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Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier. Saturday 23 Jul 1938
Page 9 Column 5
COL. DUNBAR SATISFIED
TAUNTON'S UNDERGROUND SHELTERS
ANCIENT SECRET PASSAGES
Lieut.-Colonel J. Cameron DUNBAR, D.S.O., area 7, organiser for air raid precautions, is satisfied that there are underground passages in Taunton which may be used as shelters during war time.
[His statement to the Area Committee, on Monday afternoon, is reported on another page.]
Colonel DUNBAR told a representative of the “Somerset County Herald” yesterday: “I have been exploring these underground passages this week, but I find that, at the moment, they are not safe. There may be a great deal of foul gas down there and I am waiting to be issued with proper miners' gas-masks before going any further. Our own A.R.P. masks are, of cours <sic>, no protection against coal gas.”
13TH CENTURY.
These old passages probably date back to the 13th or 14th centuries and were used as a means of secret escape or to obtain provisions during a siege.
Colonel DUNBAR has had much experience of this type of exploration. During the war, while serving on the Staff in Egypt, he spent his leisure time excavating with Professor Flinders PETRIE, the famous archæologist and Egyptologist.
For obvious reasons Colonel DUNBAR does not want the exact position of these passage entrances to be made public at this stage, but he believes that parts of the centre of the town are honeycombed with subterranean passages. One entrance he examined this week is finely built, with arches of hand-made bricks.
INFORMATION WANTED.
Colonel DUNBAR is trying to trace men who, in their youth, investigated these passages.
Somerset Archæological Society investigated the question some years ago, but although there were many rumours, no evidence was found to support them.
Any reader who has any information about secret passages or similar old places in Taunton is asked to communicate with the Editor or with Colonel DUNBAR.