# pristine tunnel near donny 11/09



## ugly77 (Nov 2, 2009)

Myself, iceman, bigdazfx an icemans daughter (mighty munchkin) lol have been trying to find the entrance to this place for donkeys. We can find no history for this place at all nor would i speculate as we have only explored about half wayish as we ran out of time and work was calling! The entrance is a complete bugger to find as it looks completely disconnected from what you can see on the surface an is a good half mile away from where you would think. Totally amazing find.
Anyhoo enough dribble on wi the pics, enjoy.


The entrance.






a view of the entrance from the surface.





icemans large bum





again icemans derrier on the way in





look comfy?





the first air shaft 5 min walk on surface from here to entrance nearly 50 min underground





we have all agreed we are buying knee pads now





dust in the gentle breeze, totally accidental pic but cool





some natural stone wall





beautiful for those like me who love tunnels! this one has it all 18th century brick work, natural stone cut away and you can still see pick marks an cave ins to make it a bit more fun





second air shaft we found natural cut stone about 40 feet up! beaut





this blew us away a miners lamp so old it had collapsed in on itself





we are going back very soon to complete the explore, we made it halfway about two mile underground. There are some signs of youths but not much some graffitti from 1974 older than 2/3's of our party but the further in we went the less we saw disturbed. Im really looking forward to the rest of the explore 

be lucky


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## night crawler (Nov 2, 2009)

That looks a very interesting explore, nice one.


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## Black Shuck (Nov 2, 2009)

Jesus Ugly You have got a lot more guts than I have going through a Small Tunnel than that. I think I will stick to Railway Tunnels!


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## Badoosh (Nov 2, 2009)

Nice stuff. It looks like an adit leading to a larger complex, although i'm no expert on mines. Look forward to seeing pics from your return trip. Good work!


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## ugly77 (Nov 2, 2009)

*im baaack*

Well its monday, my day off so guess where i went back too? 
Its a weaving tunnel with no off shoots and scary as hell in places 18th century brickwork thats split and crumbling on the ceiling deep underground no signal on the phone, thankfully my trousers were already covered in mud! 
well onto the pics pretty cool i think, but then i love being underground.
Enjoy

The second airshaft. Can ya tell im having a cheeky cig? I was gasping





man an nature an looked ace





like the artexing? Gods hallway





wider view





looks like a fair size tunnel?





compare it to the 2D maglight! Im 6'3





the exit i did struggle with slightly! i got kinda stuck





the view from the exit was really cool i like viaducts too





Well that was the tunnel i loved it hope you did too
Ugly77


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 3, 2009)

The large water pipe laid on the floor of this tunnel would seem to indicate the original purpose of this tunnel, the pipe perhaps being a later update/modification. As you only specify 'near Donny' I cannot offer any specifics; if this is situated in the general direction of Mexborough/Rotherham/Thrybergh, I would chase up the old water source/ supply records that used to be in the old library/museum. I was born in Donny and lived there for 30 odd years, finding many interesting old records lodged in the aforementioned institutions. There used to be extensive records of the tunnels/workings that were made in the sandstone strata around the Town, this surfaces in the Hexthorpe Bridge/ St Jame's Street area, extending out towards the Sheffield/Mexborough locales.


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## crickleymal (Nov 3, 2009)

It's a fascinating place. I wonder why they felt the need to put air shafts in? If it's a tunnel to accomodate a water pipe it seems hardly necessary. Unless they were there to extract spoil during the digging, especially as it's not a big tunnel.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 3, 2009)

crickleymal said:


> It's a fascinating place. I wonder why they felt the need to put air shafts in? If it's a tunnel to accomodate a water pipe it seems hardly necessary. Unless they were there to extract spoil during the digging, especially as it's not a big tunnel.



I did wonder about the 'air shafts' also. There could be three possibilities I suppose - the aforesaid spoil extraction, air vents if the tunnel originally carried water in the actual bore (the pipe being a later modernisation) or the tunnel was actually dug from four points ie. both ends and outwards from the bottom of the two air shafts. Multiple digging points in tunnel construction was quite common, especially in the era before high speed and very costly boring machines.

More details of the surroundings, would perhaps give clues as to the original purpose of this tunnel - does the viaduct pass over a river, canal or something else, any remains of industry or mining in the immediate area? Obviously the route of the large pipe could provide the answer, it could also be that the pipe route just made use of a convenient previous construction that had nothing to do with what the pipe carried/carries. Also any remaining structures, beyond each end of the tunnel, could also provide useful clues as to the original use.


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## ugly77 (Nov 4, 2009)

*usage*

been busy wi work so not had time to get on, the pipe/tunnel run from warmsworth close to the old underground res an re-emerges to the rear of the mine by conisborough a 1/4 mile or so behind the water tower. There are no above ground buildings but as you drive from warmy into conisborough on donny rd look to your left in the fields you can see the tops of the air shafts. 
I would love to find out the reason for the tunnel im speculating it was to either service mine workings or conisborough at some point?


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 5, 2009)

ugly77 said:


> the pipe/tunnel run from warmsworth close to the old underground res an re-emerges to the rear of the mine by conisborough a 1/4 mile or so behind the water tower.
> I would love to find out the reason for the tunnel im speculating it was to either service mine workings or conisborough at some point?



Given your location pointers, it is very easy to follow the tunnel on Google Earth. What happens to the pipe at what you call the entrance and exit of the tunnel, also is the tunnel exit on a level that is similar to the viaduct track bed? The river 'valley' at this point is quite wide if I remember correctly, so if the tunnel/pipe was servicing a location on the other side, did the pipe cross the river on the viaduct? It is also worth remembering that unless the water in the pipe was pumped, there must be an incline in the tunnel to promote natural flow to the system - if you can work out the direction of the flow you may be able to work out what the tunnel/pipe actually serviced.

My gut feeling is that the tunnel was constructed to carry the iron pipework, it not being a case of just using an abandoned but convenient prior construction for a later project. 

I did wonder if this was to be a water supply feed for some long abandoned canal building project, very far fetched I know - but I have seen similar things in old plans for projects that were never started or just abandoned.


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