there was one point when I was thinking this video ah a bit sketchy is it even a video,
judging by what we've just found
well unequivocally that is exactly what it is what we think it is [Music] [Applause] [Music]
hi everybody my name is Paul and I'm Rebecca you join us today in
an abandoned Canal quite a deep one of that because we're probably
under the Towpath so it's at least six foot deep we've actually covered this canal before it's a
Salisbury and Southampton Canal you can go and look at that video over there now when we got to
the end of that video I said so already had a tunnel which is really strange because we
couldn't find it no trace of it nothing at all so we did some more research recently I say recently
last week and here we are now with a bit more time on our hands so we're gonna go and have a
look specifically for the alderbury tunnel on the Salisbury and Southampton canal [Music] foreign
[Music]
halfway between East and West grimstead gorgeous little Villages and this will be quite nice to
walk along this stretch because it's absolutely beautiful beautiful morning and I remember from
our journey last time around this bit of the canal was still really uh intact and
um just really wanted to see it again I guess is that all right yeah
we're only about a mile from alderbury so
we're heading that direction now and we're going to start talking tunnels
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foreign
[Music] if you have a look in the Salisbury and Winchester journals of that time there's some
really beautiful articles almost poetic in their language and they talk about this canal and this
canal Southampton all the way is going to make it up to Bath and Bristol and connect up with
all the industry there the biggest problem I had was all debris right here all debris
Hill and the tunnel that we're going to build it was going to cost 12 000 pounds of the budget of
around 40 000 pounds there's such potential and prosperity coming for Salisbury and the
local people in the industry and the economy is going to be booming it's a beautiful article and
it really highlights how important it is and they should just get on and build that tunnel
so just down this hill here is ordinary Wharf now orderly Wharf is supposedly the end of the canal
um it went from Southampton the this side of the tunnel at Southampton to here at all debris so
if alderberry Wharf was the Western end of the canal and as far as it got well why is there so
much talk of a tunnel plus we also found evidence in that last video of more of the canal towards
Salisbury Beyond The Wharf so the mystery is back home we either have a tunnel somewhere that maybe
had been started or perhaps we can find more evidence of the canal around the hill instead
either way before that I want to go and have a look a bit more for that and I also want to have
a look for a railway oh okay how cool is that well why don't we split up and I'll do the railway and
you go canaling okay so the railway was going to connect the Wharf to the Turnpike Road okay good
to see if you can see any um of that existing not necessarily rails clearly because it was an
old tram road pre-railways but um that's got to be that side okay you go that way I'll go that
way and see if I can find more of the wharf and where it came round and then we'll start meeting
at the other side of all the broom we'll see if we can find any evidence of the tunnel okay
we try and do is try and find more of the old Canal as it came into
this Wharf I'm not convinced The Wharf was there
um although it looks really obvious because it's still covered um in a vast Pond or lake of water
okay as we were saying and somewhere down there
a load of water down there is the wharf so I'm actually looking
for a Tramway um or evidence of where one might have been at some point so uh see what we can find
all right definitely the right kind of line but it doesn't quite feel right
I don't know if I can trace that ditch back to where we were and maybe
that'll tell me exactly where the wharf was and if that ditches it
I.E the canal apparently this Tramway took it up to the um Turnpike Road up here so I'm going
to keep on going and see if I can come to the road but it's very Hickory piggledy it's very
up and down there's no obvious of tram Road route that goes from the water up so far so uh
back of the bridge here we started a minute ago and I'm just not convinced that this is
the canal coming into here maybe water over the years last 200 years is perhaps eroded that even
deeper than what it was originally and it's now become a stream or book I see any conclusion I can
draw really is to find my backer now who went off in this direction to look for the railway
although a bit Hickory piggledy it's a path that leads straight down to the water here [Music]
right hey look um do you know what there's so many little Pathways down to there yeah the water up
that it could be anywhere or there could be more it's almost like this could be more than one if
you have a look at Rail map online yeah it just shows like a line I think I've guessed it because
I'm walking here to meet you and there's nothing there's nothing there's not even a straight A flat
straight bit for 10 yards no no no definitely not other than the rose yes so the only conclusion I'm
drawing just walking along here finding you is maybe it was a road and like you say the gullies
over the top like this it's like that it could pull stuff up yeah
there's lots of those yes all the way along there's no Railways there are no
sign of any flat bit for any I reckon it was the road [Music]
right so we've got the wharf just there the other side a big clay Mount if you want to head
to Salisbury with your Canal you're going to go in that direction but you've got all debris Hill
