BRISTOL OBELISK - 20 years of mystery for me solved UNDERGROUND TUNNELS
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- Опубліковано 10 січ 2020
- The St Nicholas area of Bristol has this Obelisk which until recently had a door on it. Underground is a set of rooms. I was expecting more than this as people had repeatedly told me rumours of a massive long tunnel which went to the underground rivers. Clearly a lot of hot air concerning this mystery but one that I am glad to have solved after 20 years of walking past this spot and wondering.
Built at some point during the 1300s or 1400s, the two cellars, were used to store wine and other imports brought to Bristol via the River Avon.
Your never going to carry wine down that spiral stair. Remember that in the 1300's wine would be in barrels for storage and not bottled as we buy it today. It looks like the crypt of an old church.
@@rickharriss the spiral stairs were not originally there at the time.
I thought 14th century with that vaulted roof and arch, only place ive seen work like that was in a church or palace.
i live in bristol, didn't even realise this was a thing lol
Bryn Jones I didn’t even know there was a door
Love this , always wondered what was there. Interesting fact, bellow this cellar is probably where Bristol began in Saxon times. The church to the left of the door St Mary le port was built on a Saxon church and the City is named (Brig Stowe, place of the bridge) after the crossing near by .. Bristol bridge.
That was a cool little explore,thank you for taking me along for the ride.
Yes they are all blocked up, there is actually a massive network of tunnels under the whole area, most are still there as basements to the buildings above, apparently they stretch as far as queen square, and right up under St Nicholas market! So the story goes merchants used to have tunnels from the sides of the floating harbour to their properties so the cargo didn’t have to go over ground! I can personally say a lot of the buildings in the area I’ve worked in the basement area’s all look just like the place you were in. Hope this little snippet helps 👍
Utter nonsense
@@nickhowes5348 why so?
@@darrenchard2221 pub myths, zero evidence during years of archaeological digs and zero historic written evidence.
I am totally appreciating this channel's very excellent and hard-earned content the more that I watch. Thanks TheSecretVault!
I've walked past this so many times and wondered what was inside. Thank you for solving the mystery!
I have walked that road dozens of times. I always thought it was an entrance to an air raid shelter. Now I know. Thank you :)
Those arches are medieval and you can see certain areas have been walled off since original construction. It was once much bigger than what you see now and very likely did connect to the river so your not wrong👍
There's nothing really unusual except that it's a cellar that has survived the redevelopment of that part of Bristol. Before WW11 the area was part of one of Bristol's main shopping areas, the area received extensive bomb damage during the blitz and was then demolished down to the natural ground level which exposed most of the cellars, for many years the area was used as an open car park before the ground level was raised up and it became part of Castle Park.
Today if you were to peel back the overfill you would find the remains of many such cellars.
Loved it , thanks for taking us with you 💜💜💜
This is class mate. Love this. U always find amazing places
I’ve wanted to know what was through that door for the best part of 8 years now, thank you! I’m not from Bristol but I do live in the South West so I pop to Bristol now and then.
Fantastic! Thanks for going down there
Great video, just shows not every explore has to be the most impressive to be the most exciting - really is great when you get a special look at a local historical gem!
Excellent video sir. Love the commentary too! Keep them coming.
Wow amazing video again Matt. Absolutely fascinating history.
Lived in Bristol a long time and heard so many rumours about that place, glad to know for sure what's down there now, thanks!
My god I have walked past that thing a hundred times and always wounded what was there thank you
Well done matte thank you for sharing and a like too boot.
1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth💌💌💌👍
Wow, what a treat. I've lived in Bristol most of my life and quite often walk past it and wonder what's down there. The vaulted ceiling looked very ornate for just a cellar. could it have been connected with the church that is behind the old magistrates?
I wonder... good point. Needs more looking into.
Nope, hundreds of medieval shops each with their own cellar, just the architecture of the 14th and 15th century. There are No secret tunnels. Cellars could be for storage, cold storage or an additional shop rented out by the owner of the timber shop above, via stone steps accessed off the street.
