00:00I love it. I mean, every tour is different, so you can have a tour where nobody will say anything.
00:06You know, there'll be no questions and you think, I wonder if they enjoyed it.
00:09Then other tours, you'll get where you're just constantly asking questions.
00:13And I love it because it's great to be able to pass on the information.
00:16Well, actually, I blame my husband because when he retired early, he wanted something to do.
00:22And he began volunteering down here and I followed in his footsteps.
00:27It was open for 18 years initially.
00:30It was used, first of all, to transport coal in Victorian times.
00:35So we got the coal going at 30 mile an hour through this tunnel on tracks which are still underneath our feet.
00:42Massive wagons that filled the tunnel.
00:45One set of aid wagons would fill a Collier Briggs ship and they did three of those journeys every hour.
00:52Then it was forgotten about for 79 years or so.
00:55And it stayed closed and silent under the streets of Newcastle from 1860 until 1938.
01:03Then they put entrances in and it was used for six years.
01:07War was on the horizon and councils were looking for places where people could shelter.
01:13They rediscovered the tunnel, beginning with a crated brown nail to have a party,
01:18and then converted it to be suitable to use as an air raid shelter.
01:23So when you heard this noise, then you normally have five minutes to get underground.
01:31And people will be rushing into the tunnel here.
01:34And then I see you come to a dead end.
01:37That's actually called a blast wall to stop any blast from going through,
01:40because you had to be 55 foot underground.
01:43So they'll get through.
01:44Here you've got gas detection paint on the wall as well, so that would change colour.
01:53If there was a gas bomb, it would turn pink.
01:57I think later on it was more used as a thoroughfare, because it was open 24-7.
02:04So if you were drinking in the hay market and you lived down here,
02:06you could come through as relatively well lit, relatively safe and relatively dry.
02:12I think I came into here a lot of years ago with my father, who was part of a photographic club.
02:20And I think they were given permission to come in by Newcastle Council with the photography club.
02:27And I must have been 12, 13.
02:31So I joined in 2017.
02:34I originally, I wanted to do the monument in Newcastle, but the tickets were sold out.
02:39And I thought, oh, well, what else can I do?
02:41So I put it in my friend Google, and then the tunnel come up.
02:46And I thought, oh, my dad, he used to speak about this.
02:49So then I come as a visitor.
02:50I did one of the shorter tours.
02:52Then I liked it.
02:53So I fetched my cousin the following month.
02:55And I went to the toilet, and then in the office, it had a sign saying,
02:59your tunnel needs you.
03:01And that's how I joined.
03:02This is where we tell the story of Coulson.
03:05How Coulson was the only fatality in the tunnel.
03:09And we'll turn all the lights off, and we'll have a wagon sound coming down.
03:15And then the wagon sound lasts for about 40 seconds.
03:19And then at the end, there's a big bang.
03:21And this is where we give people a fright.
03:24So this is my favorite part of the tunnel story.
03:28You'll hear the bang.
03:29Being a volunteer down here is ideal, because you can choose when you have time to be able
03:37to be here as a volunteer.
03:39So it fits in with people's schedules.
03:42You offer what you can.
03:44Sometimes I do five, six tours a week.
03:46I need to seek.
03:49Ah!
03:49Ahh!
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