ANCIENTDIMENSIONS ARTICLE:.

My first fascination with tunnel systems was inspired by the author Alec Mclellan who in 1981 wrote the book ‘The Lost World of Agharti’. Alec claimed that whilst on a walking tour along the Wharfedale Valley in Yorkshire, England during the 70’s, he spotted a peculiar light reflecting from high up the Valley and upon investigat-
ion found a tunnel which he followed along until encountering a weird green light and increasing rumbling noise. He left in a hurry, never to return, announcing in his book that here, he thought, amidst many ancient legends in the area, was a hidden entrance to the lost subterranean world of Agharti, the mystical Tibetan Shamballah. In Yorkshire!

Naturally, I contacted Alec via his publishers to see if he would provide any further details of this location other than that stated in the book – somewhere high up the Valley almost midway between the small villages of Starbotton and Kettlewell. Disappointingly, I never received a reply, and so in 1982 set off with two accomplices to attempt to rediscover this entrance without further assistance. Apparently, it had been well hid by foliage when Alec went during the Summer, but we went one icy, snowy cold February when there would be little if no natural coverage at all. Ordinance Survey maps in hand, we deduced the exact mid point between the villages, split in three single groups and ascended the steep slopes. After some time – and just as we were beginning to think this was a hopeless task – an excited shout from one of my men announced his disbelief – it was there...the small entrance completely froze over with ice!

I kicked it in and with water up above my shins waded into the dark with trusty torch. I followed the small mazy tunnel, as Alec had described, after some time eventually reaching a solid wall ending, no green lights, no rumbling! I sent photos of my expedition , the entrance and inside, to Alec but still never heard from him . My own findings - and I have no doubt it was the same entrance and tunnel – says it was an old worked mine not uncommon in the area, but my taste for finding and exploring tunnels had been well and truly whet! Bring on the next! It was in 1985 and at the amazing Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta, island of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, discovered accidently in 1902 by a farmer’s tractor, and three levels below ground. Hal Saflieni had strange stories associated with it during the 1930’s with numbers of people going missing having embarked a tunnel accessible through a burial chamber which the Government sealed once and for all in 1972.

So no joy at Hal Saflieni! Even today some believe that Malta can be traversed from end to end of the island via a subterranean tunnel network. My next tunnel adventure was a bit more successful in 1989 whilst on the scent of Saint Cuthbert in Northern England (read my feature ‘Synchronicity And The Search For A Saint’) whereupon I got as far as finding a hollow cavity along a sealed tunnel in a derelict Convent which could well have hidden the remains of Cuthbert. Synchronicity and the surfacing subtle hints of the Collective Unconscious are the tools that make Dan Green different from all others who set out searching for the hidden. Adventures at Rennes-le-chateau , France, in 1986 and finding a rock crop tomb with two sealed entrances there that I later discovered had been painted by Da Vinci at the top of one of his two versions of ‘Virgin of the rocks’, brought me twenty years later to Lincoln Cathedral and a burial grounds opposite its South East corner where overwhelming evidence suggest here , below the ground at a precise spot, resides a precious ‘treasure’ placed and hidden there by the Knight Templar, central to the Rennes global mystery. Initially, the Cathedral agreed to allow me permission for a GPR ground penetrating radar scan to see if indeed my deductions were right, but then rather mysteriously, they reneged! My Lincoln Cathedral Code had came to a sudden and disappointing end....until Winter 2008...and a very and unexpected fortuitous find!

My son had just ascended the summit of Greestone Stairs with view of the Cathedral in sight, when his newly acquired College friend announced, ‘Do you know we’re standing above an underground chapel?’ This fellow knew nothing of my son’s connexion to me and my own work, but my son’s ears pricked up to ask him what he meant. ‘Oh’, he replied, ‘My mother used to work in a house over there and there’s a tunnel that leads to the chapel’. The house ‘over there’ I found was in the Medieval Bishops Palace, adjacent to and only hundreds of yards away from my nominated Templars cache underground site, the Chapel referred to being the church of St Margaret, demolished in 1781...the very spot I had been denied my GPR scan! I had always suspected there may exist a tunnel from the Cathedral to this nearby church. Unfortunately, I couldn’t elicit any further info from mum now living in Cyprus, so I thought I’d ask the Palace themselves, expecting that they would probably brush off talk of a tunnel as hearsay. Surprisingly enough, I received a very warm reply from the Chief executive’s Secretary stating (quote); ‘We too have all heard about the tunnel...’ Could this be the way in to finding the Templars cache?

