Shrewsbury's Dana prison tunnel tours cancelled awaiting bat survey

Jailhouse Tours, which runs the tours at the former jail in Shrewsbury, has sent emails to people who had booked places saying they have been called off.

A bat survey must be carried out before the tours can resume, and no timescale has been put in place for when visitors will be allowed back in the tunnels.

No-one from Jailhouse Tours was available to comment today, but it is understood the popular prison tours are not affected.

An email sent out to customers yesterday says: "It is with great sadness that we are having to cancel the tunnel tours for the foreseeable future.

"The tunnels are due for a bat survey which was to take place in a few weeks, the assessment has been brought forward to start tomorrow meaning that we have no choice to but cancel bookings for the tunnel tours.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience and late notice, sadly we have no control over it.

"There are two options available, we can offer a full refund of all payments that you have made or if you would like to book a prison tour instead, we can refund the difference."

One customer, due to go on the tour, was Katy Rink who said the prison is a "fascinating" place.

She said: "We are very disappointed not to be able to go as we were so excited to get a glimpse of the pre-existing Georgian prison.

"They showed us the entrance on the normal tour and it looked terrifyingly spooky.

"The prison is an absolutely fascinating place and a real eye-opener, especially as you are shown round by wardens who worked there for a quarter of a century.

"There are over 300 rave reviews on Trip Advisor, which is astonishing, given that it has only been running tours for less than a year and only run on certain days."

Jailhouse Tours started its 12-month lease operating the prison and hosting its tours of the historic building at the start of August 2015. Within a month the tour had seen 4,000 visitors through its doors.