TWO TUNNELS

On Saturday 26th August 2017, five members of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team walked through the Two Tunnels at Bath, Avon.

In 1874, the tunnel opened as part of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway line, with steam trains carrying freight over the Mendips and also transporting thousands of people on holiday to Bournemouth. One of the tunnels was the longest in the UK at the time and did not have intermediate ventilation. It was also very narrow. In November 1929, the driver and stoker of a slow moving, heavily laden train was overcome by smoke causing the train to career down a slope. The driver and two goods yard workers were killed. The Two Tunnels are now a cycling pathway, used by people for exercise and also a walkway for local people. The tunnels are lit but the lights are switched off between 23.00 - 05.00 hours. There are stories of a ghost train that travels through the tunnels so we thought that we would walk through the tunnels to see if we experienced anything of a paranormal nature. We decided to walk through when the lights were on and then walk back when the lights had been switched off. Apart from meeting two cyclists at the beginning of the first tunnel, we did not meet anyone else during our walk. It was a very interesting walk and quite atmospheric. I am actually of an age where I remember steam trains as a child and I could envisage the trains running through the tunnel. At the top of the walls and the roof of the tunnel, you can still see soot and the markings of where the steam blasted out of the chimney. I was completely fascinated. I did feel relatively comfortable as we walked through and I did not think that walking back after the lights were switched off would bother me at all. I did occasionally feel like we were being watched in certain parts of the tunnel but it did not feel threatening at all. When we finally reached the end of both tunnels, we sat on some benches chatting while waiting for the lights to be switched off. Eventually, the lights went out and we began our walk back though the tunnels. I didn't feel too spooked initially but when we had walked a considerable way in, I started to feel unsettled. We had turned our torches off and it was pitch black, It felt quite disorientating. Occasionally on our walk back, we felt like we were being followed but when we checked, we could not see anyone of anything. Matt, Dave and Andrew all felt that they saw shadow figures, occasionally speaking at the same time to tell us. Although I had been looking forward to this walk in a dark railway tunnel, I was quite afraid at times which is unlike me. I did not experience anything that I could deem as paranormal but the atmosphere and the darkness felt quite oppressive. Unfortunately, we did not experience the 'ghost train' or anything definitive from the paranormal world, but it was interesting to walk through these old railway tunnels in the dark, at night. Written by: Maria Williams