Is there a secret tunnel under Leamington? Looking into a local mystery

Peter Bowen, 82, is a retired journalist who is under lockdown at home in Wellesbourne. and writes a regular column for the Courier and Weekly News. This week, he looks into a fascinating story about a possible secret tunnel from Newbold Terrace to the clock Tower in Jephson Gardens.

Here is Peter Bowen's column:

I am fascinated by a story that there is a secret tunnel running from under the family home in Newbold Terrace, a distance of some half-a-mile to the clock Tower in the Jephson Gardens, which I heard about for the first time this week.

The news of the tunnel came as a shock as nothing had been mentioned to me over 50 years association with the house. I did not spend much time there growing up, being away at school or in the army but I would have expected to have heard about an exciting find.

My parents, John and Mary Bowen, bought 16, Newbold Terrace in 1957. It was home to me, my sister Jane, and younger brother, Tim. Jane, my younger sister, tells me there was no mention of any tunnel during her time and doubts its existence. My brother, lawyer Tim, died in 1987. My parents left the house when it was sold in 2001 and both have now passed on.

The revelation about the existence of the underground passageway was recalled by historian Jeremy Sleath in January. He would have spent some time playing at Number 16 as a teenager because he is the nephew of the late Bob Parsons, who was a tenant in the downstairs flat until 2000.

Jeremy says in the late 1950s he and the son of the owners of the house, investigated the discovery of two metal plates with hinges by the back garden gate leading to Rosefield Street. The boys, who were aged 11, were driven by curiosity. They lifted the plates and got access via stone steps descending five feet to the floor of the tunnel.

“It was about five feet high and stretched for 100 yards ending up under the Jephson Gardens from a place where we heard the clock tower strike. It then turned west parallel with Newbold Terrace. By this time, we were two frightened young boys and ran back to the garden entrance,” he added.

A mystery still surrounds these events. The existence of the tunnel, where it led, and what it was for and the identity of the other boy, who has since died, and who could confirm the story of those years past told by James.

There must be a record of the underground workings, if only in the archive of the old Borough Council Engineers Department. All I can report is that I do remember two manhole covers close to the back gate when mowing the garden lawn.

There are two likely candidates for the other boy. One is brother Tim, who was always curious and would have been 11 years old in 1957 when the house was bought by the family. The other was Richard Parsons, Bob’s younger brother, who had lived in the house prior to the sale.

Trina Bowen, my sister-in- law and Tim’s widow, is convinced the other boy was Tim, as he was always curious and looking into all sorts of machines, trying to see how they worked. I would love to talk to Jeremy and have tried to contact him without success. Both Jeremy and the family would like to hear more of this secret tunnel from anyone who can shed any light on the mystery.

To contact Peter, email [email protected]