# Nottingham tunnels link



## gingrove (May 25, 2014)

Just found this on the BBC quite interesting!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-26816897


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## flyboys90 (May 25, 2014)

Thanks for the link.


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## tumble112 (May 25, 2014)

Thank you for the link, a fascinating article. I have visited Nottingham and never knew of these caves.


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## Dirus_Strictus (May 25, 2014)

Yes very interesting. However, I am surprised that people would think that finding more caves is unusual. My father was a commercial traveller, and I first visited Nottingham as a 7 year old. The cellars of one of the businesses he visited extended into a 'cave' system and I remember Mum and me being shown around during one such visit. During later visits many knowledgeable locals would tell me snippets of history and I remember to this day being told how to recognise a manmade 'cave' from one made by nature. Many of the larger voids are in fact manmade and Nottingham is certainly not unique in have 'cave dwellings' within the town/city limits. The sandstone strata under many towns and cities has been used to provide areas of habitation and storage - my home town of Doncaster certainly did and in the 1850's provided something even more unique than the 'cave dwellings' under the now St James Street flats

The “Sand House” – A Victorian Marvel
A talk given by Richard Bell to Tickhill & District Local History Society in April 2007

The majority of Doncaster’s 21st Century residents are oblivious to the unique and fascinating residence which graced the town from the mid-1850s until the Second World War. Imagine a house created by excavating the ground from around a massive block of sandstone and then hollowing out rooms within, in order to create a 40-metre long, 12-metre wide house, equipped with all the mod cons that a wealthy businessman of the Victorian era would want. And yet there is nothing to be seen now of this incredible house.
The story of the Sand House began with the birth of William Senior in 1802. He had moved to Doncaster by 1825, as that is when the baptism of his first child, Henry, is recorded in parish records. But the first significant event in the Sand House story came when William bought Balby Lane Close, in 1832. This was a parcel of land then lying on the southern edge of Doncaster, just under 2 acres in area and containing a market garden, cottages, a water pump and, most significantly, a sand pit, or small sandstone quarry.
Over the following two decades Doncaster expanded greatly, with the arrival of the railways, and much house-building took place, placing great strain on the town’s sewerage system. This led to a major new drain being constructed in 1854, passing through William Senior’s land. As part of this project a tunnel was dug, from Senior’s sand pit south-eastwards towards Doncaster Carr. This tunnelling scheme attracted great interest and, combined with William and Henry’s house-building activities in the area, led to their having an idea to combine the sand excavation with a housing project, so giving birth to the Sand House.
The initial house comprised four rooms and was two storeys high. Its existence was noted in a conveyance of Balby Lane Close from William to Henry in April 1857, referring to a “tenement...cut out of rock sand, lately converted by Henry Senior into a dwelling house”. Over the next decade or so, the house was extended by removing more ground from around the massive sandstone block from which the original house had emerged until, once completed, the Sand House had ten rooms, with the largest being a first floor ballroom able to accommodate upwards of 200 people.

Revealed to me by a History Master who gave us old local history books to read as homework and sowed the seeds of an interest in old printed matter that has lasted 55 years. Just remember that there are literally hundreds of old local history books that have not made their way onto the internet yet, but may well be sitting on your local library shelves.


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## tumble112 (May 25, 2014)

Thank you Dirus, again I was unaware of such dwellings in Doncaster despite having lived there for a time. I have been fortunate enough to visit the Edinburgh vaults which are man made but once housed hundreds of people who would now be termed the 'underclass' , who lived much of their lives without ever seeing the light of day. I had little idea this was so widespread throughout Britain.


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