another one which isn't quite so fenced off
i think i just swore on camera
look down there rebecca oh my god all that again don't look so disapproving
southern tunnel four so i'm like what oh you're kidding me
that's a big deal do you want to do the intro hi that's about all i've got is it yeah it's
about okay sorry we've just been up very big oh yeah and look ahead of us crikey oh yeah bit of
an impromptu video with yeah how do i describe this some really interesting things that we're
going to look at today so we are in more well and key in devon we're looking at the tavistock
canal but we're also not looking at the tavistock canal we're looking at one of the um offshoots of
the tavistock canal and we're climbing this huge grey hill we're not even sure we're in the right
area look we've got no service no service check the map we can't take the os maps the app we
should have bought a physical map that's mistake number one yes we join you at the top of the hill
so we found where we're going rebecca but there's a problem yeah that's not a problem but
what do you mean the map yeah they've got this lovely like standing stone
thing but the map's on the side right next to the barbed wire look this is ridiculous
right context to today's video yes please so this we are we're looking at but we're not looking at
the tavistock canal tabstock now built 1817 and provided industry from tavistock down to the tamar
right it lasted nearly a century long finished in 1817 started in 1805 the reason it took so long
was because we were going to start at its most iconic piece the morwell tunnel nearly two miles
long and therefore nearly 50 percent the length of the actual canal itself so it took 13 years
to build and that's understandable but we can't get there because it's all in private land which
is really frustrating because everything at the top of there is on private land the incline plane
the canal tunnel the path up to the actual canal which is really disappointing so we're
going to have to work our way around that what we are going to do here and the reason
why we're not looking at Tavistock Canal has been looking at how it provided water and still does
to various industries around here at the moment it provides hydro electric
for probably a water company down the bottom yep but it also did a lot more than that back in the
day it provided things like mills uh wheel pits and that now if you go slightly off the beaten
track which is where we're going to try and do today in this big forest there's two old abandoned
tunnels that this carried so we're going to have a look down there and see if we can find them which
is kind of the purpose of this video but we'll give you some more context as we go down there
already i can see a lot of masonry look that's really cool so what is that
so again we're at the water level maybe we're just below the water level then
i think these tunnels are going to take some finding because who knows really what water
level we're at that's obviously something like an old mill maybe there was a sign back there
but this isn't said about the wheel this isn't on that pathway though all right let's get a look
so it looks like um without doubt an old mill a bit well water powered will so presumably the
water did come from up there so we're quite not quite on the right track nevertheless looks like
he's in danger of collapsing because they've put a lot of scaffolding to prop it up and wow
that's one amazing feature along here that was uh only in place because of the tavistock canal
and john taylor's engineering thereafter and let's head back out and along the let's go elite
so there's your probably old mine shaft which is fenced off lovely nice and safe
right in front of me here is another one which isn't quite so
fenced off okay that's another pit in front of me which isn't fenced off
all right coming up ahead of us is what looks like kind of an embankment over this what we're going
to call elite thought of a better word and i think it's going to give us our first clue of what we
are looking at today because it does look carved oh look at that rebecca oh wow oh yeah that's
amazing it is amazing isn't it oh yeah but that that tells you that's not a tunnel but that tells
you we're on the right track all right so let's go through this um i'm going to keep calling it
elite everybody i'm sorry that's the wrong word but this is elite and it was to the north west
of tavistock canal and completely shows you how they manage the water here for different purposes
oh now we have a bit of a problem we're not going to get across there
that's a little bit of a landslip but look at that but this isn't the journey's end
right people so we are red dot here we want to get about 500 meters to there
from there to there we were going along the leet which is the black line we're now gonna have
to get back onto the green line up the top and see if we can get down that way to the tunnels
you are here so we got a little way to go yet before
the potential for the tunnels if we can get down the embankment the view that way is
amazing and you can see why we don't want to go down the embankment here
okay i did come a bit lower
but i think i'm above the tunnel just there sheer drop down just there all around there
i think that is the tunnel so this is on top of the tunnel i can't go any further it's too
sheer drop either side it's setting the nerves off like nothing else um
it's when you realize you have vertigo um so i can't sometimes i can't have a look down there
but obviously i think the location of the tunnel is right below our feet here
right we found the railway inclines just up there is what they call the steam
what inclined steam winder right so that obviously powered the uh
the incline plane for the for the uh the railway so the railway obviously came a lot later
we're at the top of the incline the top of the railway incline went down to more well and key
and there's an old building just over here there's a bunch of old i said masonry it's more slate the
obviously the rock around here the path of the railway goes that way ahead of us that's very
much off the beaten track in front of us is what is probably an old mine shaft just down there
again because that's deep we just threw a stone inside it's flooded could be a minecraft not sure
so far so good on this yellow route in trying to find the blue route which should give us access
to the canal which would be great if we could see a bit of it in the middle wasn't that here
and the in the tunnel just just to see the portal of the tunnel would be a
wonderful thing for us so let's hope we can do that we're on the way down the hill now
we were thinking that we were getting a bit antsy
the portal for the tunnel was over there somewhere in the woods and we were just trying to find a
way in last half an hour we were trying to find a way into that section of the woods
and rebecca's just seen the um the portal which is right down there that is
bizarrely a mile and a half nearly two miles long there's sluice gates all
around here which obviously fed different industries massive skate there behind us
you can certainly see why there's no shortage of water on this canal because even now
water's still coming down off the hills behind us and you can see the steady flow of the canal that
way not moving very fast but you can tell that one foot over 1700 foot does give a little bit of a
flow to your canal and therefore still enables a hydroelectric facility just down at moorwell
what's weird about this whole site is it's very difficult to find your way to this tunnel there
the canal tunnel so ironically we're ending the video from the south west portal of the tavistock
canal tunnel the moorwell tunnel that was nearly two miles along we wanted to start the video there
but we couldn't find it from mulwell and key it turns out it's next to the main road on someone's
driveway this is someone's driveway because there's some recycling bins just down there
yeah which is very very strange doesn't add up is it anyway
we hope you've enjoyed today's video it wasn't exactly what we expected when we started out
but we didn't really know what to expect no we were looking for the two tunnels in the
elite or the channel the other side of the hills that was just as dangerous as as you can imagine
um and we ended up actually finding the portal which we didn't expect to find
so we're quite pleased with that win-win yeah and it's a good day and sunny's it's absolutely
yeah um so we we hope you've enjoyed today's little explore we probably scratched the surface
of the industry here which lasted probably a century from the canal which then evolved into
the railway thereafter in the inclines there's a lot here and i said we'll probably just scratch
the surface so if you know more put some links in the in the description in the that below
not description comment comment below right we'll see you next week thanks for watching
you