Willow Class Visit The Victoria Tunnel in Newcastle

This week Willow Class visited The Victoria Tunnel in Newcastle as part of our topic on ‘The Victorians’ in history. The tunnel is 2.4 miles long and is located under the streets of Newcastle. It was originally built to transport coal from Spital Tongues Colliery to the river and operated between 1842 and the 1860s. During our visit, we wore safety helmets and each had a torch. We were all led into the dark tunnel by an experienced and very knowledgeable tour guide called Mike. The lights were all turned out at one point, the children were so brave. The children found it so interesting and asked lots of questions. We then walked along various streets which were built using the coal that had been transported through the tunnel we had visited: Northumberland Street, Grey Street and Central Station train station. We also had some hot chocolate at the Christmas market and visited Fenwick’s window.