MYSTERIOUS NOISES

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1932, Page 8

MYSTERIOUS NOISES

TRAIL LEADS TO VAULT.

SKELETONS AND SKULLS.

The work of attempting to discover the lost tunnel at the picturesque ruins of Lilleshall Abbey, Shropshire, where for some years mysterious noises, described as rumblings and meanings, have been heard, was in hand on August 25. These subterranean noises have recently become so pronounced that it was decided to. find and explore the tunnel, if possible. . ‘ Men .were at work under tire altar window, both outside the abbey and within, and for some time a correspondent of the News-Chronicle assist-', ed iii the work of excavation. At a ' depth" of ■ 4ft in ■ the trench underneath the abbey east window several skeletons and human' remains, including skulls, were found, some of I them in an 'excellent state of preserva- I tion. 1 Two ? perfect tiles marked' with . the - Welsh'- dragon .rampant and theremains of an old vase-were-also disin terred. \

The Rev. W. M. L. Evans, now rector of Saxby, has-written to Mr. Ford, the estate ■ agent, spying that 30 years ago he was resident tutor at Lilleshall Hall, when it • was : th© residence of the Duke of Sutherland. He stages that he' distinctly- remembers thik old passage. A search failed to reveal it. • Three' diviners arrived and the correspondent accompanied one on his tour. While crossing and recrossing a field his divining rod pointed to the ground continuously along a straight line. He declared that the ground below was hollow, and the line of it was traced to a dark vault that lay next to the dungeon. Workmen were summoned, and a solid mass of masonry under the earth floor was bared. Colonel Sykes, to whose manor house, Langford Hall, two mjles away, the tunnel is said to dead, stated: “I know of no tunnel coming here, although some time ago I found a passage in the house. It only led to what was evidently a beer cellar.”