# Priory House Pontefract Nov 2015



## wappy (Nov 15, 2015)

The Priory House (white house) Pontefract With only living 10 minutes away from this place and after reading about some
possible tunnels I had to take a look.
The house was owner by someone called John Holmes who got in to some financial trouble and had to leave the place behind.
Before this the house was known for having garden partys with the garden stretching back to include a small wooded area.
A few year back homeless and drug users seemed to spend time in here and there was a murder enquiry after someone set fire to
them selfs I think it turned out in the end.
The fire took the roof off and since then the rain has caused everything to become not very safe.
Flowers were left on the stairs iam guessing this is where the lad died.There was also some grave stones in the garage
which I cant explain why or what they are doing there.
Didn't find no tunnels on this explore but there's a few weeks left before the place gets demolished so maybe time for another explore.




outside shot



stairs



hoover



doorway to celler



celler



shoe



kitchen



living room



flowers on stairs



upstairs



toilet


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## krela (Nov 16, 2015)

It looks like demolition is all it's good for. Thanks for sharing though.


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## UrbanX (Nov 16, 2015)

Eerie. I've never seen actual memorial flowers in a derelict building tho! 
Thanks for sharing


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## wappy (Nov 16, 2015)

UrbanX said:


> Eerie. I've never seen actual memorial flowers in a derelict building tho!
> Thanks for sharing


no me nether and they said 4 years today on them which if i got my dates right would have been aug this year since the lad died in there.And the gravestones in the garage i cant explain at all.


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## flyboys90 (Nov 16, 2015)

Interesting but sad history especially the flowers.


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## wappy (Nov 16, 2015)

I wasnt giving up on these tunnels so after another half hour searching the vast garden area there it was hidden under leaves off the tree above
Never in my life have i ever seen tunnels hand carved out of stone leading to a little room down some steps.The work is fantastic

my wellys



first look down the tunnel



bottom of first tunnel sharp left



room at bottom



room again 



fire



looking back up 



look back down


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## krela (Nov 17, 2015)

Wow, it's rare that "legends of tunnels" actually exist. That's a strange one.


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## smiler (Nov 17, 2015)

Well researched Wappy and well done on finding the tunnels, Thanks


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 18, 2015)

krela said:


> Wow, it's rare that "legends of tunnels" actually exist. That's a strange one.



Tunnels systems like this are quite common in the Doncaster/Pontefract district - the geology makes for very easy tunnelling. Obviously these here predate the house by many decades and are most likely of similar date to the Doncaster and other systems to be found in this part of Yorkshire - Georgian. People dug away and produced quite complex living areas in the rock, The strata providing easy and safe tunnelling, with the resulting 'rooms' being dry and damp free. The Doncaster complex, now buried under the St. James's Street flats, was the subject of various books over the years - the most interesting being contemporary with its construction. Rail travellers entering Doncaster from Sheffield or the South can still glimpse where this rock strata breaks surface under the town end of Hexthorpe Bridge. According to available records; many families who would have otherwise been homeless, lived there for many years and the place really only ceased being 'home' to these unfortunates when the early 'Sanitation Regulations' started to bite. If memory serves, Knaresborough had similar places of habitation in the outcropping rock strata. Local 'legends' seem to arise because, in my view, local histories did not and do not seem that important/interesting to people and what was/is passed down gets distorted or forgotten. Unless one collects and reads the old, and now relatively rare locally written and printed 'Local Histories', many interesting facts just disappear over the intervening years. Fortunately my interests peaked when these publications could still be found in the odd auction sale or on a second hand book dealer's shelves.


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## krela (Nov 18, 2015)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> Unless one collects and reads the old, and now relatively rare locally written and printed 'Local Histories', many interesting facts just disappear over the intervening years. Fortunately my interests peaked when these publications could still be found in the odd auction sale or on a second hand book dealer's shelves.



I do, I've always wanted to know everything about the places I've lived. But as you imply the good books are now incredibly expensive collectors items, and the bulk of newer books are either incomplete, full of conjecture and myth rather than researched fact, or are just rubbish, yet all still very expensive.

Really interesting info about the tunnels, thanks.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 18, 2015)

krela said:


> But as you imply the good books are now incredibly expensive collectors items, and the bulk of newer books are either incomplete, full of conjecture and myth rather than researched fact, or are just rubbish, yet all still very expensive.



Sadly the Internet, whilst giving us the likes of this superb Forum, is also full of vast amounts of plain inaccurate rubbish. Over the years I have been asked to comment on three local history manuscripts - by the authors, who were self publishing but had just copied large amounts verbatim off the net!I state here that I am no expert, but have an interest that goes back to my school days - my history teacher was interested in local history and I was introduced to some fellow local history buffs. Fortunately I was interested, and those seeds planted 58 years ago fell on fertile brain matter. One cannot beat a good book no matter what the subject matter, but it saddens me to see the cost now - I much prefer printed matter of any age and understand the problems in todays Web wide world. However, pricing printed matter way out of the range of the average person is not going to ensure the longevity of the printed page. Also I hate the e book and reader/tablet! For a Luddite like me I guess I came along at just the right time - just enough of the future that I can comprehend/use and a vast amount of history to dip into or collect.


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## wappy (Nov 19, 2015)

Found the story of the tunnels.
Frank H.W. Holmes, 1981

It was in 1938 that I joined the Air Raid Precautions Organisation, taking up first-aid, and in the same year, by my recollections of first war experience, I began digging a shelter in the Priory Wood. The site proved unsatisfactory and I abandoned it. In the spring of 1939 I commenced operations nearer to the house, but soon reached hard rock. Hand work was useless, so after much enquiry, I organised conversion of a Jowett van to serve as an air compressor, procured an air-pick, and (with a negligible amount of assistance, all voluntary) ultimately attained a shelter with fifteen steps down from the surface, eleven more in a second flight, and a passage twenty feet long at the bottom, all of it in rock and not less than six feet high. It is still there today.
full story here One Man in His Time - Short Autobiography of Frank Holmes


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## chris (Dec 14, 2015)

Nice work Wappy


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## China (Mar 13, 2022)

There were gravestones in the garage because in the early 90's a monumental Mason rented the garage and worked from there.


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