page_title: Tunnels in popular culture
section_title: England
hierarchical_section_title: Tunnels in popular culture / Examples / England
caption_attribution_description: English: The Keep at Richmond Castle
context_page_description: Mysterious tunnels or "secret passages" are a common element of the local folklore tradition in Europe. In Norwegian a secret tunnel-like passage is called a lønngang and in Swedish a lönngång. Such tunnels are said to physically link prominent places such as country houses, castles, churches, ancient monuments and other, often medieval, buildings.
  Legends about the existence of secret tunnels usually involve improbably long subterranean passages, sometimes running under major obstacles such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations. Religious buildings, monks and the landed gentry are particularly common elements in many tunnel stories.
  It is unlikely that many of the recorded tunnels exist physically, for this is a characteristic of their very nature; their significance lies in the number of similar legends of tunnels that have arisen and in connection with the more esoteric notions of channels or paths of earth energy, and such.
context_section_description: 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.
  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 ma
caption: Richmond Castle
exif: {}