TWO businesses have fuelled speculation that there is a network of secret tunnels beneath Cirencester.

It has long been suggested that there are tunnels linking the now demolished abbey with the parish church and town centre businesses.

Legend has it that the tunnels were used by monks and priests to escape danger during the Reformation of the church in the 1500s, when many Catholic establishments were attacked.

Now two of the town’s businesses have confirmed that they have bricked up tunnels in their cellars which face in the direction of the church.

Natalie White, manager of the Edinburgh Woollen Shop, believes the tunnel in the basement of the shop was used by monks from the parish church in Market Place.

While Lisa Kennedy , a spokesman for Barclays, said its branch in Market Place has a tunnel in the cellar, adding: "We can’t confirm that it leads up to the church as it is bricked up.”

But she said there is no access to the branch from the tunnel, in case it is seen as an opportunity for thieves.

However, historians and a church warden have dismissed the notion of tunnels.

Simon Smith, warden at the parish church, said there is no evidence in records of tunnels and he suspects the bricked up passages could lead to coal cellars.

He said: “There are round metals disks all over the place. They are culvert hole covers, beneath them is a cellar below the pavement. In the past they would have put coal below."

Mr Smith said it was unlikely that monks would have had the foresight and time to create tunnels before the Reformation.

“They would have to know the Reformation was coming," he said. "It would take an awful lot of time to build and escape danger.”

David Viner, a Cirencester historian and formally the curator at the Corinium Museum, was equally sceptical of the tunnel theory. “I think it is entirely a myth," he said. "You can explain what people have seen in a practical way as cellar buildings which had other uses.”

Daniel Simmonds , from the Corinium Museum, said investigation of the entire area below Cirencester would be necessary to prove there are connecting tunnels.

Do you have evidence of tunnels below Cirencester? Email bmc@wiltsglosstandard.co.uk