One of our neighbours and friend is a
member of the Wealden Cave & Mine Society and he organised for a small
group of us to visit the nearby Barons’ and Tunnel Road caves in Reigate for a
private tour.
The first underground adventure was
through the Tunnel Road East manmade caves which have had a varied use over time
as stone and sand quarry, war time shelter, cold war bunker and wine and beer
vaults. They have exhibitions covering all of these periods and more with an
old Anderson shelter, a Roman tile kiln undergoing reconstruction, a geology
room, second world war shelters, remains of Cold War bunker equipment and vast
quantities of empty (we checked) bottles.
Our second spelunking was into the
Barons’ cave under the old motte and bailey mound the remains of the castle.
Here we saw the passage that linked the castle to the dry moat, sand excavations
(with a surprise T-Rex looming in a corner – from Dr Who fame), several
carvings (horse heads and faces) and ancient graffiti. These caves are so
called for a local story that suggested that Barons stopped her on their way to
Runnymede to sign the Magna Carta, though this is likely to be a myth.
It was a good evening explore and very
interesting to add it to my local knowledge.
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