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Fowlmere: House over Reformation tunnel goes on the market

Ensum Brown Fowlmere houseEnsum Brown
The house in Fowlmere is built over the entrance to a tunnel that stretches under the High Street

A house over a tunnel used by a parish curate to hide during the reign of Henry VIII has gone on the market.

Grade II-listed Hill View Cottage in Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire, was built over the chalk-etched escape route.

The tunnel, which stretches for 100ft (30m), is only accessible through a trap door in the cellar of the four-bedroom house.

Neil Wise, of estate agents Ensum Brown, described the house as a "very unique property".

Details with the property suggested the tunnel "was likely to have been built when Henry VIII created the Church of England and was most likely used... as an escape route when persons of authority visited, so as to avoid persecution".

Ensum Brown Tunnel under Fowlmere houseEnsum Brown
The tunnel stretches for 100ft (30m) under the High Street in Fowlmere

According to historical records, the tunnel - which is 5ft 9in (1.75m) at its deepest and just 33in (0.8m) at its narrowest points - stretches under the road towards the war memorial, where it changes direction towards the Old Manor House on the other side of the High Street.

The house has been Grade II-listed since the 1960s by Historic England, which cites that "from the cellar a tunnel cut into the natural chalk leads to the Old Manor House".

Ensum Brown Fowlmere basementEnsum Brown
The tunnel is accessible by a trap door in the cellar of the Grade II-listed house

Mr Wise said most properties "get around 60 clicks a day on Rightmove - this one received over 10,000 in a single day at the weekend".

Fowlmere parish councillor Deborah Roberts, who has lived in the village for more than 40 years and had walked the tunnel, said: "Not a lot of people know it exists.

"It must have taken a gargantuan effort to dig it out. One finds it hard to imagine that one man would have done that without mechanical help.

"The house was once lived in by the parish curate of St Mary's Church, but as things got difficult he would have needed a quick escape route.

"It's a lovely thing to have."

She said it was believed the tunnel may have at one stage extended towards the Chequers pub, which still has a priest hole above its bar.

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