The Mystery of the Missing Tunnel 

Next to Banff in Canada is a mountain called Tunnel Mountain. When the Canadian Pacific railroad was being surveyed through the area, the plan was originally to tunnel through the mountain and so that was what the mountain was called. Unfortunately, they quickly realised that it would be quicker/cheaper to build around the mountain and so the route was diverted, which left the mountain namede after a tunnel that was never built.

There's an ornamental lake at Alderbury House on the opposite side of Tunnel Hill. I understand that this was a part of the canal and designed as a reservoir. I walked around it several years ago when the then owners opened the grounds for visitors. If you drive down Tunnel Hill there is a noticeable dip in the road just below the church where the earthworks finished. I'm convinced that a (short) tunnel was at least started if not completed to link the site you visited and the lake at Alderbury House. The other interesting local item is the Alderbury to Bournemouth railway for which there was a bridge over the main road just to the south of Whaddon Post office where the link to the present A36 joins the old road. Dave (from West Grimstead).

Great to see Rebecca getting her own solo bits as well as pulling faces while Paul pontificates (which always cracks me up).

It's always interesting to learn the how and why of canals and railroads, and what happened to them over time. A hundred years from now Paul and Rebecca's grand-children will do a video on what happened to the HS rail line that never got built.

Your obvious joy at coming to a conclusion of what may have happened is so infectious. Great film.

What a mystery! I love the way you try to unravel the past for us..thank you. Good to see Rebecca doing some reseach on her own...roll on the next video and thanks as always.

I got very excited when I saw you were doing this one. Only found my school project on the canal I did in the 70s a few days ago! I too spent many an hour wandering around Tunnel Hill trying to find a tunnel and I think your analysis is probably correct. Shame there are no more detailed historic records. Fascinating!

Great video . On the National Library of Scotland site there are a couple of local maps that add a little information. They are: Wiltshire LXXII.1, Surveyed 1871. Wiltshire LXXII.5, Surveyed 1876 to 1879. Note that they are not the maps used for the overlay (which are later). They show that more remained of the canal in the 1870s. It seems to peter out to the east of Rectory Farm. However there is no explanation of "Tunnel Hill Road" (which is not even named). The Historic England entry for Alderbury House (Grade II*) is interesting. It says: "Country house. Late C18. For George Fort possibly by James Wyatt." ... "George Fort was a Salisbury hatter with some interests in the Salisbury Canal which was built in the area, shortly before the house, but never finished. The house stands in a landscaped park with a lake which formed part of the canal." Much to ponder🤔

You have absolutely earned an interested and eager fan from Dallas, TX here. So interesting to see you retrace bits of history that often predates my nation’s existence!! Keep up the amazing work.

Lovely video, both of you. A real tunnel mystery! Many thanks.

Alderbury House on Tunnel Hill Road, and the large estate around it, was built by George Yalden Fort around the same time. He was instrumental in the canal project. From 'The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe' about George and the house: 'A successful Salisbury Merchant and entrepreneur, he skillfully augmented his family's landholdings and wealth. When he died, the Aldbury estate contained 300 acres, and he owned several hundred other acres of other properties in Wiltshire. Fort served as mayor of Salisbury in the late 1780's and became High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1800... '... George Yalden Fort also had a taste for speculation and visionary engineering projects. In 1770 he became the principal promoter of the Salisbury Canal scheme. The ambitious plan would have run a canal south from Salisbury for several mile through difficult terrain to connect with the then-building Andover canal, providing Salisbury access to the sea. Not only would this scheme have benefited Forts Salisbury business interests, but the proposed canal route crossed his Aldbury estate and would have provided a convenient outlet for his agricultural products. He integrated the canal into his picturesque landscaping plans by channeling it through a tunnel and damming it into an ornamental lake where it crossed his property within sight of his new house. The canal scheme ultimately failed, but by 1796 Fort had completed his new house and the lake and the tunnel that were to accommodate the canal. Tunnel Hill road was a straighter version of the old approach road to the house. Worth also noting the old church (the original on the site of the current one) lost a bit of its remaining crumbling tower around 1800.

