead Abbey. Work stopped, a small hole revealed suits of armour glinting in the torch light. So they thought. It was shiny metal alright... paint tins in the garage beyond the site which was lower than than the cellar we were working in. I've seen photographs of the old coal mine under Telephone House (Cambridge St was Coal Pit Lane, once). I can believe it's there, I've seen proof. I've seen nothing to convince me a two mile long tunnel goes from Pond St. to the Manor. Show me evidence & I'll gladly agree you are right.

 

I don't know everything, I don't believe everything. I come to conclusions after reviewing the facts &.logic tells me that 2 mile long mediaeval tunnels (not short lengths) dug without anyone knowing, are more likely to be born out of old wives' tales than substance. And, by the way, there's no Father Christmas, either.

[wolfstalin]

It is going back a bit, but the part I uncovered was a good four foot or more, as you can imagine they wanted as little as possible uncovering, and very carefully, had it been a part of the sewage system we'd have all been up to the neck in it.

 

Oh yeah, a sewer that size and that depth in the city would have massive pressure.

 

So what bit did you see, the top or the side and was it Red Brick.

[Greybeard]

As to the tunnel from the Queens head up to the Keep at Manor Castle that one still existed up to the early 80's although I suspect that the Sky Edge development might have cut through it as it was very close to the surface at that point and had been cut into by mine workings of the old Nunnery Pitt in the period between the wars.

 

Is there documentary evidence of this tunnel ? Where can I see it ?

[wolfstalin]

EARTHQUAKE IN SHEFFIELD WHILE MARY WAS A PRISONER AT THE ENGLISH CASTLE IN 1574

 

In a letter to Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Shrewsbury told of an earthquake. "He mentions that the walls of his old castle had been shaken by an earthquake. Two or three shocks were felt in this island in the reign of Elizabeth. The apartments occupied by the Queen of Scots were those most shaken by it; and she was much alarmed. 'My lady where thee hath bene often brutes of this lades' escape from me; the xxvi of febrary last there cam an earthequake, whyche so sunke chefely hur chambar, as I doubted more hur faleng than hur goinge, she was so afrede; but God be thanked, she is forth cumying; and grante it may be a forwarnyng unto hur.'" *

(History of Sheffield, 1869, J.A. Hunter, p.92)

 

 

* TRANSLATION: "My lady where you have been often concerned of this lady's escape from me, the 24th of february last there came an earthquake, which so sunk chiefly her chamber, as I worried more about her falling than her escaping, she was so afraid; but God be thanked, she is alright; and grant it may be a forewarning to her."

[wolfstalin]

Is there documentary evidence of this tunnel ? Where can I see it ?

 

There is Greybeard but I don't do the same job as I did some years ago and I don't know how to lay hands on it.

[wolfstalin]

http://travel.ciao.co.uk/The_Old_Queens_Head_Sheffield__Review_5568201

 

During this period she spent much of her time imprisoned in Sheffield Castle but whilst she was there her supporters plotted her escape. This escape culminated in the building of a secret underground tunnel which was to eventually connect Sheffield Castle with Manor Castle (a couple of miles away). This tunnel passed directly beneath the "The hawle in the pondes" and there was a secret passage into this tunnel from inside the building which still exists there today.

 

In 1583 Mary escaped from Sheffield Castle with her supporters and initially took refuge in the "The hawle in the pondes" before escaping further down the tunnel to Manor Castle where she found her freedom.

[Greybeard]

http://travel.ciao.co.uk/The_Old_Queens_Head_Sheffield__Review_5568201

 

In 1583 Mary escaped from Sheffield Castle with her supporters and initially took refuge in the "The hawle in the pondes" before escaping further down the tunnel to Manor Castle where she found her freedom.

 

Mary did indeed leave Sheffield for a few weeks in 1583, but it was to stay at the Earl of Shrewsbury's manor house at Worksop; under guard and closely watched, probably to allow her a change of scene and the tedium of her life in Sheffield.

 

At that time she was normally resident in Manor Lodge and hadn't lived at Sheffield Castle for some years.

 

It seems certain that the several works on Mary's captivity in Sheffield would have mentioned an 'escape' had there been one. Shrewsbury would have been severely punished by Elizabeth and possibly tried for treason if Mary had escaped from his custody.

[wolfstalin]

I can't say as I know Greybeard, all I can do is posts what's 'out there' not being around at the time.

 

I don't however think that the correspondence is fictitious and it would seam more likely that the floor falling out of Marys room would more likely be due to underground workings collapsing.

[beardno1]

Wolfstalin did the tunnel to manor lodge go under the river as suggested or was there some sort of concealed entrance on the river bank.

Also retep tells us there was a some sort of tunnel or pipe uncovered while the digging of ponds forge now given the nature of the site and the well known history of it why wasnt there some sort of archeological team overlooking the dig.

[retep]

Oh yeah, a sewer that size and that depth in the city would have massive pressure.

 

So what bit did you see, the top or the side and was it Red Brick.

 

As I said not a lot was uncovered but you could see the shape and it was rounded as in a pipe of some sort, think it was more a case of it was on the edge of their measurements so they could get round it, so it was left alone.