purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
[personal profile] purplecat
I was discussing the other day, I think with some of the Primeval folk, how almost every city built on or near sandstone (and in some cases some rather less likely rock) seems to have had a positive honeycomb of tunnels burrowed out underneath it by the resourceful inhabitants.

When we moved to Nottingham we went on the tourist trail around Nottingham's Cave system (The Western Caves which you entered via a shopping centre). These had been used as air raid shelters during WWII but went back a lot further than that and included a medieval tannery among other things. I was interested therefore when [livejournal.com profile] wellinghall forwarded me a link to the Nottingham Caves Survey which is attempting to create 3D maps of all the tunnels under the city. They're doing this using a 3D laser scanner which just shows how technology has moved on. I recall B. publishing an article (Sellers WI, Chamberlain AT. Echoing the Bats. Discovering Archaeology. 1999 2:94-96.) just after we were married on mapping cave systems using ultrasound and the images he produced then are very reminisicent of the modern laser scanner images, only less detailed.




Mortimer's Hole from the outside


Map of the Tunnel from Mortimer's hole up to the Castle


The Cave System being Ye Olde Jerusalem Inn which claims to be the oldest pub in England (est. 1189)


According to the website other caves have, in their time, been used as a butcher's shop and malt kiln as well as the more usual storage and incarceration purposes.
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purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
purplecat

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