Thank you for getting out and making these amazing videos.

hi again Paul and Rebecca , i enjoyed this one , really interesting , great drone shots as always , well done and thank you guys 😊

Your videos often bring to mind Stewart Ainsworth's field walking on Time Team, which was always my favourite part of those programmes.

Nice one guys. Wouldn't be the first time industrial enterprises try to preempt permission and start building before actually owing the land. What struck me was the OS map showing Alderbury Junction where the line of the A36 runs into the railway line, this follows the Alderbury bypass.This is where the old line from West Moors joins the Southampton to Salisbury line. Living in Ferndown I've ridden some of the route so it would be good to see you look at this one... maybe.

One of the best for intrigue so far! I concur with the conclusions. Excellent!

Passing thought: Did you ask any of the Locals? Local legends are not specifically trustworthy but generally are, you might hear three places where that tunnel was built and then you might hear, down in the local Pub, that it never was and see pictures of the Navies hanging on the wall, including some in the tunnel. Happens all the time. The oldest Pub you can find might be a good start.

0:16 - A suggestion for a diversion, a video or 2 looking around inside all these wonderful ancient country churches. Beautiful buildings, great hand hewn details. We don't have much of this in the US :(

really admire your mutual tenacity on your outings. Wonderful viewing,

I think you two are right on the money re tunnel. Costs would spiral and any prosperity would require getting much further west, I expect they just ran out of cash. Some of the best preserved canal route you’ve shown us for a while.

I was born in the village of FARLEY about 2 miles from Alderbury. Used to walk miles in that area as a child with my brother and never knew about this!

Fabulous one guys! I enjoyed it very much! I do love a good tunnel mystery😂

Really interesting look at our recent history. Funny how it only takes 200 years for things to just disappear back into nature. Thank you both for your efforts 👌

I like this channel. It’s very informative and quite interesting well done keep up the good work

One of the best videos so far, imo. Love the split exploring! Also love the dialogue edit.

“A bit hicklty picklty” single most British thing I’ve heard this year

Firstly to say I love your videos and the quirky way you both present them: very appealing and natural. Secondly I love your investigations.... a bit of vicarious activity there as I wish I could do them! On this one have a look at NLS side by side viewer 25" SW England. You can see the canal running south from Alderbury in a cutting (now partly filled) then along the contour until it suddenly stops three fields west of Rectory Farm . The tunnel, never built, would have connected this to the deep cutting on the north with the wharf. The suggested story for tunnel hill is that there was or was planned to be a cut and cover tunnel beside Alderbury House to limit the canal's intrusion. The ornamental pond of the house is supposed to be part of the canal (it is at the same height as the canal and on its proposed course). Keep up the good work!

Great video

They may well have abandoned the tunnel at the drawing board stage. In Victoria there is a town where, until recently, the local pub was called the Railway Junction Hotel, as one candidate for the House of Representatives had promised a railhead and a sanatorium nearby, so a prospective publican decided to get in first and name their establishment as if the proposed railhead was right next door. It never happened, and for over a hundred years the town had a Railway Junction Hotel when the closest right-of-way passed by over a hundred miles away...

Mr P: "If there wasn't a tunnel, you wouldn't call this Tunnel Hill Road" Me: 'What about 'Two Sheds' Jackson?

What a shame about the bridge. Mind you how boggy that area it may have kept falling in on itself. Just loved that thanks guys. Thanks for taking me along. Take care

I reckon that would be an interesting place to use geophysics around the areas where a suspected tunnel portal might be incorporated with an archaeological dig to see if any masonry survives under the top soil!

Rebecca’s gurns, grins and grimaces are so enchanting.

Actually the tunnel was later sold and moved to the Grand Union canal near Tring

Great stuff as always. getting more interesting each week at the moment.

Good thinking Sherlock. Got to love those mysteries. 👍

Definitely the best canal contours I have seen, shame you couldn't find anymore. Great research however 👍

A well explained video. Thanks so much. See you on the next. Cheers mates! ❤😊

Amazing 👏

A lovely piece of video - keep making them.

