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Historic waterway tunnel unexpectedly uncovered

John Devine
BBC News, Cambridgeshire
Reporting from March
John Devine/BBC David Edwards has grey hair and moustache. He is wearing dark framed glasses and a dark blue jacket with white and blue stripped shirt underneath. Behind him are metal building safety fences and the arm of a digger with stone kerbs visible too.John Devine/BBC
David Edwards said he was surprised to see part of the historic tunnel become visible during the scheduled works

Part of a historic tunnel has been unearthed during renovation work in a Cambridgeshire town.

The Hythe in March was a natural waterway through the town and was later used as an open sewer, thought to be a contributing factor to many deaths from a cholera outbreak in 1849.

The structure was bricked over as a result, but resurfaced after further regeneration work on the High Street started last week.

David Edwards, archivist at March and District Museum, said the tunnel was "an important part of the town's history".

Cambs Times/NewsQuest An old black and white photo showing the inside of an arched brick tunnel, about five foot high in the middle section. Three workmen can be seen, all wearing flat caps and there is one man on the right in a suit, shirt and tie and no hat.Cambs Times/NewsQuest
In 1937, part of the Hythe collapsed and workers carried out repairs

"Originally it was an open ditch that ran all the way down March High Street," said Mr Edwards.

"It went on to become an open sewer and in the mid-1800s was bricked over after an investigation following a cholera outbreak that killed around 100 locals."

John Devine/BBC An area of pavement on a High Street with all the slabs removed and sandy stoney ground visible. There is an orange digger inside a fenced off area, fences are about 2 metres high, metal, silver coloured and there are shops in the background.John Devine/BBC
The Hythe tunnel sits below a mound of sand and cement to the left of this photo

The waterway continued to discharge raw sewage into the nearby river until the 1950s, at which point a new drainage system was opened in March.

"The new system was mooted in the 1930s, but World War Two came along and put that plan on hold - then after the war, money was short, so again it got delayed," he explained.

Mr Edwards said the Hythe was still in operation - used to displace surface water into the River Nene.

Trevor Beavis/March and District Museum A black and white drawing showing March town centre around the time of the 1800s, with the open drain running down the high street between thatched houses. There are drawings of three people walking between the houses.Trevor Beavis/March and District Museum
An illustration shows what the Hythe might have looked like prior to the 1849 cholera outbreak

Cambridgeshire County Council said its contractors unearthed a section of the Hythe earlier this week.

It has since been covered up again without damage to the brickwork and it will not be excavated, a spokesperson says.

They said the precise locations of historic infrastructure such as old sewers were often not accurately mapped.

"While we were broadly aware that the Hythe passed through the centre of March, we hadn't anticipated discovering it exactly where we did—just outside the Iceland supermarket," the council spokesperson explained.

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