Anyone from Bristol cause I am
Brilliant. Now we know, thank you. I was half expecting to see a constable waiting for you to come out. 😊
Fit a good couple plants down there😂🍁
No electric, easy to break in, about 4 minutes from the police station 🤔👍
@@HeartsWithPaperHands there is electricity and its an old style meter = free electric!. Easy to secure, best places are in plane sight. I have to agree with the op its a wicked place for a grow and go.
Excellent video as usual 😄
Awesome little find, my friend who lives In bristol told me about this place as he always wondered what it was for and here you are. That door keeps getting changed though, just luck I suppose when you walk past lol
Great find I pass these on to my son in law, he’s proper Bristolian. And he’s not aware of your magical finds. This would be a great shelter for a few of the explosion of homeless folk in Bristol. I’m surprised there not there already.
I've always wondered what's down there 🤔 thanks for sharing 👍
This one is mentioned in a book called Secret Underground Bristol.
I haven’t seen this before. Thanks for sharing this.
Was in here the other day when someone took to top half of the old door down, there was a load of candles lit & a watering can that seems to be gone now.
Have always wanted to know what was down there.
Nice video!
Wow! I've walked past there so many times LOL Nice one!
Thanks Matt even if it was small it was still very cool and definitely a few golden gems down there
Great video mate good job 👍
OMG those stairs 😳 Shame there wasn't a tunnel to explore but mystery finally solved. Nice little explore and perfect timing on the exit!
The building next to it under the old court is 5 stories deep and very impressive full off vaults
Obelisk cellar could be pointing towards the tree seen outside (1:47) hence the tree root breaking through the far wall (8:00)
Awesome show mate
Nice medieval cellars 🙂🙃😉
Been past that on a few occasions & always wandered where it went to. Would have been nice to find a long tunnel but getting access and seeing/filming it is awesome in its own right.
I love the enthusiasm for a open door
Not once have I disliked your videos. Keep it up.
The tunnel down to the river you referred to was behind you to your right at the start of your video, whereas you went off to the left.
The tunnel you mention isn’t a secret and is easy to see when you walk around the old castle ruins.
I really like to go to Burlington and get though them doors, you doing a great job. Ady
If you can find a way in let me know. The military are on steroids for locking the place down. PRYX
Great vid. Amazing whats jist under our feet. Just takes some like you to share it withnus all. Thankyou
Across the road in the St Nicks market/Corn Street sides there's a ton of that sort of stuff. Before they blocked a lot of it off (only with plywood) you could walk around the basement areas of a lot of the office building's/pubs and clubs from one access point. Once stumbled across someones rec room with pool table and table tennis table all set up, and on another occasion ended up in "The Overflow" which at the time was what they called the basement bar beneath "The Rummer" pub, (early ninteys). It was during the day so it was empty. Found a lot of the Bristol City council Christmas decorations stored there once too. Can't tell you how I have access cause I still work for the company concerned and it's not our property, we only have access rights, plus health and saftey being a lot more than it was then its a major undertaking to go down there. Tee shirt and shorts in my day. Nice video though.
Wine and port cellars. We broke in there years ago. The most interesting ones are the tunnels under Temple Meads station. We climbed down an old lift shaft to gain access. More interesting was the underground station, trains, tracks. It was massive. We were chased out by the railway police. We were working on a YTS training course in the old station, there every day Monday to Friday. Kids will be kids. It did not take them long to work out who it was, there were 8 of us. :-)
Not much mysterious here it is the remains of a wine cellar for the george pub.
"the curious obelisk on High Street, which marks the entry to a complex of decorated cellars of 15th century date. These were on the site of the George by 1532 and are remarkably well-preserved. Unfortunately, public access is not currently possible. They were used for the storage and selling of wine"
It's like it could have been an old chapel. I like this.
what a fascinating structure! the vault work looks eccliesiastical for sure i would love to have a date for it. and there is certainly several later brick types blocking various ways out of there there MUST be more to that structure behind those later walls unless destroyed in WW2 or later construction. have you checked old maps online resources to identify what stood on that spot? i would but havent a clue where it is.
