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
-
Warbirds of World War Two: A Tour of ...
Of all the chapters of the Second World War, none are as daring, nor as intriguing, as the Air War. In the skies over Europe, some of the most iconic aircraft to ever take flight, did battle in a life or death struggle for supremacy. Today most of these aircraft are gone, but at the Royal Air For...
-
The Hurricane
Hawker Hurricanes accounted for 60% of German losses in the battle of Britain. They were the most numerous fighter aircraft which the RAF deployed, partly owing to their rapid turn-around time (it took them only 9 minutes to be refuelled and re-armed). Dan Snow provides an overview of the 'workho...
-
Fragments of History: Rome's Greatest...
In 2017, the oldest and most complete set of Roman armour was unearthed in Kalkriese, Germany. Roughly 2,000 years old, it is one of the greatest examples of Roman military equipment ever discovered, we know it as the lorica segmentata. Consisting of 40 sheets of iron fastened together with leath...