Opinion : Forget the Nazi gold train in Poland – What about the treasure actually found in Wycombe?

For many months my good self has been following the story about the discovery a Nazi gold train that had supposedly been found in the Owl mountains near the city of Wałbrzych in Poland.

The mythical gold train had all the elements to make one of the most intriguing discoveries of recent years but sadly the story ended in a damp squib.

Despite carrying out excavation works close to the 65 kilometre mark on the nearby railway, the supposed location of the train, the existence of the train or any gold is yet to materialise.

Last Sunday my good self visited my neighbours house to watch a programme on their television about the gold train. By George! Was it any wonder the train was not found.

Despite knowing the location of a key stone that supposedly formed part of the entrance to the tunnel and knowing the location of a supposed ventilation shaft the dig concentrated on an area of land some distance away. Of course when the earth movers dug down they hit hard rock and were unable to continue, leaving the excavated hole to be filled in and the dig to be abandoned.

Why didn’t they dig horizontally into the known entrance of the tunnel or try to open up the ventilation shaft?

Every tunnel in existence has a hard lining of either brick, cement or rock so was it any surprise when the mechanical diggers hit rock after they got to a certain depth?

The underground tunnels that were shown on the programme, in the area of the Ksiaz castle, were pristine and clean indeed there wasn’t even a button from a soldiers tunic to be seen laying on the floor. Did the Nazis sweep the tunnels clean before the advancing Russian army overtook the complex? Of course not.

You are probably wondering why my blog is about a failed archaeological investigation thousands of miles away in Poland and not on my favourite subject of High Wycombe.

Well, since the story of the gold train broke tourism in that part of Poland has increased by 44%. The city of Wałbrzych only had an annual budget of $380,000 for tourism promotion however since the world flocked there to partake in the gold train frenzy the publicity the city has received is estimated to be in the region of $200,000,000.

There’s money to be made from gold train rumours. Indeed it seems the thought that a Nazi gold train exists is more valuable than the discovery of an actual train.

Wouldn’t it be handy if that sort of financial benefit came to us here in Wycombe?

Well I think we have all the ingredients necessary for our own gold rush.

Regular readers will know of my recent blog on ‘The Underground Tunnels of High Wycombe‘. I have a sneaky feeling those tunnels extend further than records suggest with a possible link to the Second World War too. I wonder what’s down there in those tunnels now? Maybe someone should find out?

Forget non-existent gold in Poland. Wycombe has already had a large amount of treasure discovered hidden underground by Tom Burt back in 1729. I’m surprised that nobody has tried using modern equipment to see if there is anything else buried in the location where Tom Burt made the first discovery.

If thousands of visitors came to Wycombe after hearing rumours of hidden treasure just think of all the extra revenue the town’s car parks would generate. A local fast food operator could even open up a temporary kebab van on Tom Burt’s hill to feed the eager treasure seekers.

However if anything is found in the tunnels of Wycombe or dug up on Tom Burt’s hill then naturally I shall claim my 10% for suggesting in this blog that the treasure hunters should look there….

What do you think?

*My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

You can also follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ivor.wycombe or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Ivor_Wycombe.