A very informative vlog ..however I find it such a shame that we have lost so much of our industrial heritage .

Tunnel Hill doesn’t always mean a tunnel underground. Some roads, especially narrow roads from the 17th and 18th century, were named that way because the trees planted either side eventually reached a height that the canopy’s touched making the road look like an above ground tunnel.

The word tunnel is from the French for Net and/or Cask mangled together in a way only the english (15th century) could do. It would of been used for Decoying, the catching of migrant birds of off wetlands. I'm not convinced a tunnel was even planned, the hill to go round is simply too smaller obstacle and the new 50cm definition Lidar maps of the area show a distinct route for the canal well beyond the small lake at Alderbury House.

I love your enthusiasm, have you ever considered doing some GHQ lines? the one here in Tilford is speckled with WW2 relics for you to discover. I worked on restoring the Hampshire end of the Basingstoke Canal its amazing how much is hidden still today from flashes to cuts seemingly going no-where but of course, back in the past manufacturing existed where the materials were not like today where materials are moved to factories situated on major roads with easy access. Keep up the good work and have an early Christmas wish to you both.

Salisbury had a link to the sea via the Avon Navigation to Christchurch but this had become defunct by the mid-18th Century. Southampton was becoming the main port by then, hence the desire for the canal. It was (I believe) completed to a navigable standard as far as Alderbury but, as it was being funded by private subscription, the cost of overcoming Alderbury Hill proved unsustainable. Preliminary work west of the hill were abandoned and construction was terminated. Basically, they ran out of money. That, at least, is the version vaguely current in the area twenty years ago. I once traced the cut to south-east of Alderbury but was unaware of any visible remnants to the west. Thanks for that even though I now live on the other side of the country.

Part of the canal was back-filled by the Southampton Council in 1846, And the Tunnel at Aderbury was left to infill after the alignment was altered for a new Tunnel for the Railway that replaced the Canal.

Intriguing 👍

Could the suspected tunnel under the road be leading to the man made looking lake to the south? Maybe a drainage culvert or a standing pond for the canals?

I love you folks try and figure stuff out. Yet, I'm going to have to state the obvious. Just because you find a trench, ditch, or even a hollow in the landscape does not imply a canal, road, or tunnel. You mentioned a boggy bit of ground where you hypothesize the start of a tunnel. My question is where is the spoil heap? Not unless you are doing something with it, you don't move it very far.

How about a video on the railway station that never was at Lockerley? There’s a double video there as you can cover some of the old canal that runs though east Dean.

On the 1873-1888 OS 25 inch map of Alderbury there is "Gravelpit Plantation" Old Gravel Pit.

Did you know it is International Tunnel Day today?! Great video as usual

Oohhh very interesting! It's a shame things didn't continue. Subtitles need a bit of work though, all this talk of topaz (towpaths), souls (Salisbury) and hickory (higgedly) is leaving me perplexed! 😜

Great video Well done 👏

Similar situation in the Adirondack Mountains. There's a valley/coll called Railroad Notch (west of Keene) that was surveyed for a railroad line that was never built. The name is on the USGS maps to this day.

Been watching for a few years but only just subscribed. I've just looked at the 'Bristol Know Your Place' maps which extend into Wiltshire and seem to show more detail than the Scotland maps. They show the canal extending past the road and also an 'old canal' on the other side of the river Avon branching off near Longford Castle. Could the canal have gone down the hill and joined the Avon at some point? Another great video. Thanks

great one guys many thanks

very interesting

10:33 - Wouldn't have been very efficient, but perhaps they portaged over the hill to the canal on the west side of town, thinking it was temporary until the tunnel or deviation was completed?

Great video. Are you guys just using GoPros now? The sound and stabilisation seem pretty good - might have to look at this.

You could do with a small magnetometer to locate brickworks underground..it would show you where the earth has been disturrbed....have you tried library for old maps and plans etc?

