Labyrinths of tunnels and underground sites, many top secret, remain below North East soil on which we walk. With little historical records or public information on them, they are not merely forgotten – just unknown, either unexplored by authorities or hidden below private properties.
Inquisitive home owners up and down the country have found secret passageways, chapels and rooms beneath their homes. With the North East's history of mining, some of the earliest railway and wagon-way systems, the suffering of World War II and illegal smuggling, there is potential for more underground sites than we know of.
Thanks to the research and exploration of avid historians, hundreds of below street-level tunnels and bunkers in County Durham and Tyne & Wear have been uncovered through simple word of mouth.
According to historian and author Peter Welsh, top-secret bunkers remain ready to be accessed in the chance of a nuclear armageddon.
He said: "Nuclear bunkers were built in the sixties so while we fried and died, they [bunker owners] ran the government underground. There were various ones across the country."
It is alleged that bunkers still belong to Britain's upper class privileged few who were far-sighted and wealthy enough to arrange for such protective facilities.
"It will be top secret. Like the RAF Fylingdales which isn’t actually marked on maps.
"I know of one lady who had a place in the bunker in the event of a nuclear war but she is sworn to secrecy," he added.
One underground location that is now open to public visits is the 2.4 mile-long 175-year-old Victoria Tunnel, still intact below the streets of Newcastle City Centre.
It was uncovered in 2006 and despite how many times it has been forgotten about, it has a varied history from its several different hidden entrance points throughout the city.
First constructed in 1842, it was a wagon-way for the mines, however, by 1860, Leazes Main Colliery pit closed and the tunnel was forgotten.
Clive Goodwin, Victoria Tunnel Co-Ordinator, said that when then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain famously promised "peace in our time" to Britain in 1938, people still suspected a war would result.
He said: “Newcastle City Council took that chance to investigate where they could have air raid shelters in the city and they chanced upon the Victoria Tunnel.”
The map shows each of the entrance points for the tunnel, which was used by up to 9000 people as shelter from Nazi bombs.
Mr Goodwin said: "It was very cramped, very uncomfortable, underground and damp and had very dismal lighting, but the Newcastle citizens were renowned for their 'get on with it' and would rather be ‘damp than deed’."
Dim lighting was partly a result of desperate home-owners who would steal the light bulbs in the tunnel for their own homes.
In addition, it is suspected that lightbulbs were also removed for other reasons.
“A few romances were taking place in the dark underground during the war,” he added.
According to Mr Goodwin, items from the past such as spray bottles and chairs were found in parts of the tunnel that hadn't been accessed since the second world war. Graffiti from the 1940s still marks the walls.
Unfortunately, with only the Ouseburn entrance open to the public, this section of the tunnel remains closed due to a lack of funding, leaving this piece of underground North East heritage with its historical treasures hidden below.
For more information on the Victoria Tunnel or to book a guided tour, visit www.ouseburntrust.org.uk
