Published in Windlesora 31 (2015)
© WLHG
According to local folklore the older part of Windsor has at least 15 tunnels leading from the Castle to various shops and inns. Most are said to have been used by Charles II and Nell Gwyn for illicit rendezvous. If this was the case the sub-soil below Windsor would resemble Swiss Cheese, but most claims can be put down to publicity stunts from the Victorian period onwards.
These claims can be discredited as Charles gave Nell Burford House which is now part of the Royal Mews, and can be viewed from the bottom end of St Albans Street. Having discounted many of these ‘tunnels’ as either old cellarage or storm drains, there are in fact, a few real tunnels.
When Windsor Castle was being rebuilt and renovated in the 1820s there were reports of at least two tunnels being uncovered. In 1824 workmen digging in the Castle yard of the Upper Ward found a 20 feet deep hole with a large passage going underneath the castle and terrace. King William IV gave orders for it to be cleared out. In 1829 while digging an ice-house on the North Terrace, another was found thirty feet below ground level, cut into the natural chalk. This ran in a southerly direction for several yards, then came to an abrupt end. Also in the upper Ward within the Queen Victoria’s Tower, there is a passage 5 feet wide lined with masonry, with round-headed arches. This was a sally port which originally led to the southern ditch of the castle.
Also still in existence is a tunnel, discovered in 1852, running under the Curfew Tower. It leads from the Horseshoe Cloisters adjacent to St George’s Chapel, down some stone steps to a passage which goes under Thames Street. This was another sally port which came out into the western ditch of the castle.
Windsor Local History Group 