See inside secret tunnel found under Salisbury station - but nobody knows what it was originally for

A lost tunnel that’s thought to have once linked Salisbury station with a neighbouring lunatic asylum has been uncovered.

The extraordinary discovery has been made by Network Rail and South Western Railway engineers redesigning the station forecourt.

The building on Wilton Road, near the station, was Old Manor Hospital psychiatric hospital before being converted into retirement homes. But it was once Fisherton Asylum, the largest “mental institution” in England, a place where wealthy families chose to hide their troubled relatives.

It accepted “criminal lunatics” long before Broadmoor Hospital was established.

“Mental health was a taboo subject in Victorian times,” explains local historian Frogg Moody. “The tunnel would have offered segregation. The fabled tunnel was meant to go from the railway to the asylum. Until we biff down the bricked-up wall in there, we will not know.”

The entrance to the tunnel was found during drainage checks. When an old phone box by the station entrance was moved, it revealed sleepers that blocked up the tunnel entrance.

Engineers found a labyrinth of tunnels and rooms containing remnants of old signal equipment. The tunnel leads beneath platform 4 into a more open area with a side room and containing rail repurposed as structural supports for the ceiling.

Steve Kelly, Network Rail asset engineer, described the tunnel as “one of the most interesting discoveries during my career on the railway”.

Rumours about the tunnel have swirled around for decades, but there is no hard evidence to prove the link, but further studies have found the tunnel was once part of the station’s logistical operations.

“It needs further investigation,” said SWR’s Andrew Ardley. “We think it links to some steps we’ve found underneath Platform 1. We believe it was used for moving things to the central island platforms. And we know it was used for signalling cables. But some of it remains a mystery. As far as we know, there is no historical record.”

Railway architecture historian Tim Dunn was unconvinced of the asylum rumours, saying he had “rarely seen evidence surviving of any tunnel for moving people from Building A to Building B, when there is no obvious reason for a tunnel to do so”.

After inspecting the tunnel, he commented: “There is no reason to have a hidden route to the asylum. The tunnel doesn’t really align with the asylum, but it does line up with the GWR station.”

Anna Jipps, Company Secretary for the Railway Heritage Trust, said: “We're intrigued by the tunnel, but on consulting with experts, we're still no longer clearer to fully understanding where it leads to. It's an exciting part of Salisbury's railway heritage and we're keen to learn more.”

She told RAIL a clear covering over the hatch to allow passengers to see down into the tunnel wasn’t possible, but an interpretation board could be installed.

“The fact that it’s a tunnel and we don’t know where it goes: it’s all very Enid Blyton,” she added.