The Tunnels of Hertford
The Tunnels of Hertford Part Three (parts one, two, four)
If Hertford Castle is at the centre of a labyrinth then there is no visible evidence but what is not in doubt is the underground passage at Bayley Hall described in the opening to this essay. This is the extract from Hertfordshire Archives at County Hall.
HERTFORD D/EGr/40
plasterwork No. D/EGr/57 showing Sundial, No. D/EGr/13 plasterwork, No. D/EGr/59,
D/EGr/61, D/EGr/69 and D/EGr/54 Bayley Hall, Hertford 1820, Bayley Hall 1898 Subterranean
passages in Cellar, Salisbury Arms? Plan 1898 showing the Bayley Hall Picture of
Date range: 1898 -
Source: Access to Archives (A2A): not kept at The National Archives Conveyancing
papers DE/L/Q12 Bayley Hall, Hertford. Hale's Grammar School. [Hertfordshire Archives,
A miscellaneous collection...] Date range: 1898 -
There are also said to be tunnels leading to Hertford Castle and All Saints Church. If there had been one to the latter this too would have been crushed when Gascoyne Way was bulldozed through. The only evidence of this is a quote from a Museum curator who said: ‘I only know for sure about the Bailey Hall tunnel which I believe was used by the judges when it was a law court so that they could get to All Saints Church nearby’.
I can find no evidence that Bayley Hall was used as a Law Court although there is a significant lack of records during the English Civil Wars and if as believed the present building dates to 1650 being the close of hostilities it might have been used by the bailiff and as a court prior to this time. In 1610 the current inhabitant of the castle wanted the Assizes moved and there appeared no other place until the Shire Hall was built in 1627. In the absence of any other evidence I will have to declare an open verdict.
Of equal uncertainty is the existence of a tunnel between Bayley Hall and the castle.
In her recent book Hertford
Although no precise date is given by the time of the survey conducted in 1608 the moats were described as ‘ditches’ and in a later partial document of 1686 reference is made to ‘banks and bottoms’ possible the residual dry double moat. A much later 1766 town map shows the moats completely filled in so any drainage into the moat and then to the River Lea from which it fed would now be redundant.
This problem is not helped by the 1996 Department of National Heritage List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historical Interest. It states in a historical note on Bayley Hall: ‘Basement originally contained kitchens, plain flagged and board floors, 2 brick vaults, and said to contain passage, now blocked, leading to Hertford Castle’.
However the much quoted and published map of Bayley Hall includes an underground passage leading not to the Castle but under Bell Lane. This continues up to what is now a branch of the Santander Bank Group
However Bell Lane does connect both these Elizabethan properties and the east side of the Salisbury Arms (then the Bell) which runs half its length and is of late fifteenth century origin. In common with many inns the Hotel has a cellar which is noted in the listing above: ‘Cellar with concrete floor and largely twentieth century brick lining; medieval stonework reported in earlier list description not seen’.
It is not therefore too much of a stretch of the imagination to conceive of a tunnel connecting the three buildings for use by officials for the conducting of business, for accommodation and for leisure at a time when plague was rife. Being able to move about town without fear of bumping into an infected person might well have seemed a very attractive option.
The full essay with extra material and photos in eBook format: The Tunnels of Hertford.
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Next ... The Tunnels Part Four
Bell Lane looking north
The 1898 Map of Bayley Hall
