Today, the entrances are all sealed up, but in the 80s and 90s the mines below Maidstone’s Mote Park served as something of an adventure playground for young explorers.

Reporter Keely Greenwood went to find out more….

Everyone remembers the constant search for the next big thrill as a child.

Whether it was riding your bike down the steepest hill you could find or setting up ramps to fly off the edge of a ridge in the woods, youngsters in the past were always keen for a caper.

Not so much these days as the next big adventure tends to come within the confines of a big screen and behind the controls of brightly coloured buttons on an xBox or PlayStation.

No, I’m talking about the dangerous stuff where you might end up limping home with a broken leg or sending your friends to fetch your mum as you lay concussed on the edge of a steep drop.

For the youngsters who used to hang out in Mote Park there was the very real chance of never making it home at all.

These days the Grade II-listed park features exciting activities including high rope walking, wall climbing, segways, and skateboard ramps.

But previous generations didn’t need man-made adrenalin kicks. They found their own fun.

And this would often involve climbing through endless old mines and tiny ice bunkers.

The tunnels can be traced back to Henry V, who ordered more than 7,000 cannonballs to be made from ragstone mined under Maidstone, including Mote Park, to defend against the French in 1419.

As well as the labyrinth left over from quarrying that took place, there was once a tunnel from the mansion in the heart of the park, Mote House, to the adjacent kitchens.

And the home, rebuilt in 1800, also had an “ice house”, used to keep meat and food cool before the invention of the fridge, which also provided underground adventures.

Back in the 1970s, Stan Edwards used this subterranean world as his playground.

“The entrance to the mines was open when I was a lad some 65 years ago and we used to crawl through holding a candle,” he said.

And if that wasn’t enough fun, Stan and his friends found a way to increase the danger.

“When they erected the spiked fence around the entrance we had a rope swing tied to a tree overhanging the entrance which we swung out from one side of the tree to the other which if we fell would have fallen directly onto the spikes,” he said. “As children, we thought we were invincible.”

Spencer Richards has fond memories of his time in Mote Park in the late 1980s and early 90s.

“We used to hide in the ice bunkers as kids,” he said.

“We also played in the underground caves at the top of the park near the claygate entrance.”

He added: “The bunker is in between Mote House and the lake and the caves run under the top end of the park near claygate end.

“The bunker was just a deep square concrete room and to get into the caves you had to squeeze between rocks and climb down where they opened up into bigger and longer tunnels.”

Spencer found the bunker recently and was tempted to take his children Ruby and Dexter for a taste of the old-fashioned way to play, but he changed his mind.

“We didn’t go down there in the end,” he said. “It was a bit too wet and dirty.”

He explained how the caves have been blocked off now for safety reasons.

Fellow Maidstone local Raymond Stamp said he was the one who boarded up the entrance.

He said: “They are not safe. I had to put some steel props in the entrance and cover them with concrete to stop a big slab from coming down.

“Then we bricked up the entrance and fitted a steel door on it to stop people going in there.”

Anyone who ventured inside the tunnels mentions a map of the various pathways under the ground.

Tim Hatcher said a friend gave him a bit of a history talk when they visited their old haunts recently and he found out a bit more about the ice bunkers.

“They were where the ice blocks used to be kept.

“My friend told me that the owners of the big house cut blocks of ice from the lake when it froze over then stored it in there to use for the house.”

But while many Maidstone locals from those days remember fondly their time hunting the tunnels others admit to never finding them despite years of playing in the park.

Cathy Taylor said: “If we’d known about these when we were almost feral kids playing out all day in Mote Park, we’d have had great fun down there.

She added: “In 1960 we moved to a house backing directly onto the Long Valley and could simply slide through the garden railings into the park. We climbed trees, made forts, played football and French cricket and roamed far and wide.”

But it looks like this generation will never be able to enjoy the thrill of their forebears’ underground adventures as both the mines and the ice house have been closed to the public.

A spokesman for Maidstone Borough Council said: “Historically, the mine in Mote Park was used to quarry ragstone for castle-building and cannonballs.

“Due to the age, and previous incidents of tunnel collapses, the mine is closed to public access.

“Maidstone Borough Council Parks team arranges for them to be opened once every six years to undertake structural surveys and ensure that the foundations are stable.

“There was once a tunnel from Mote House to the adjacent kitchens, which was only accessible from Mote House, but there is no public access to this.”

He added: “The ice house is a square, brick-built structure located outside Mote House and was used as cold meat and food storage before the invention of fridges.

“It is now occupied by bats that live in the park, and due to the protection concerns of this species, the ice house is closed to public access.”