AN UNDERGROUND investigator exploring the rich history beneath Dorchester’s streets has made two of his most significant finds yet.

Town councillor David Taylor has been on a mission to research the vast network of tunnels, passageways and rooms below the county town.

His discoveries have included a passageway believed to be used by the renowned Judge Jeffreys, a Roman mosaic and the remains of an Elizabethan house.

Cllr Taylor has now been given access to two cellars that once formed a rifle range used by local soldiers and another vast network of tunnels underneath the town centre in a location that cannot be revealed.

He thanked the Wessex Royale Hotel in High West Street and Munchkins play cafe in Princes Street for allowing him access to their floors below ground level, which between them had previously formed a 200-foot rifle range.

Cllr Taylor said it was ‘amazing’ to think the cellars had been used as a rifle range for soldiers during the Second World War.

He said: “I would imagine it was used as part of the preparations for D-Day.”

Cllr Taylor added that when investigating from the Munchkins side he also discovered a further series of tunnels and vaults that he hopes to explore further.

However, he said that there was an even bigger network of tunnels underneath another town centre building, although he had been forbidden from revealing the exact location.

He said: “It’s the most extensive network yet but we are not allowed to say where it is.

“It’s absolutely amazing down there, there’s about 80metres with medieval stone and Broadmayne brick, which was a classic material used after the Great Fire of Dorchester in 1613.”

Cllr Taylor said he was thrilled at the response to his efforts to find out as much as he can about the fascinating history beneath Dorchester.

He said he was constantly getting people coming up to him in the street telling him of other places to look at or saying how interesting they found what he had uncovered.

His recent explorations have also including some tunnels in Fordington and beneath Judge Jeffreys restaurant in High West Street.