I SAW the article in the Cleveland edition about The Monk pub which has been newly opened in Guisborough with a glass trapdoor over some steps which is said lead down to a newly rediscovered tunnel (D&S Times, Dec 9).

Local legend says that the monks of Gisborough Priory hid their treasure in a tunnel beneath the town in 1540 to prevent Henry VIII’s men seizing it, and the treasure is protected by a raven which will turn into a hideous creature if someone tries to steal it.

As someone who went and viewed the area below the pub, I can safely say that this is probably one of the lost pubs of Guisborough. There were at least 17 pubs in the town during the years of ironstone mining but no record exists as to where they all were.

However, the area beneath the pub does not contain a hidden passageway – only three or four stairs and a coal shute!

I can see the business sense in spinning a yarn, but I am afraid this is the truth: the hidden passage is not here.

The story regarding the chest of gold and the raven is obviously alchemical in symbolism – alchemy, turning base metal into gold, was popular in Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries – and therefore not based on any logical truth...

It is still a good story, but one may wonder why monks would create tunnels. I suggest that such routes – if they exist – were probably of earlier antiquity – Roman perhaps.

Martin Smith, Guisborough