Wish I had known you were coming to Bristol. I live literally less than 20 seconds from the obelisk haha!
I expected a little more than that also, but it's still cool as hell. They were too cool rooms though, great stuff.
The vaulted ceilings are old. You are very close to the old Castle walls,the old city limits. The park you are under is called Castle Green....good stuff. Being a Bristolian,born and bred,I love it 👍
Interesting place! At least you've seen what's down there!😁⚠️
I'm surprised there's no homeless people sleeping rough down there?
I'd guess it used to be an air raid shelter, maybe for council official's? What used to be above that area? Maybe look at some old maps and see how the area has changed and what building was above it, might give you a clue? Also I thought it might look like a wine cellar, again in some official town hall, council or other official building nearby?
There might have been further access via another tunnel or corridor at some point and maybe a roof collapse has meant the access was bricked up? A good bricky will conceal an old entrance very well👍😁⚠️
That must have been like Christmas for you , nice one .
That ceiling is medievil . Classic church vaults . I would not be at all surprised if there was a tunnelling to the river blocked up . The narrow stairs may indicate a garderobe and vault. The stairs are a modern Victorian additional
Gutted it wasn’t bigger. I’d love to go on an explore with you Mathew I’m Swindon if you head this way
Nice little find Matthew ,,,thanks for the info by the way.....is this the place associated with the ghosts of monks ? It would make a great little bar or something
Blige, I couldn't work out where de bist, had to Google it. Never noticed it before. Looks to be on the site, or very close to, where the Dutch House was. I wonder if those cellars went through to the Rummer? They did have a cellar bar in the 70's, and goes back 800 years. They probably stored alcohol there. As that stair case is brick and obviously put there as an entrance at a much later date. Thanks for the video. I now live in Scotland, since 2009, soo much has changed in Bristol since then.
Always seen this and wondered, would be too scared to go in lol
Matt. Another goodie and as an ex Bristol boy extremely interesting. These vaults were used as wine cellars I understand. With regards to the long tunnels that you mention, if you walk down to Bristol Bridge there are a couple of “holes in the wall” One is sadly bricked up but they would possibly align with the vaults and I would suspect leading from the bricked up sections. Someone will know, perhaps a visit to the Records Office. Keep up the good work and I hope that you did not get another parking ticket.
They dont. They date from 1767 when the shambles and bull lane were demolished and bridge street built, with deep new cellars and huge river retaining wall.
Have you ever visit the bunker in Blaise Castle grounds? Descend the path down to the Stratford Mill and on the other side of the river Trym is a brick bunker with a concrete roof that goes into the side of the hill opposite. As a boy (50 years ago) we explored and found a tunnel entrance at the back of the entrance... Needs a visit!
I've seen elsewhere on UA-cam some explorers following a series of underground tunnels that do lead down to the river. I expect this did too at one time, but has been blocked off.
Soooo Crazy! Kinda of wish you didn’t go by yourself just incase you ran into some naughty people down there? Or got hurt and needed help. But thanks again for sharing.
Be safe-take care. ❤️🙏😄
Google Maps says 'Medieval Vaults' which makes sense as BCC's Map Overlays show a church (Mary Church) and Shambles there in their 1750 map overlay.
HER number: 3057
Field worker: Pritchard, John E.
Associated organisation: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society
Museum accession number: Unknown
Date of report: 1927
Author: Pritchard, John E.
Title: Bristol archaeological notes XVI, 1924-29
Place of publication: Gloucester
Publisher: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society
Series: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society
Part: 51
Date of publication: 1929
Pages: 235-236
Description: John Pritchard observed cellars of late-medieval date below Nos.23, 24 and 25 High Street c.1927. The cellars were demolished to allow rebuilding of the buildings above. Pritchard records them as having a ribbed vault with bosses at the intersections of the ribbing. There were short responds with capitals. The cellars were reached from the street on the west side by a flight of massive stone steps and measured approximately 20 feet by 14 feet and 9 feet high. A pointed arch on the east side led by fourteen steps to the stores at the rear of the building. There was a semi-circular opening in the north wall which was interpreted as leading to another store (Pritchard 1929, 235-236).
