Ancient tunnels found in Wakefield

Is Exham Priory near there? From Wakefield Today:

A DOG helped to unearth what could be an ancient labyrinth under the city after it smelled a rat when builders unearthed a mysterious hole in a car park. Builders were resurfacing the Tarmac of the Old Vicarage, on Zetland Street, when they came across the hole on Monday. The discovery re-ignited rumours about a serious of tunnels linking the old vicarage to the cathedral and possibly beyond. Dave Wiper, of the Modern Savage Tattoo Parlour, one of a number of shops based in the building, was the first to discover there might be some truth to the whispers when he fell down the hole chasing after a friend’s dog and ended up in the masonic lodge across the road. He said: “There have always been these rumours – and everyone thought they were just that – but when this hole appeared we didn’t know what to think. “The dog, Sandy, is a trained ratter and, the next thing I knew, she started making the hole bigger and then disappeared. When I went in after her, I found myself in a 16th century cellar. “I couldn’t see a thing, so I felt my way along the wall, which went on forever, then I heard the dog running around in front of me. “I thought I had fallen into a crypt because I knew there used to be a graveyard nearby but then I felt a light switch. “I turned it on, realised I was somewhere I shouldn’t be, and made a quick exit.” The ancient warren has been one of the city’s freemasons’ best-kept secrets for years. A small stone staircase in the cellar of the Zetland Street lodge, which is built on the site of the old rectory, takes you even farther underground to the first of a series of rooms with passageways leading off them.

Entire story well worth reading. Many stories from Wakefield Today make it onto my blog. Certainly more than my local newspaper. Coincidence?