if you've been watching our channel for a little while you may remember we did a
video from South Wales in Senny bridge where it was the senny bridge abandoned
tunnel but we didn't know if it was actually dug out completely or just
abandoned halfway through or not even built at all it turns out of course that
it was built and there's probably stuff still in there to this day it's just
buried we've got a very similar story to tell today about the town of Swindon and
in particular an abandoned tunnel that went under Swindon Old Town
but before we tell you the story of Swindon Old Town's tunnel you find us by
another tunnel there was definitely built around about twelve miles further south
Swindon that itself is roughly halfway between Bristol and London on the GWR
main line and that's perhaps partly the main reason it was chosen to be the main
repair shop by GWR are at around around 1843 it was completely south then and
almost overnight it transformed the town of Swindon from a population of under
three thousand to one of a bustling community
Swindon led the way with a number of firsts when it built this Mechanics
Institute a lending library a health service all paid for by subscription
from the workers, now a lot of the local streets that were built up after this
all took place were named after towns and cities you could visit directly from
Swindon railway station itself
Swindon however is much less famous for its other railway but Midlands and
southwestern Junction railway which would ultimately desire to join the
north to the south where stood here now by the northern portal of the Marlborough
tunnel 12 miles south of Swindon so ultimately the line would run
perpendicular to GWR it went around the west side of Swindon over Rushey Platt
however that wasn't the original plan and that is exactly where our journey
starts today
so why did this significantly important Line which was going to join the north
to south take such a immediate deviation to the west around Swindon the short
answer is obviously cash but the long answer is a lot more interesting let's
head on up to Swindon and find out a little bit more.
so we're now in Queens Park in Swindon and October the 13th 1875 this part of
the line started to be built so we're here right at the top of Queens Park
that way is north down towards the Swindon gwr main line
goal was to bring the line from the south that was already built up towards
Swindon connected to gwrs main line well that would meant is a tunnel under
Swindon's Old Town a large crowd gathered here because perhaps they'd
heard that this was to be a massive blunder so there was it'll come and see
for themselves did the crowd there gathered here know something the
contractors didn't it certainly seemed that way the ground here is extremely
sodden mr. young the first contractor subcontracted the works of mr. Williams
who also himself soon gave up our the lack of money from the company or they
realised that because the ground was so wet they were never going to make any
headway into what would be the northern portal of this Swindon tunnel under the
old town
here's a couple of maps which show the exact route the tunnel was set to take
under Swindon's old town
the company were faced with the decision that they had to do it themselves
and they did they carried on for another six months and they board their way
further into this hill but they had the same problem as the contractors things
became very wet and landslides after landslide they eventually gave up now
they decided to take a route around the west of Swindon towards Russey platt
which was of course bereft with problems in itself but perhaps less than this
section just here
it's not known exactly how far they got into this hillside did they build a
portal good to get inside an actual tunnel itself before they gave up this
section here is part of the land which has subsequently been filled in the
story doesn't end there though for the next 100 years or so various properties
existed on top of the area which has now been filled in coaching house some
stables and a street eventually formed which they now called hunt street named
after William hunt of the gwr works so we're now stood on the embankment to
what would have led up to the northern portal a Swindon Old Town tunnel how far
they got as I said we don't exactly know presumably as far as new Road which is
now called Victoria Road because some of the old maps was shown here show the
cutting right up to that so thereafter it would have been filled in and as you
say Hunt Street was formed now from the 50s onwards there was major problems
here with land slips some of the residents up on hon tree now had
significant concerns that it wouldn't have a property should things carry on
completely unattended
the map here shows the significant problems they had in the 1980s with all
the land slips but come 1999 that didn't stop a chap called Richard Lay and his
wife from applying for permission to build a house right above
that original cutting Richard Lay and his wife had to wait 17 months to get
planning permission to build their property and once they did they were
required to put 27 pillars into the ground under their property to ensure it
was probably the safest house in Swindon
they named their house tunnel house and if you go to the website which will put
it right here you can see all of the history from the early 1870s right up
until today when they detail the newspaper cuttings everything is on the
website it's a fantastic resource if you're local and you want to explore
some of the history of this long forgotten tunnel okay hope you enjoyed
that little video about Swindon what I want to try and do is a couple of
minutes just have it look exactly where the tunnel would have gone had it had
been built because we've got these really good old maps really detailed old
maps from the website I showed you so let's get Rebecca's help as well because
she's quite good with the analytic side of things Rebecca Rebecca I just want to
kind of do the whole map thing Rebecca yes doughnut on your side okay so what
we'll try and do this is an old map of the plan of the tunnel so you can see
the street on there and you can see the line they will test the dotted line in
the middle hmm is where the tunnel would have gone
so when it becomes just a thick line that's just the alarm to the railway
enter the tunnel tunnel I think that says tile entrance so this is obviously
a zoomed in section as well of the tunnel which is there to there this is a
cross-section of the tunnel itself now you put this sideways because that was
north and obviously you can read the road games yes that was the only way
that you do it is because you can read the names right so we should be able to
align this and the curvature on this map pick a color any color purple blue or
brown blue so what we want to try and do is align this so I'm going to call out
some row dams you see if you can find them so prospect place at Bath Road
Prospect Hill prospect places there okay well I know the tunnel entrance
we know away from the discussion in the video the tunnel entrance was going to
be here okay because there's the house of the that was built
now the tunnel entrance was there like that okay now we know down here this is
what Ana drawn here as well so you can see it people say and I'll do this in a
different color and Branca like brown is boring you did the blue
this is the alignment of the now not now at all because it was also dismantle
this is the Midlands SFI some Junction Road with the route that it took after
the tunnel was abandoned obviously not with big gap in the track because that
could be awfully well there could be some kind of a point the line was gonna
come up north here continue straight into the tunnel round into there and out
that said the tunnel onto the GW our main line here which would bet and we
know it didn't and it took this route around the west side of Swindon so where
exactly would the tunnel of God so on the lower end
well we found prospect place which you said there so we know there was going to
go ride today so she put up a doll yeah candy blue right then we've got Bath
Road no barf Road I'm pretty sure is this big one here
yeah is that the one that hasn't got a name on it because it's kind of yes in
it that could be anyways no no don't yeah because we know there's no women
under then we've got Newport Street I think is this one okay again not mapped
on there is Newport Street so we can pretty much guess it that's gonna be
about there because obviously the lining of that okay so if we said that was
there yeah and probably yes that's borrowed that one so you are is all
almost just to the right that Junction yep I man up enjoy and prospect place
and then curved around and we know it curved because it went there and there
prospect place Lane okay there's another Junction okay so yeah I think I have the
blue pen you can have the blue pen so I think we know it went up there so I'm
pretty sure that is the alignment that a tunnel was going to take based on the
street names Bath Road we've got there Newport Street which must be right here
so then if we can find Newport Street then we've almost got the toe entrance
must be that one we said Oh guess someone yeah
there is out there and then that one Blair is barf road yeah prospect places
that one there and then we've got the curve it you're asked a prospect place
which is there that makes it coming up to it
yeah that is perfect isn't it yes right so that is we think the alignment I will
put this on close up as well just in case you can't see it we think we worked
out the alignment of what would have been Swindon's abandoned tunnel thanks
watching the video do subscribe so many of you watch our videos but don't
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um right and we'll see you next time