Ravens Well
A Collectors Evening Trip With Jeff Price
By Mike Wilson.
One evening, the first of October 1997 to be precise. Jeff
kindly asked me if I fancied a trip into Ravens Well, he just said it is a bit
of a collectors piece. I readily agreed to join him and we met up at the Three
Lamps junction where the Bath and Wells road meet.
Very roughly the entrance is situated down a winding lane
opposite the three lamps finger post [see photos] and then over a wall into a
concealed entrance slot. Ravens Well, I have subsequently found out, is also
called the Temple Pipe. The system is basically a maze of underground man made
tunnels arched in local stone linking several underground springs, designed to
feed water to the Friary at Temple Gate. The Conduit was laid in 1366 and
worked right up to the advent of the Railway at Temple Meads in the late
1800s.
Whilst constructing the railway line the pipe was severed
and then dried up .We spent a very interesting few hours in the system and at
one time stood directly under the Three Lamps themselves. Since then I have
discovered that there are several such systems under Bristol, One of them being
the Redcliffe Pipe which runs from Knowle all the way to Redcliffe Church.
The outlet for this conduit still exists in Colston Parade
close to the church. This ceased to work when it was struck by a German bomb
during the war.
There are many more documented in the Central library, and
the publication Underground Bristol. Zot and I have already taken canoes into
part of the old Bristol Castle Moat and are hoping, to round trip the whole
system in the near future.
WATCH THIS SPACE.
My thanks to Jeff for showing me this interesting little
gem.