R S Clare smugglers tunnels rumours

[Waterways]

Originally Posted by scouserdave

Never heard of Captain Crow until I read Marky's thread. Just done a google

Also read about Cpn Crow beating off French privateers.

Any more info on this guys?
I emailed the company but they didnt get back to me.

[chezza]

there is a tunnel running through the mersey to the wirral. it led to a now gone abbey that was built during the reformamation, The tunnel was built to escape persecution and to hide in. Several attempts have been made to find it but they have been unable to use geo-physics surveys as of the sandstone that liverpool is built on.

Originally Posted by chezza

there is a tunnel running through the mersey to the wirral. it led to a now gone abbey that was built during the reformamation, The tunnel was built to escape persecution and to hide in. Several attempts have been made to find it but they have been unable to use geo-physics surveys as of the sandstone that liverpool is built on.

I've heard there are 3 tunnels under the Mersey.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist that.
Seriously, it's a long distance for anyone to dig.

[ChrisGeorge]

Originally Posted by chezza

there is a tunnel running through the mersey to the wirral. it led to a now gone abbey that was built during the reformamation, The tunnel was built to escape persecution and to hide in. Several attempts have been made to find it but they have been unable to use geo-physics surveys as of the sandstone that liverpool is built on.

Birkenhead Priory? Stanlaw Abbey near present-day Ellesmere Port?

If the latter, it's extremely unlikely since that abbey was built where the Mersey is its widest. A fine tale but total legend surely.

Chris

[chezza]

the council of british archaeology have made several attempts to find it

Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge

Birkenhead Priory? Stanlaw Abbey near present-day Ellesmere Port?

If the latter, it's extremely unlikely since that abbey was built where the Mersey is its widest. A fine tale but total legend surely.

Chris

Hi chris
I have never heard of this before, but how can you say 'total legend, surely' if there is not much evidence either way?

We need to keep an open mind about these things...

Originally Posted by MissInformed

Hi chris
I have never heard of this before, but how can you say 'total legend, surely' if there is not much evidence either way?

We need to keep an open mind about these things...

The fact that these things come as such a surprise with "not much evidence" (ie no evidence) must surely tell us quite a lot.
Liverpool, unlike most of the other towns/cities in the UK, isn't very old, and its history has been documented rather well.

The Mersey Tunnel, for instance, took 9 years to dig (with all the available 20th century equipment), so it's not going to be likely that some amateurs managed to dig one hundreds (?) of years before.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Philip, chezza, and MissInformed

Yes I am skeptical about it given that at the time, in the Middle Ages, there would not have been the technology to dig that distance.

It sounds to me as if the story might be in the same league as Keith Andrews's claim that the mass grave in Old Swan is evidence of a plot by the British to exterminate the Irish, to kill 3,561 of them. But just think about it, such a scheme would have necessitated transporting 3,000+ people out to Old Swan to an internment camp and shooting them, none of which was witnessed -- the transportation, the internment camp, nor the shooting. And that claim is made against other evidence that the Liverpool health official at the time of the disinternment, Mr. Ken Williams, says shows the people were not shot and that some of the coffins had plaques showing a date of 1859 not 1848 as Andrews maintains, and that there were child burials in the grave which Andrews says there were not.

Well, chezza and MissInformed, it comes down to what should we believe:

Facts or make believe?

Best regards

Chris

Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge

Hi Philip, chezza, and MissInformed

Yes I am skeptical about it given that at the time, in the Middle Ages, there would not have been the technology to dig that distance.

It sounds to me as if the story might be in the same league as Keith Andrews's claim that the mass grave in Old Swan is evidence of a plot by the British to exterminate the Irish, to kill 3,561 of them. But just think about it, such a scheme would have necessitated transporting 3,000+ people out to Old Swan to an internment camp and shooting them, none of which was witnessed -- the transportation, the internment camp, nor the shooting. And that claim is made against other evidence that the Liverpool health official at the time of the disinternment, Mr. Ken Williams, says shows the people were not shot and that some of the coffins had plaques showing a date of 1859 not 1848 as Andrews maintains, and that there were child burials in the grave which Andrews says there were not.

Well, chezza and MissInformed, it comes down to what should we believe:

Facts or make believe?

Best regards

Chris

Hi Chris, Philip

I understand completely what you are both saying, but I personally keep an open mind about anything like this until solid evidence is found.
I don't know either way, of course I don't... I guess I am just an optimist!