MEN tunnelling under the River Thames were featured in the Oxford Mail in September 1973.

Will Readings, from Windsor, was snapped about 14 feet under the river bed in a metal tunnelling shield which was just four feet wide.

He was working with two other men as part of a £147,000 Post Office contract to lay telephone cables under the river near Folly Bridge.

Work to tunnel from Friars Wharf started in August 1973 but it was not due to finish at its end point in Marlborough Road until October of that year.

The tunnelling was part of a contract awarded to Liverpool company Norwest Construction Group to lay cable from the telephone exchange in Speedwell Street under roads and the river.

As earth was dug away as part of the process, it was replaced with circular sections of the concrete tunnel.