I am very, very tired but excited to tell you about a truly fine recluse. Don't know if I got the whole story in me tonight but I'll give it a crack. I give you Welbeck Abbey, home to the Portlands dukedom. In actual fact I'm interested in the 5th Duke of Portland, W.J.C Scott-Bentinct,as fine a hider away as you'll ever get.
Welbeck Abbey is a big joint. One of the biggest in the North Midlands. The duke definitely kept to himself. He kept small apartments for himself in one distant corner of the mansion and would only commuinicate through notes left in drop boxes fitted to the doors. His meals came on a miniature railway from the kitchen. The house rule was if a servant encountered him they were to pass as if he wasn't there. He himself would do the "I'm invisible". The punishment for having an interaction with the Duke? Skate until you drop on the Abbey's skating rink. What a brute.
To keep himself busy he built an entire other mansion under ground. The construction took thousands of builders and when completed was truly spectacular. It contained a 2000 seat ballroom and a library over 200 feet long. There were tunnels everywhere and they even extended out into the hills surrounding the Abbey. Don't know what he needed all the room for. He never had anyone over. If he travelled he took a carriage through one of these tunnels to a railway siding where he was secreted onto a closed rail car and whisked to London.
After his death in 1879, visitors found some real odd stuff: Most of the rooms were pink and in the only room in which the Duke lived were found hundred of green boxes with a single wig in each.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Abbey fine, how are you?
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These tunnels you speak of are a majestic mystery. At the age of 12 (ish) my dad made mention of them and although i badgered him for more info he refused to elaborate. I then decided to look in the local history department of Worksop library were i found a wealth of info on the subject. When i mentioned the tunnels to my mates they like me where eager to "discover" where this laberynth was and explore it. So off we went into what we saw as unexplored wilderness. We soon found what we was looking for and it was well worth the walk. Sunken glasshouses,stabling,accommodation for ostlers etc then through a small doorway a tunnel so huge you could have a modern street run through it. The brickwork in this tunnel is a tribute to the bricklayers art. The joints look like they were pointed up yesterday with lime morter. It was soon apparent after fumbling about in the dark and tripping and bashing shins that there where numerous small flat bed "carts" and a narrow guage rail track. We soon rerailed one of these and used it as our guide to the gated end of the tunnel. once there we found 2 smaller tunnels one of which led to a boiler room the other to a round room which accessed 2 more tunnels. Over the years since then we have "discovered" more tunnels and brick lined trenches which where either unfinished tunnels or ones where the roof had collapsed. Sadly this appears to gradually happening to all but the large tunnels which are currently used for the storage of agricultural machinary. These tunnels are unique a relatively unknown piece of English heritage that the present owners are allowing to rot. Finding these tunnels was our last great childhood adventure and i think its a shame that generations to come may only ever read about them and not experiance them for themselves. This place is not just of local interest but also of national if not international interest. The stamping ground of one of our most elusive titled Lords/MP The fifth Duke of Portland. Let not his legacy disappear into time.
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