Maureen Williams, 82, of Westgate, recalled a school trip into the rumoured tunnels under Chichester when she was at Chichester High School for Girls.
She estimates she was in her early teens at the time and said she chose to share her memories after reading about the search for evidence in this newspaper.
She said: "It was under the Crypt and right next to the cathedral. We had already seen parts of it and while we were down there our teacher was talking about Keats. It went along South Street."
Poet John Keats began writing The Eve of St Agnes in Chichester in 1819, as is said to have spent time in the South Street building that was formerly The Buttery at the Crypt.
"It was all to do with Keats and I think what happened is we were talking to one of our teachers about it and there was one teacher who was very kind and decided she wanted to show us.
"Keats might have gone down into them to do some writing - it was so miserable down there."
Maureen described the tunnel as dark, and with a ''black and brownish sort of colour''.
He said: "There''s a story about Keats having a coffee near the crypt and actually watching this priest emerge from the tunnels but he would have been in a room above the Buttery.
"Her story is intriguing because it ties in with the the story about tunnels under South Street that runs down the East side of the path, by Iceland. Her story adds intrigue to intrigue because of the other rumours it ties in with but I would have to start researching the whole of South Street first."
Reacting to Liam''s comments, Maureen added: "I think that, at my age, I have not gone completely gaga like I thought I had. I am 82 but I don''t feel 82 and that has made feel like I really am alive!"
All images below are from a tv show and cammonets are subjective views from presenters. TV name unknown
One of the most common questions I’m asked about Peterborough’s history is whether there are any tunnels under the city. Local legends say that there is a tunnel stretching from the Cathedral to Monk’s Cave at Longthorpe. Similar tunnels are alleged to stretch from the Cathedral to the abbeys at Thorney or Crowland.
These are familiar myths in many historic cities across the UK, mostly urban legends based on half remembrances of sewers, cellars or crawlspaces, coupled with wishful thinking and rumour.
AArc141/14/EVAL Roussillon Park, Broyle Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 BBL
Sporadic finds represent the early prehistoric period in the vicinity of the Project Site, with the discovery of Palaeolithic axe in a garden on Brandy Hole Lane (c. 600m to the NW) and a Neolithic stone axe, in the vicinity of Spitalfield Lane, over 1km to the SE (Lee 2008: 9).
Bronze Age activity has been recorded c. 500m to the east of the site, in the vicinity of Garyiingwell Hospital, where evidence for settlement was identified along with remains of six cremation burials (Lee 2008: 9).
A singular happening lay behind the prosaic news on saturday that the chuichester and District League football fixture, Summersadale VS Boxgrove, had o be postponed owing to the ground on this hill suburb of Chichester being unfit.
Historically, to build a house with a simple cellar you would dig out the ground to a depth of around 6ft, the cellar walls would have been constructed with a lining of stone or brick and with a drain for water within the cellar. The floors would have been built up on crushed stone or sand to provide a level surface and paved, usually with flags. Brick paving became more common in later periods.
DD I worked at 65 East Street when it was ''Hammick''s Bookshop'' (now Specsavers). We had a trapdoor in the middle of the floor that led down to a tunnel-shaped cellar that seemed to extend through the front of the shop and under the pavement outside. I didn''t see any evidence of it ever having joined another tunnel and imagine that perhaps there was once an opening in the pavement for deliveries.
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The Buttery
There is rumoured to be a tunnel from the white horse to the buttery and then from the buttery to the cathedral.
Regarding a tunnel from the crypt to the cathedral. Apparently Keats while upstairs being "entertained" watched the monks lock the gate to the cathedral. Now did he have xray specs on ??? That''s the pic of the guy gesturing towards the shelves is where the door way used to be
A number of those readers remembered a story about tunnels underneath Hansford Menswear, also in South Street, so we spoke the shop's owner to find out more Matthew Hansford described a blocked-off passage in cellar of the shop, which he believes may have led to the cathedral
