MEM24558 - Post-medieval tunnel northwest of Ashley Combe (Building)

A tunnel lies on the path from Worthy Lodge at SS 85720 48270, where it takes Drive 3 under Drive 4. The approach to the tunnel is flanked by two stone walls, 1.6 metres high and 0.3 metres high. The tunnel itself is 145 metres long, 2.5 metres wide with brick arches 2.5 metres high and a stone parapet. 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]