Legends and rumours of a honeycomb of tunnels at Lincoln Cathedral and in Lincoln are aplenty, as I have discovered, and I have had all sorts of stories forwarded me by helpful sources, one of the most appealing being a tunnel at the church of St Hugh’s on Monks Road, close to the Cathedral and allegedly leading up there. St Hugh was the Patron Saint of Lincoln Cathedral and was responsible for building the Bishop’s Palace. Another dark rumour spoke of a tunnel leading to the Cathedral all the way from the site of the old Lunatic asylum at St John’s, 1892-1990. Many stories about tunnels result from a combination of observations that have been made over many years referring to Limestone quarrying and mining carried out from the Roman period until the 19th century with surviving underground mining shafts, ironstone mining within areas of the City, Roman stone-lined sewer chambers running under the upper City which are seen occasionally during road works and the many wells in the Uphill area. However, throughout the British Isles there is an almost culture of tunnels that have been unearthed concerning Castles, Cathedrals (Lincoln have both at no distance away from each other), churches, old Inns and breweries. The church of St Hugh’s was built on the site of an old brewery! Castles in England who have confirmed tunnels and underground passages are at Ashby De La Zouch, Bungay, Dover, Hastings and Nottingham. In Wales, at Carrey Cennan and Pembroke. Cathedrals with confirmed tunnels are Canterbury and Norwich. So why not Lincoln! It amuses me when archaeologists tell me there are no secret tunnels simply because they haven’t found any. Precisely, that’s why they’re called secret! At Temple Bruer, twelve miles away from the Cathedral and a part of the Cathedral code, there have been two incomplete excavations that have already confirmed tunnels. In November 2008 I accompanied a Shepperton Studios team from Classic Media who were investigating Bruer for their dvd Templars’ series ‘The Quest’, and we witnessed Tony Peart of his excellent Templar Mechanics website locate the site of the tunnels via dowsing.

My interest remains in this hidden tunnel at the Bishop’s Palace, a residency that was for almost 500 years the Seat of the Holy See in England... from the viewpoint of a Church hoping to keep the secret concealed, what better a place to have a secret tunnel leading to the most sought after historic treasure of all? And could it connect to the Cathedral? A lady from Boston in Lincolnshire contacted me to say that back in the early 50’s when she was a little girl on a school trip to the Cathedral, they were shown a series of tunnels under the floor and told that they would be permanently sealed off as they were unsafe. Humans do have an irritating habit of sealing off tunnels! Fortunately, I have been able to walk along some of these famous and rumoured Lincoln tunnels myself, at the site of the old St John’s asylum, as luckily a relative of mine was Site Foreman there during the 90’s, where you can traverse so far before they become decidedly unsafe or are sealed...if ever they did reach to the Cathedral I would now fear they are impassable....but at least I do know there is more to simply hearsay concerning these many stories. And now, for another most helpful synchronicity. During a conversation about tunnels in the City, a source that I would trust with my life told me this story.

At a 1780 property at Steep Hill which leads to the Cathedral and Castle, during 1963, she was privy to a conversation held by Staff at a City and County Home for Girls. The Home was for girls awaiting court appearances and if they were naughty they were sent down into the cellar for a solitary confinement punishment. On this occasion, the girl who had been sent down there had gone missing – she had found a tunnel in the cellar! The Staff had to go find her and it transpires that this tunnel went along from the Home, the direction it followed meant it also passed under the nearby Church of St Michaels on the Mount, and onto the Cathedral. The person relating me this story even saw the tunnel hole in the cellar for herself. Steep Hill is not so named such for nothing, it has a 1 in 4 gradient – it is like ascending Glastonbury Tor, itself suspected to have a tunnel system – and has a few other interesting buildings including the 12thC Jew’s House (England’s oldest domestic residence) and, only a few hundred yards along, The Norman House(1170) which at one stage was owned and leased by the Knights Templar themselves. Lincoln was the second most important Jewish community in England during the twelfth century, thus making it quite believable that a treasure relating to them could find its eventual way to the area.Some architecture in Lincoln Cathedral is even influence by Jewish legends. During the 80’s this once Home for girls, a listed building, was subdivided and converted to residential use. Could that cellar, if still accessible, prove the existence of this tunnel, if only now to show a sealed wall?

And now, time for two loose threads to pull together in a rather interesting fashion. The church in question, under which the Steep Hill tunnel passed under, the medieval St Michaels on the Mount situated within the Cathedral Quarters, built in 1560 and declared redundant by the Church of England in 1990, was sold in September 2007 to an unnamed mystery buyer who paid 200k over the asking price of 350k to secure it! Estate Agents Walters, Lincoln who made the transaction even themselves referred to the church as ‘a very unusual property’. Does it have a significance because it contains or connects to an important tunnel? Who might be the mystery buyer? In December I approached the Dean’s Secretary back at the Bishop’s Palace one more time. I had heard from yet another source that apparently there is a plaque somewhere within the Judges Lodgings at the Palace, referring to tunnel entrances. Although she hadn’t heard of this her reply reads; ‘The Judges Lodgings are now closed having being sold off for some inappropriate reason, so no access there at present.’

Some ‘inappropriate reason’? How peculiar a phrase. Certainly not appropriate for my advancement but I wonder if it may well be for somebody else with a vested interest in tunnels and the hidden Templar treasure only a short distance away? d.

Copyright©2009 Dan Green

FS Note: Followers of Dan Green's quest into the Lincoln Cathedral Grail Code discovery and the Mystery of Rennes-les-Chateau can view all his YouTube video material, including visits to Royston Cave, Temple Bruer etc., on one page at: http://uk.youtube.com/greenren07

By the same author::
Synchronicity And The Search For A Saint
Royston Cave - Codex of the Knights Templar
Lincoln Cathedral, The Grail and the Stone Sculptor
The Lincoln Cathedral And Rennes-Le-Chateau Synergic
The Templars Head And Templecombe Panel Painting

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