MEM24561 - Post-medieval tunnel northwest to Ashley Combe (Building)

Tunnel 4 lies adjacent to Tunnel 3 (MEM24560) at SS 85645 48232, and provided an alternative route to the house via several steep paths to the gardens on the south of Ashley Combe. It is in a ruinous state, with only the south side remaining as a stone wall with 9.7 metres long and up to 1.5 metres high. The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map [1] shows most but not all of the 19th Century drives and paths between Ashley Combe and Culbone; the tunnels are also depicted on the map. Documentary evidence suggests that the drives were laid out in the 1840s and perhaps largely completed by the early 1850s, when Lord King travelled abroad following his wife’s death in 1852. [2]