The Obelisk would be approximately No. 26
Known as: 22, High Street
Record number: 3M
Period: Medieval 1200-1540
Description: No.22 High Street. The stone cellar of the building had a vaulted, moulded roof, and was recorded by the architect Thomas S. Pope c.1887. It was ascribed a fifteenth-century date by Pope because of the style of the mouldings (Pope 1881-84, 172-174).
It may not connect to this cellar via a brick wall or any others for that matter, but if you are able to get inside the old Rummer pub (39? High Street) and go downstairs to the cellar - I think at some point they may have all been inter-connected (like those in Park Street). As said, not sure if you can go any further in or not but just pointing out that the network of cellars did not just stop there.
Fascinating ... but ... the area is riddled with vaults. The (currently closed) Rummer pub has large, similar vaults underneath, and that can't be much more than 30m away. The Crown, which is close by the Rummer, has vaults still in use for club events. St. Nicks Market has vaults. I would expect all of the older buildings around the market, down Corn St. Broad St, Small St etc to have vaUlting.
I am going to hazard a guess that what you have here is simply vaulting from a now vanished building on the other side of the road - most of that area was blitzed during WW2 and being the oldest part of Bristol, would have had extensive vaulting for commercial purposes. Logic suggests that much of Castle Park would have had basements, but how much survived the bombing and how much was filled in is a matter for the archives.
There’s more underneath St Nicks Market & The Rummer. Also underneath Park Street. Harvey’s used to use them to store wine.
I guess it's quite possible that some of the blocked-off tunnels may have led to the Castle Park area, which as someone else said, was a major shopping and business area before it was heavily bombed in WW2. The story I was told by my grandparents is that that those sheltering in the cellars below were basically cooked in the bombing due to the intense fires above. I was also told that the area was cleared and flattened in a hurry with many bodies not recovered, which are still under the park in the old cellars, hence why the area was never redeveloped. True or not regarding whether the bodies were recovered, that was the story told by those who lived and worked in Bristol during the WW2 period.
Amazing,Defo blocked up other routes years ago after its hayday
I live in Bristol more than five years now passing through that vault but not interested in what is down there. Thanks for letting us know what is down there
Oh! That is right by the river front. Not been to Bristol for about 40 years! They were going to redevelop a lot of the area by there.
no way, i live here, i been past there over 300 times and never new the wiser! why i love you guys
Literally opposite my offices. Never once noticed it.
Would love to go on an explore sometime.
We went on a open doors day of st nicks they have a tunnel which aparently used to link up to where you are. Strange bit was is there is a front door of a old house down there
No it didnt
hi Mathew i think that vault is part of a bigger cave. as across the road at the rummer pub there's a club below it and it is the same style as the vault there are others at st Nick's market that are wine cellars etc
Always wanted to know what was in there always going past it.
From: Bristol Records Society's Vol 51:
William Worcester Topography of Medieval Bristol:
SHAMBLES
:
The extremely high and spacious halls of the King,
with vaults, in the street of Worship Street,
otherwise the Shambles or Butchery.
In the street called The Shambles there are 3 extremely deep
cellars of the King, beneath three halls of great size and built
high, which were established for the safekeeping of wool and
merchandise, for loading Bristol ships (bound) for foreign
parts beyond the seas. And likewise there are in the said
street 4 other cellars.
I liked the reverse psychology at the end!
