Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/44

Rh consequence has been that all the water from the hills, both from the mountain limestone and the old red sandstone, has found subterranean channels through this broken ground, and, before the tunnel was commenced, flowed out in the valley of the Neddern, and formed the great springs which have been before mentioned.

The Neddern, rising as a small brook in the hills above Llanvair Discoed, sometimes lost the whole of its water in the dry season near the foot of the hills, bursting out again near Caerwent at a point called by the natives ‘The Whirly Holes.’

When the tunnel was being made and a fissure was unfortunately tapped in the rock between Sudbrook camp and Portskewett village, all these underground channels poured their water into the tunnel itself, and almost every well and spring, and the little river itself for a distance of more than 5 miles from the tunnel, became dry.

The little river in its course to the sea from Caerwent, passes the village of Caldicot, much the largest village in the neighbourhood, with its picturesque church, the rector of which, the Rev. E. Turberville Williams, took a most genial interest in all our works; and just below the village are the ruins of Caldicot Castle.

Below the Castle, where the Neddern enters the estuary of the Severn, were Caldicot Wire Works, recently converted into tin-plate works, which gave