This little exploration took place in the early 1960s as far as I can remember all those years ago.My brother Ted and I decided to try and get into the counterscarp gallery in the ditch wall of the Redan.We obtained a sycamore sapling and slid down a bank in an angle of the defensive works that cross the moat there.St John's Tower is part of those works.At the bottom of this angle in the works was a shaft with bars across it.A tunnel led off the bottom of this shaft.However our route was above this.We climbed through a narrow window and into a gallery.This gallery had a tunnel leading off it ending in a shaft going up.Not our way either.We went to another shaft in the gallery.Into this shaft we lowered our sapling which we used to scale down.A tunnel led to a shaft going up.First though we explored a short side tunnel.Once again this ended in a shaft going up with a cable and light bulb hanging down it.Above us were the public areas of The Underground Works.We went back to the shaft we wanted to scale taking our sapling with us.Using the pole we climbed up into the counterscarp gallery.Looking through the narrow musket loopholes we could see into the Redan's ditch.
Ted and I had to use the same route to get back out Despite having had polio Ted was very agile as was I.No doubt these routes have been secured against unofficial entry these days.
