Secret Passages/Secret Rooms/Islands/Rocky tunnels under the

[Belly]

I'd be interested to see how many books feature a secret passage, hidden room of some sort or other, rocky passage that goes below the sea/contains water that leads from a castle/house or similar to land further afield.

As I give it more thought finding one that doesn't may present more of a challenge!

Also interested to know how many books contain a map with clues leading to treasure. I can think of Five on a Hike Together, Valley of Adventure and Ship of Adventure almost immediately. Do the Ship and the Valley both have a two fingered rock or similar as a marker or is it just me ?

I can think of the following that involve tunnels: Castle of Adventure, Smuggler's Top, Mountain of Adventure, one or other of the Secret series, a few of the Barney mysteries, Demon's Rocks, Five on a Secret Trail and there must be many more? Most of these also have water as a sort of added danger factor.

In the Castle of Adventure the journey through the spring always struck me as particularly hazardous. Quite like pot holing without the expertise or equipment!

Secret rooms: The Ring O' Bells Mystery (I think as from memory)! Castle of Adventure, Five go Adventuring again, River of Adventure (well rocky passage at any rate). Any more secret rooms?

I have posted on EB also but there more as per her undermind, please forgive the duplication. Really interested to see which I've forgotten which might inspire me to do a bit more re-reading etc, others may find it interesting to.

[Moonraker]

Belly, your current obsession with tunnels, caves and passages has me worried somewhat! What on earth would Freud or Green Hedges have to say?

[Belly]

I am re-reading one of my all time favourites(The Castle of Adventure). It is amazing the comfort it brings(I am a new expat in Singapore).

[Daisy]

We also have the Mystery of the Secret Room and there was a hidden passage in the Secret of Spiggy Holes and also the passage between the quarry and Kirrin island.These references to any hidden underlying meaning are quite laughable in my opinion. Such devices are well known in many children's adventure books to aid the plot and I'm sure that is all they are!

[Lucky Star]

There are also secret passages in The Rockingdown Mystery, Smuggler Ben and Five fall into Adventure. And of course the all time best secret way ever in The Valley of adventure.

Have you moved permanently to Singapore now Belly? It sounds a very long way but of course its only a plane ride these days. We can get around the world in 80 Hours now I should think. I have lived abroad a bit myself and reading old favourite Blytons strikes me as an excellent cure for the homesick blues. Remember that in this internet age you have only to log on here to feel right at home again.

[Julie2owlsdene]

[quote="Belly"]

As I give it more thought finding one that doesn't may present more of a challenge!

Also interested to know how many books contain a map with clues leading to treasure.


The Treasure Hunters, is all about following the clues from a map to find the Greylings treasure.
Also the Adventure of the Missing Necklace. The children find a map amongst the library books, find a hidden passage, and a secret room, where they find the necklace. That book contains all three (passage, secret room, treasure)
The Holiday House, that book has a secret passage, from one house on the cliff to another, and caves. They also find stolen goods.

Enid certainly knew how to write about what children what to read.

[Belly]

Thanks. Ah, you've really taken me back.'Gloomy Graham' and Holiday House. How I loved that book. It enriched family holidays in Cornwall at about that time. I, with the help of other children I met in the hotel, went looking for secret passages in cliff faces and tapped lots of wooden panelling!

[Belly]

There are also secret passages in The Rockingdown Mystery, Smuggler Ben and Five fall into Adventure. And of course the all time best secret way ever in The Valley of adventure.

Have you moved permanently to Singapore now Belly? It sounds a very long way but of course its only a plane ride these days. We can get around the world in 80 Hours now I should think. I have lived abroad a bit myself and reading old favourite Blytons strikes me as an excellent cure for the homesick blues. Remember that in this internet age you have only to log on here to feel right at home again.

Yes, I am here for the next couple of years

Am feeling a bit homesick and the books help a lot as you say.

'The best secret way ever' in the Valley. Why? Isn't the mountain a lot more dramatic with an opening cliff face (from memory) and the wheel at the bottom of the pool. (I read some CS Lewis recently and I think there is a book about pools with wheels in them that open secret ways or similar)?

I recently re-read the Ship and thought the steps into the broken column was ingenious!

For me the treasure hunt/cave/passage in the Valley doesn't really do it for me. Everyone says what a great book but apart from the thrilling early part (in the wrong plane) I think other books have a similar theme (treasure caves etc).

I think I prefer the River and Ship to the Valley but perhaps that is because the setting seems more exotic and thrilling (especially when I was a child).

[dsr]

"The Secret of Killimooin" has a secret tunnel, and "The Secret of Moon Castle" a secret passage. all the adventure series apart from perhaps "Sea of Adventure" - I can't remember one off-hand, though they did hide in a puffin burrow.

[Lenoir]

Secret Seven Win Through has a cave with a secret entrance.
In Three Cheers Secret Seven they discover a room that holds a secret.

How many books feature coal-holes/cellars? I can think of two now. One being used for dark and devious activities (Go ahead Secret Seven) and in Five have Plenty of Fun the coal hole provides the means of getting into a sinister house.

[Belly]

In Five Get into Trouble is there a coal hole at Owl's Dene? Also Goon springs to mind as you say where coal holes are concerned. I imagine every almost every house had a coal hole in the 30s etc though or something similar. We had some sort of outside coal bunker that was redundant.

Which two tunnels and passages are the most alike in any given book? Now there's a question

[Julie2owlsdene]

There is no coal cellar in Owls Dene, that Enid mentions,to my knowledge, Belly, but as Lenoir says, there is one in Five have Plenty of Fun.

[Belly]

Must be getting confused in my old age. I remember another coal cellar/hole, perhaps in a Secret Seven or Barney mystery?

[Lucky Star]

'The best secret way ever' in the Valley. Why? Isn't the mountain a lot more dramatic with an opening cliff face (from memory) and the wheel at the bottom of the pool.

I thought the whole route to the treasure in The valley of Adventure was utterly thrilling. First the signs leading to the cave entrance and the descriptions of the scenery encountered along the way, then the passageways, the cave of stalactites, the cave of stars, the enormous studded door, the caves of statues, paintings, books and gold..... I have always been gripped by that strange journey although I suppose, technically, the secret passage in Ship is just as exciting. The world inside the Mountain is a very richly thought out piece of writing and really comprises a totally seperate universe to that of the gentle Welsh countryside around it. Its almost like a James Bond story in many respects. It is indeed very thrilling as is the somewhat similar descriptions in The Secret Mountain, vastly differant peoples maybe but a similar sense of creeping through a thrilling but claustrophic underground lair.

The Secret Seven series features at least one coal hole too. In Go ahead Secret Seven the gang have to descend into a coal cellar and creep through darkened cellars to rescue dogs and did'nt a coal cellar feature in The Secret of Spiggy Holes as the initial entryway to the house? I cant remember at the moment.

Other memorable secret passages featured in Five on Finniston Farm and Five go to Demons Rocks, in both cases the passages led to hidden treasure so I suppose they were sort of similar.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Must be getting confused in my old age. I remember another coal cellar/hole, perhaps in a Secret Seven or Barney mystery?

Are you thinking of Five Have Plenty of Fun, Belly, where Julian and Dick go to rescue George from a large house, and enter through the coal cellar, the entrance being exposed by Jo, to help the boys, who had missed it the first time around.

Also, of course in Owls Dene, there is the small secret room, where Mr Perton, hides the escaped prisioners, and their stolen goods.