Tunnels under Sheffield

[Leg-end]

So tell us why Sheffield Castle was under siege during the Civil War then?

 

Sorry, this has taken a bit too much of a historical turn for me now, but i'd hazard a guess that people wanted to occupy it.

 

How is this relevant to whether there were any tunnels leading from it or not?

[Tony]

Well obviously is there were any escape tunnels, the Royalists would have been using them to escape.

 

Tunnels were occasionally constructed towards castles from outside the walls, but their intention was to quickly undermine foundations and cause the collapse of walls, not to pop out at the other end. Even then, most failed to reach far enough because they didn't know where they were tunneling.

 

I still love the romance of the idea of tunnels, but I have to draw the conclusion (along with a few others) that they don't exist, never have, and that any reports are merely blocked up entries, foundations, bell pits, adits, shafts, drifts, sewers, furnaces, etc. It doesn't stand up to a moment of scrutiny.

[Leg-end]

Well obviously is there were any escape tunnels, the Royalists would have been using them to escape.

 

Maybe the royalists (the important ones) did escape, but kept the gate locked and the cannon fodder behind to defend the castle, hence the siege still taking place.

 

It is almost inconceivable to think that a castle didn’t have an escape route (or one that wasn’t well documented anyway, kind of loses it secrecy otherwise) be it tunnel or otherwise. Harlech’s escape route comes out half way down a stone cliff! Now that is a tunnel, through rock!

 

I think you're wrong...so we'll have to agree to disagree!

[depoix]

A lot of these tales of supposed tunnels are based on

"Well, my uncle's next door neighbour's cousin's cat went down one of those tunnels in 1899, and so it HAD to be true"

 

as tony said, a) such a fantastical engineering feat would surely have been trumpeted to the world as the most amazing achievement...

 

and b) a lot of these tunnels, such as the one that's supposed to run from ringinglow to Beauchief Abbey have such steep gradients, hard bedrock, and would have to pass under/through rivers etc, making the idea preposterous that it could have been done with the technology available almost a thousand years ago.

 

PT

ummmmm,yet they could transport huge blocks of stone weighing many tons from wales, the south american tribes managed to measure the distance of the moon a thousand years before the thousand years you mention, other tribes built pyramids that can not be built today, others put massive stones so close together a playing card could not be placed between the joint,and then of course theres the romans who were doing fantastic engineering feats two thousand years ago, i think pt you may have to give appreciation where it is due,to the inginiuity of man

[Geezer]

 

Nobody has come forward with a photograph of any these tunnels or maps, charts, eye witness accounts (sworn before a justice of the peace) - Nothing. And nobody will.

 

 

Hartshead tunnel:

 

http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/s09546.jpg

 

http://www.picturesheffield.com/jpgh/s09545.jpg

[Tony]

Part of the Castle foundations I believe.

[Geezer]

All the caption from picturesheffield says is 'hartshead tunnel' no other info. Might have a word with the guy from the local studies see if he knows anything further about these.

 

Hartshead is where the Dove & Rainbow is, if they were foundations it would've been an outbuilding for the castle I would have thought.

[Greybeard]

Harlech’s escape route comes out half way down a stone cliff! Now that is a tunnel, through rock!

 

I think you're wrong...so we'll have to agree to disagree!

 

That tunnel at Harlech was in fact an entrance to the castle from the sea. When Harlech was built the seal level was higher than now and the sea access was intended to afford a provisioning and re-inforcemant route if the castle was besieged.

[Greybeard]

and then of course theres the romans who were doing fantastic engineering feats two thousand years ago, i think pt you may have to give appreciation where it is due,to the inginiuity of man

 

And the Greeks before them..

 

http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/eands/articles/LXVII1/samos.html

[Tony]

That makes tremendous suppositions for which there is no evidence.

 

However, we do have evidence for the standard of surveying and tunnelling knowledge only 200 years ago. I give you the monumental **** up that was the Standedge Tunnel just up the road which very nearly ended up as 2 tunnels.

 

http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/standedge3.htm