Wow how cool. Do you think it was something to do with court maybe because it looks like it was open at one time. Maybe some kind of prison or something x
Have you ever got into where the metal grille is in the cliff side of the A4, sort of underneath the circular road in Bristol, I always slow down for a look when I drive past it.
vent shaft for rail way tunnel that runs under the downs
Wow that is a tight hole. Makes you wonder if they can run a staircase down there must be a man hole with similar staircase leading to river reverse it go river and find way up lol enjoy all your content thanks matt
Good stuff monte, but d'you do these at night, when it's so much harder to see cos C9 maybe helps you see better, Bro ¿?
Looks akin to old magazine construct.
I do it at night because people cant see what your up to and there are far fewer people at night. My camera makes it look much brighter than you can see with the eye, hence why i was falling over the bike stands.
I've seen this Obelisk a few times and always thought it was some sort of guard house, because it is a massively reinforced structure......
That staircase, was it tight?
How Exciting.. 😋
Is that a church across the road ? I’m wondering if the obelisk rooms connected to that church at some point in history as the way the obelisk vaulting is built is in keeping with church building style of that era 🤔
Super cool but I really hope they put a proper door on it to stop the place being ruined.
The shop cellars shown, from the 14th/15th century have had their floor levels raised.
Barrels of wine wouldn't have been taken down that staircase...would they.
Might have been another street level access like a chute for rolling barrels down? A bit like outside a pub has cellar access? There seemed to be some gratings bricked up at ceiling level? You could certainly take bottles down the stairs! 👍⚠️😎
Considering that there were once shops along here I wouldn't be surprised if the whole area has got a network of tunnels.
You can see the bigger entryway has been sealed up. Right in the middle of the main room. The one you pointed out at the end with the text. Thats gotta be another hall where those bricks are. I woulda knocked on it with something metal.
Bristol is a lovely place having resided here for years. The only sad side is loads of these places (not necessarily this one) where used for slave trade. Loads of places in Bristol - around the suspension bridge - ex slave trade hot spots. Whilst this looks good to some it is a reminder for some of us. Rumours of a massive tunnel leading to underground rivers = likely one of the tunnels to receive slaves or sell off slaves. Bristol's hidden dark past keeps hunting us.
BRISTOLS PAST IS BRISTOLS PAST! Lock CORBYN and His LIBTARD Crew Up in There!!! Well done Taffy.. PS It's Nay Ye Old Market..
Martin consider you are to be deported back in time the option a slave on a plantation or a coal miner in the same era, which option would you choose?
In 1974 the building behind you was the Norwich Union insurance offices!
The building you said was the old magistrates court building was the old Bank of England building. I'm not sure if it was the magistrates court at one time but it was definitely the Bank of England for a while.....
I didn’t know it existed... cool
Some observations as a local:
- There's a few nearly identical cellars around the area, particularly under the old city / St Nicks. A local restaurant, the Mezze Palace, is built in one. Some others are available to tour during the "Bristol Open Doors Day" : it happens in September most years and it's worth checking out.
- There's a nearly identical tiny metal (old) staircase leading to another one in the area, in the White Lion on Colston Avenue. It's been converted into toilets etc.
- The reason people tell you stories of it all linking up to underground rivers, is because Castle Park (though the other side) is one entrance to the Frome culvert. There's quite a few ways in and they do meander a bit and link up. No doubt people think it's all one and the same.
I wish I could super-like this video.
Those vaulted rooves looks medieval
For what it's worth there are similar rooms in Southapton, old undercrofts typically used to store goods, the hook in the ceiling would have been used to hang a lantern, there was probably a building above at one time, most medieval port cities would have had multiple stores like this, the staircase is far more modern, victorian probably, as for them all linking up, I'd say probably not, this will be urban legend, the original doorways in most have probably all been filled in and so you get stories of how there were once tunnels linking them, the reality is that streets were lower so you did not need tunnels, as an example in cities like London and I think Edinburgh the difference between Medieval and modern ground level can be up to 9 meters, thats roughly 3 stories. The stone work looks church like because in medieval times stone masons worked on churches and warehouses and castles using the same techniques. If you were a wealthy merchant you could afford stone for your warehouse and the ceiling was vaulted to support the upper levels