We have a station road we're I live ; but never any station so your theory sounds good

I learned what fly tipping is from this video. 😀

I would have thought your Local Library would have ancient ordinance survey maps to check about a tunnel. !!!!

Great mystery… maybe, just maybe, there were subversive types in the early 19th century changing the name of roads and building spurious earthworks knowing that 200 years later, they would confuse intrepid explorers! 😜

Loved the video, but browsing the location on Google maps, there are several tree’d areas and bodies of water that makes it look like the canal around the town, and as for the Tunnel, perhaps this was intended in going under the church as there’s something in the hedges south of the church and no not the brown box.

Very entertaining! 5 stars out of 5 🙂

A nice little Mystery tunnel... 😉🤔🚂🚂🚂

Very mysterious

XXX THANKS. YOU MAKE ME SMILE. Your presentations are amazing. Come to my fantasy dinner party.

I had to go to railmap online and look at, as it got me thinking. Weird I thought as well looking on there as it shows the canal ending at Tunnel Hill Rd.

On the Bing maps Road overlay you can see the cuts of the canal following the contours from the wharf to the area around tunnel hill.

Thanks for this

not sure if u get to read all this comments, but I would really love to know, where u guys are coming from. I study civil engineering and want to specialize into canal and water work. And besides the obvious difference between GB and Germany, where do u find this maps and how do u prepare for such an interesting Video :). Or is it mostly post production effort?

that's interesting

You should try asking the locals.

This was a really interesting video, it's a shame you couldn't find more evidence to support your theory. I look forward to seeing you both next week.

Rebecca, nice colorful outfit.

4:00 - Mulder and Scully split up, and something bad happens.

maybe news papers of the time can shed some light on the subject! also some online maps have Lydar that may help you see features that can't be seen on normal maps

Brilliant video as always. :)

Can't have been any tunnel dug there, I don't see any spoil heaps. Even a small trial would leave a lot of spoil

Do make sure when you do the Lets Split Up that (a) agreed meeting point and time arranged, and (b) mobile phones fully charged and working and (c) each has car keys to keep warm if the weather gets cold

Well done very informative. Film/edit/presenting 10 of 10. Will watch again

Nice to see Rebecca back. Has she been skiving? 😂 I'll get my coat...

Hi Paul and Rebecca Really enjoying your vids . Have you done a film about the the Beam Canal in North Devon that Runs through Torrington? It's very interesting to say the least. Includes an underground waterwheel which powered an incline which lead to the river Torridge hence it has no locks but it has the Beam aquaduct which is now a road and i might be wrong it was the spot where Tarka the Otter was killed in the book

Hi Paul & Rebecca. Would be interesting to know what the factual point of the tunnel was intended to be. Maybe if you found that out you would have a clearer picture of the path it was intended to take. In this particular investigation, it seems that everything is based merely on conjecture as many places in this country have a road with the name 'Tunnel' in it, but no obvious explanation as to why. It probably highlights the fact of poor record keeping in days gone by. Paul. 👍

When you're next in the Midlands why not come and take a look at the remnants of a railway that lasted for just 4 years but served a multitude of training camps set up during the first world war.

Interesting detective work. Good to see Rebecca taking an active role rather than just waving and smiling!

Looking at google maps, it looks like it goes north. the A36 looks like it cuts through the same elevation. maybe look along the tree line there? after all they probably would have started it from both directions.

This is turning more and more into an Enid Bylton Jolly Japes story. Where are the lashings ( of lemonade ? )

Anything detailed on the historical maps?

Let's split up and look for clues...

Are there any Lidar maps of the area?

Hmmm... did those old newspapers ever print the word "suck"? 🤔 😄 No, but seriously... 🤔

1789? good year for my country...not so much for yours...sorry...this is great stuff, BTW...

Any evidence that people named roads ironically in the past? The locals might have known a tunnel wouldn't work, and they memorialized the failed attempt the way working class people like to boast of knowing better than the experts?

The mystery has been solved, it's missing. Sometimes I think GeoPhys would be useful.

T.Y 🙏🙏

Can't wait for the English language version.