SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Hi Wiggy!Who are 'those guys' you refer to and what is the relevance?

wiggy wrote: jonleeds wrote: Hi Folks!Yes its my photo of the Kirkstall Abbey tunnel that has been doing the rounds!!!As Rik says his mate couldnt get very far up the tunnel featured in my pic as it comes to a dead end - allegedly! But you would need to be a stick insect to get into the doorway as its almost buried shut. I have heard various tales of tunnels leading from both the cellar of and the garden of Newlay Manor to Kirkstall Abbey, I've also heard of a tunnel leading from Dean Grange Farm of all places to Kirkstall Abbey which seems very unlikely as thats around 3 miles as the crow flies over land with much ascent and descent. Its probably that there are a combination of tunnels and drainage culverts combined with local myths / chinese whispers etc that has led to a complete hotchpotch of rumours. However its always intriguing to think there might be secret tunnels, buried gold, ghostly monks etc! I'm still for the Kirkstall Abbey tunnel regardless! those guys were there for hundreds of years,and walked 8 miles a day...barefoot over what was moorland to mine iron ore at seacroft and monkswood,so a few little tunnels?......childs play for those guys.it was those fellas that went to the crusades and also those fellas that gave us the turks heads at whitelocks....hard men in hard times,i reckon they could do pretty much what they set their minds to... Cistercian monks did not go to the Crusades to fight Wiggy,they were a peaceful order.The Orders of Monks that fought in Palestine were The Knigts Templar and the Knights of the Order of St John.The real quetion is why they would need to build such a tunnel,to which the answer is that there wasnt,so why would they invest in such a venture when they liked to put all there efforts into land/woodland management,wool,iron/lead working.These were the main sources of maintenance and income for this abbey,as was also the case with its sister Cisctercian Abbeys at Rievaulx,Fountains,and Jervaulx to name but a few.Good link here for anyone interestedhttp://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/kirkstall/history/My mum always told me about a tunnel from Quarry hill to Kirkstall,but unfortunately it seems that its just a legend as no trace of any such tunnel has been found,despite the extensive amount of redevelopment that has taken place in the last two centuries.Shame

I see, somebody called zombola emailed me via flickr wanting to know where the entrance to the tunnel in my pics was, he said there was some rumour going about that some tunnel entrance at Kirkstall Abbey had been filled in? I havent heard about this from anywhere, does anyone else know anything?

I dont think that we should discount the likelyhood of undercrofts and cellars on the Abbey site,perhaps the remnants of these have been responsible for a lot of tunnel legends.

Well all i can say is nobody has ever found them in 800 years.

As kids we were told that a tunnel led from the abbey to the old house on Bramley town St. Now if true, that would be a massive engineering feat. Apparenlty, two tunnels were found, one at the abbey going that direction mentioned and one from the old house going towards the abbey. Both block severl hundred meters along it. how true it all is I haven't a clue, but it would be nice if it were. Can't see it missen!!

Phill_d wrote: Well all i can say is nobody has ever found them in 800 years. Ladies and gentleman,this is a quote from an addicted mole.If there was the slightest sniff of even a monks pet gerbil getting loose and burrowing a nest that led to even the Vespers pub ,then Phil would have his HV vest,shovel and box browny loaded up ready to go.

cnosni wrote: Phill_d wrote: Well all i can say is nobody has ever found them in 800 years. Ladies and gentleman,this is a quote from an addicted mole.If there was the slightest sniff of even a monks pet gerbil getting loose and burrowing a nest that led to even the Vespers pub ,then Phil would have his HV vest,shovel and box browny loaded up ready to go. Maybe Phil is in on the 'conspiracy' to keep the super secret monk's underground monorail to Temple Newsham a secret ? (-;

jf wrote: cnosni wrote: Phill_d wrote: Well all i can say is nobody has ever found them in 800 years. Ladies and gentleman,this is a quote from an addicted mole.If there was the slightest sniff of even a monks pet gerbil getting loose and burrowing a nest that led to even the Vespers pub ,then Phil would have his HV vest,shovel and box browny loaded up ready to go. Maybe Phil is in on the 'conspiracy' to keep the super secret monk's underground monorail to Temple Newsham a secret ? (-; Yeah you got it j.f.. It's about as plausible as that isn't it?? No seriously the Abbey is right next to the river.. In that area there will be many disused culverts, water courses and all manner of goits from the water powered industry from days gone by.. We found a few small tunnels opposite Kirkstall forge, They were brick lined and looked to be dated from WW1. They had subsided and you could see inside.. I think it's all this stuff that fuels the rumour of these infamous Kirkstall abbey tunnels. They certainly didn't use bricks in those days. That's my point of view anyhow