you've got um a rise of about 50 meters so you're gonna need to build the tunnel that They carried
on talking about for quite a while however what's really strange is if we go that way behind us in a
perpendicular Direction well you find something that gives us another clue to today's Journey
[Music]
Canal Lane yes right so Canal Lane when the canal is way back there stop there apparently
that's where it ended why are we now walking opposite in Canal Lane it does seem a bit bizarre
[Music]
so from the canal path down or Canal Walk from Caroline we headed um it's not South it's South
West and we think in front of us now is a tree line which the canal could have come along had
it have continued we can't find any real evidence there's a stream running down it it's flat but
you should be expecting between there and up there should be a cutting there should be a deep cutting
down there because obviously it's a canal or a lock no real evidence of a canal here there's a
stream there in front of us which looks very small maybe some Earthworks heading up the other side
but inconclusive back there that tree line inconclusive heading a little bit further
south west a lot of its private land so you can't really get to it so we're going to go back over to
possibly the most um conclusive piece of evidence to suggest there was a tunnel and that is foreign
Hill with the other side of all debris hill now the other side of alderbury on the Salisbury side
and there's this road called Tunnel Hill Road why would you have a road called Tunnel Hill
Road if there's no tunnel yeah or even if there wasn't an ounce of a Tunnel built if it was just
a proposal as part of the plan you wouldn't call this road Tunnel Road now as we walk down this
hill we're now probably about five meters above the correct Contour level assuming there were no
locks that were planned so you know if you would have buried a tunnel in at the other end where
the wharf was or near where the wharf was give or take a few hundred meters while you've gone
in here and you'll come out somewhere around this Hillside here so that does work in terms
of its location so we've been here before and I climbed through that fence I went down onto what
is clearly unequivocally a canal cut goes that way for about 100 meters curves around and goes off in
the direction of Salisbury now you come over this side of the road here there's absolutely nothing
we're about five meters too high there it's just a little trees no cut whatsoever not even
looking like it's been filled in no Earthworks nothing so what's this bit here if the canal
just stopped here or if the tunnel came through there then this wouldn't need to be the canal so
maybe they secured this part of the land early on started building the tunnel didn't work remember I
said okay we're gonna have to go all around the outside of the hill and then they're carried on
building this bit here it seemed to have stopped here but they stopped here because maybe they
hadn't secured that bit of land yet in terms of the ownership of the land okay compulsory purchase
or whatever they did back then because there's no Bridge here there's nothing it's just a cup
foreign [Music] Rebecca managed to find a pathway it cuts across that field where I said the tunnel
should have come out and uh I'm gonna try and find the right Contour level at least for the
alderberry wharf if we can match that to here we should find where the tunnel would have come out
[Music]
right so let's just give you a little bit of context now we're down here on site just
below the church come back to the tunnel in a second look at this this is one of the most
beautiful things you'll see if you enjoy abandoned canals um as we do look at this
the camera that way now when we were here last time just look at the tree line look at everything
in this picture isn't it beautiful topaz up there built Tree Line This Side here maybe these trees
were built around the same building and said I'm planted around the same time we assume the
tunnel would go into there but it wouldn't that's where you would go if you're going to go around
the hill so why'd they build that well maybe they started on the tunnel and they didn't have a lot
of luck with it maybe it clamps it's very very mushy there's some Springs around there anyway
we've left what we think what we know is the canal there that was built if we come back up
here to where Becca is we spin around over here well we think this huge bit of Marshland here
how much is if I sink that would add to the calls not too bad at the moment but I think here
is the site of an attempted tunnel I think this is where they started to build a tunnel right here
because it would fit very well with the Contour there and it would head straight there straight
line that way across under all debris and out by alderbury Wharf that's the theory I reckon this
um was almost halted very very quickly perhaps because of quicksand because bad soil
lack of experience at that time who knows either way an abandoned
um tunnel next to the abandoned canal still haven't quite solved the mystery I reckon they
did stop at the Wharf they couldn't afford the cost to get down to souls because you still got
to lose another 25 meters if I'd love to know if anyone actually knows why that was called
Tunnel Hill is it because they did start and there was a maybe some casualties maybe in an accident
they didn't really report and the locals said our Tunnel Hill and it was just a story from a couple
of hundred years ago because that happened we'll see you this time next Sunday thanks for watching
give the uh the little button down there a bit of a like not the little bug oh bye bug
[Music] foreign
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