‘Extraordinary Discovery’: Secret Medieval Tunnel Found By Electricians In Wales

BBC News reports that a medieval tunnel system was discovered in southern Wales by a team of technicians who were moving an electrical pole.

The four-foot-tall tunnels are located near Tintern Abbey, which was constructed in the twelfth century, and appear to run underneath a footpath located alongside Angiddy Brook. 

A team of electrical technicians stumbled on a “secret” medieval tunnel while undertaking a routine dig to relocate a span of underground cable.

The ruins of Tintern Abbey, a Gothic monastery founded in 1131, are near the valley where the tunnel was found. But the passageway isn’t shown on any ordinance survey maps and it was unknown to local residents and authorities, Western Power Distribution said.

It could take “years” of archaeological investigation before more about the “secret” tunnel is known, WPD technician Allyn Gore said.

In the meantime, his team have backfilled the trench they had begun digging and are putting their cables down elsewhere.

Mr Gore, who headed up the dig team, said he had never seen anything as “exciting and impressive as this” during excavations before.

“The tunnel system was tucked away underneath a footpath, running parallel to the Angiddy Brook, and seemed to follow the brook’s route along the valley; it may have been unknowingly walked on for centuries,” he said.

His team alerted Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic and cultural heritage agency, who was “fascinated by the sheer scale of the tunnel” and thought it could be “linked to ironwork ruins previously discovered in the area”, he said.

Archaeologists are now working to establish more details about the tunnel.