Maureen Williams, 82, of Westgate, recalled a school trip into the rumoured tunnels under Chichester when she was at Chichester High School for Girls.
She estimates she was in her early teens at the time and said she chose to share her memories after reading about the search for evidence in this newspaper.
She said: "It was under the Crypt and right next to the cathedral. We had already seen parts of it and while we were down there our teacher was talking about Keats. It went along South Street."
Poet John Keats began writing The Eve of St Agnes in Chichester in 1819, as is said to have spent time in the South Street building that was formerly The Buttery at the Crypt.
"It was all to do with Keats and I think what happened is we were talking to one of our teachers about it and there was one teacher who was very kind and decided she wanted to show us.
"Keats might have gone down into them to do some writing - it was so miserable down there."
Maureen described the tunnel as dark, and with a ''black and brownish sort of colour''.
He said: "There''s a story about Keats having a coffee near the crypt and actually watching this priest emerge from the tunnels but he would have been in a room above the Buttery.
"Her story is intriguing because it ties in with the the story about tunnels under South Street that runs down the East side of the path, by Iceland. Her story adds intrigue to intrigue because of the other rumours it ties in with but I would have to start researching the whole of South Street first."
Reacting to Liam''s comments, Maureen added: "I think that, at my age, I have not gone completely gaga like I thought I had. I am 82 but I don''t feel 82 and that has made feel like I really am alive!"
All images below are from a tv show and cammonets are subjective views from presenters. TV name unknown
Historically, to build a house with a simple cellar you would dig out the ground to a depth of around 6ft, the cellar walls would have been constructed with a lining of stone or brick and with a drain for water within the cellar. The floors would have been built up on crushed stone or sand to provide a level surface and paved, usually with flags. Brick paving became more common in later periods.
One of the most common questions I’m asked about Peterborough’s history is whether there are any tunnels under the city. Local legends say that there is a tunnel stretching from the Cathedral to Monk’s Cave at Longthorpe. Similar tunnels are alleged to stretch from the Cathedral to the abbeys at Thorney or Crowland.
These are familiar myths in many historic cities across the UK, mostly urban legends based on half remembrances of sewers, cellars or crawlspaces, coupled with wishful thinking and rumour.
AArc141/14/EVAL Roussillon Park, Broyle Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 BBL
Sporadic finds represent the early prehistoric period in the vicinity of the Project Site, with the discovery of Palaeolithic axe in a garden on Brandy Hole Lane (c. 600m to the NW) and a Neolithic stone axe, in the vicinity of Spitalfield Lane, over 1km to the SE (Lee 2008: 9).
Bronze Age activity has been recorded c. 500m to the east of the site, in the vicinity of Garyiingwell Hospital, where evidence for settlement was identified along with remains of six cremation burials (Lee 2008: 9).
Between The Drive’s western and southern ends, Charles Stride built a private estate in c.1905 which included a nine hole golf course designed by James Braid, a lodge (Uplands), and a mansion (Woodland Place) with tree-lined grounds which, as Rew Lane, was developed in the late 1950s. The golf course was too close to the Goodwood course to be a commercial success and it was given up for gravel extraction immediately prior to the first World War, with a mineral branch line connected later to the Chichester-Midhurst railway. His golf course and pavilion is mentioned in https://golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/england/south-east/sussex/851-sus-summersdale-golf-club-chichester
The Chichester SMR holds information for 48 sites, whilst the National Monuments Record Centre holds details of a further 16 sites within the study area. An additional four sites were located through analysis of historic mapping and during the course of the walkover survey and one from aerial photographs. Full site descriptions and locations can be seen in Appendix B. Within the report, the bracketed numbers after site descriptions relate to those allocated to individual sites in Appendix B and on Figure 2.
From trying to locate the areas marked on the old maps as smugglers or roman caves at the approc following locations. Our team tried to take photos as best we could.
su 85228 06608 50.8527, -0.7906 su 85255 06596 50.8526, -0.7902 su 85249 06577 50.8524, -0.7903 su 85248 06565 50.8523, -0.7903 su 85329 06661 50.8532, -0.7892 su 85359 06657 50.8531, -0.7887
Maureen Williams, 82, of Westgate, recalled a school trip into the rumoured tunnels under Chichester when she was at Chichester High School for Girls.
She estimates she was in her early teens at the time and said she chose to share her memories after reading about the search for evidence in this newspaper.', '
First, there are no maps in the presentation to hidden tunnels , all information is in the public domain and if we get distracted during our searches that is only natural. I will try and make this as interesting as possible and we will not be getting our boots dirty.
Why have a cellar? Having a cellar was actually quite an expensive and a time consuming affair. Most people didn't. There was no point unless there was something to store or servants to hide.
