Redcliffe Caves
Treasures Revealed
•
14m
Redcliffe Caves are a series of man made tunnels beneath the Redcliffe area of Bristol, England. The Triassic red sandstone was dug into in the Middle ages to provide sand for glass making and pottery production. Further excavation took place from the 17th to early 19th centuries and used for storage of trade goods. There is some evidence that prisoners captured during the French Revolutionary Wars or Napoleonic Wars were imprisoned in the caves but it is clear that the local folklore that slaves were imprisoned in the caves during the Bristol slave trade is false. After the closure of the last glass factory the caves were used for storage and became a rubbish dump. The caves are not generally open but have been used for film and music events. In this episode of Snow on the Road, Alan Gray give Dan a tour of the famous and spooky tunnels.
Up Next in Treasures Revealed
-
The Rollright Stones: Mind, Myre and ...
The Rollright Stones are some of Britain’s most remarkable and mysterious ancient monuments. They consist of three separate sites - a looming funerary monument built to contain dismembered corpses, a venerated stone circle, and a single monolith with an innominate purpose. Alice Loxton traces six...
-
The Lancaster Bomber
The Lancaster Bomber tells how, as Bomber Command’s most destructive weapon, it went on to become instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany during the second world war.
With contributions from military historians Alexandra Churchill, Dr Peter Johnston and James Holland, authors Leo McKinstry (L...