Man-made underground passage in Townparks (nethercross By.) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Half a metre of topsoil and three fat boulders hid a beehive chamber twenty-six centimetres below the Rectory lawn. Rough rubble, corbelled into a dome and set in gravelly mortar, still stands where men once crept NNW or south through passages now choked with collapse. The house was moved in the 1970s rather than built across those tunnels, as Reverend Robert Deane recalled; perhaps its makers believed even a rectory should leave the underground road unbroken.

Located on the crest of a ridge with the ground sloping to the N and E, within the front garden of a Rectory. The opening to the Man-made underground passage lies within an area of lawn adjacent to a border just 5 m from the front of the Rectory. During tree removal at the site, an opening 0.9m N-S revealed a large void below, partially obscured by three large boulders (0.5 x 0.30m diam.) Topsoil, measuring 0.4-1m in depth, re-deposited soil and plastic covered the upper surface of a beehive structure. It was clear that the area had previously been disturbed and the chamber breached. Access was impossible but photographs taken revealed a beehive chamber floor approx. 2.6 m below the present ground surface. The dome of the beehive is constructed by corbelling with over-sailing rough rubble boulders set in a gravelly mortar. Access to a passage to the NNW is provided via creep-way with another opening from the chamber to the S, partially obscured by collapse. When the adjacent Rectory was being constructed during the 1970's it was re-located to avoid the 'tunnels' found beneath it ( Reverend Robert Deane pers. comm.). Compiled By : Margaret Keane and Christine Baker Uploaded: 6 March 2017

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.