from Bell Street, the workmen, on
reaching a depth of 8ft. or 9ft., struck upon the same underground
passage, but of which the original purpose was not very apparent. Cut in
the soft, sandstone, and devoid of any lining, it ran almost at right
angles to Lease Lane, and proved to extend half way under that
thoroughfare, and some four or five yards into the excavated ground.
Under Lease Lane it was blocked by rubbish, through which a sewer is
believed to run, and therefore the exact ending of the passage in one
direction cannot be traced; in the excavated ground it ended, on the
site of a dismantled public-house, in a circular shaft, which may have
been that of a well, or that of a cesspool. The passage, so far as it
was traceable, was 24ft. long, 7ft. high, and 4-1/2ft. wide. As to its
use before it was severed by the sewerage of Lease Lane, the conjecture
is that it afforded a secret means of communication between two houses
separated above ground by that thoroughfare, but for what purpose must
remain one of the perplexing puzzles of the past. That it had no
connection with the Church or the Grammar School (the site of the old
Guild House) is quite certain, as the course of the passage was in a
different direction.
Pages:
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384