Williamson Tunnels

[Kev]

ARCHAEOLOGISTS yesterday uncovered the lost grave of philanthropist Joseph Williamson for just a few hours, before burying the tomb once more.

Local historians from the Friends of the Williamson Tunnels have been searching for the exact location of the grave for the past 10 years and said the find came at the 11th hour.

It was the third time archaeologists had searched for the grave of the "Mole of Edge Hill" who created a labyrinth of tunnels under Liverpool in the 1800s.

And it was the final attempt to excavate the site, in a car park opposite police headquarters at Canning Place, which is part of the new Paradise Street development.

Members of the Friends of Williamson Tunnels said they were losing hope that the grave would be found on time.

Trustee Bill Douglas said: "The dig was due to finish at 5pm so this was the last chance to find it.

"We broke through just after midday. When the archaeologist saw the name, we all cheered."

Although the group knew Williamson was buried in the former churchyard of St Thomas's church - which was demolished and turned into a car park - the precise location was unclear.

Williamson campaigner Gabriel Muies said the area will be turned into a garden with a commemorative plaque thanks to Paradise Street developer Grosvenor.

He added: "I am absolutely over the moon. Williamson was a great benefactor for the unemployed in Liverpool.

"Grosvenor have agreed, at great expense, to turn it into a garden and have saved it."

The grave itself was due to be reburied by 5pm yesterday, according to archaeologist Jamie Quartermaine, from Oxford Archaeology North. He said finding the grave was an important link in the city's history.

"From a social history point of view, Williamson is of incredible importance and to find his grave is something most Liverpudlians can identify with.

"He's one of the city's eccentric personalities and we have been working on trying to find the grave for a number of weekends.

"We were struggling to find it so today has been very satisfying.

"The slab will not be visible after today - we are not grave robbers and we are not going to move it. It's an archeological recording."

Another trustee of the Friends of the Williamson Tunnels, Steve Moran, said he would like the grave to be visible to the public, but said he was just pleased it had been found.

He said: "Everyone's elated. We have been looking for this for 10 years and it's a proud moment."

The grave, which houses every member of the Tate family which Joseph Williamson married into, is surprisingly modest.

There is no religious inscription on the 7ft by 3ft gravestone, amended when Williamson was buried in 1840 to simply read: "Also the Remains of Joseph Williamson of Edge Hill Who died the 1st May 1840 Aged 71 Years."

Source: Here...

[Max]

So it's just a gravstone theyfound? No Coffin.

Aren't they supposed to move the bodys when there changing a graveyard into something else?

Where will they rebury it.

Ain't been to those tunnels though.

He was born in Warrington too.

[Kev]

[Kev]

CAMPAIGNERS were staging a protest today outside a city property auction in a bid to block the £1m sale of the former lord mayor's stable yard.

The derelict site, on Smithdown Lane, Edge Hill, is being sold with planning permission for a three-storey block of student flats.

But it lies above one of the Williamson tunnels, the famous triple decker, and there are fears construction work could damage the historic under-ground attraction.

Les Coe, of the Friends of Williamson Tunnels, said: "The land up for sale is a large cobbled section of the stable yard.

"Underneath the land are some of the most spectacular tunnels. We're worried by the plans, as the construction of flats would almost certainly damage the tunnels beneath."

The planning permission was granted in 2001 despite objections from conservationists.

The Williamson tunnels have been described by heritage experts as one of the " wonders of Liverpool". more

Who's been? What was it like?

http://www.williamsontunnels.com/

[julia]

I went into the tunnels a few years ago. I believe it was the very year they first opened to the public. Was fab, definitely an E-ticket.

Word of advice: If you do take the tour and the guide mentions discovering spiders in the tunnels, please roll your eyes at him for me. Ta

[theninesisters]

Check out www.stableyard.moonfruit.com - I did a website on the Stable Yard a few months back! Stopped the

sale going through anyway!!

[theninesisters]

IanW's posting gave me some thought on the Tunnels and after a good nose around my E-mail's, I came across a posting I made to a forum years ago about my first visit, long before I became a committee member. Now I can tell the chap who guided me a thing or two but am indebted to him for showing me around!

On Saturday at 12 noon, I walked to the house (JW's house..the front
which is
all that is left) and met up with a few people that I know from e-mailing
them
and phoning them and it's always nice to put a face to a voice at last!
After
signing in and they made sure that I couldn't sue them if I hurt myself
then it
was off to choose a helmet and off I went.
In the yard were three open doors, the first led to the banqueting hall,
the
second to the boiler room and the third to the wine bins.
First up was the banqueting hall and thinking I'll only have to jump down
a
small hole..I sort of got a shock seeing a ladder disappear in to the
darkness
looking down the hole!
Curiosity got the better of me though and I began me decent down the
ladder..two
things which stuck in my head..one they said that I needed a helmet to go
down,
which after scraping my head all the time I was thankful for and two was
to
dress scruffy because it's dark and dirty down there and you'll get
covered...so
here's me in my decent leather jacket thinking i'll be careful ...hmm
bad
mistake!
Once off the ladder the 6 or so people gathered in this small room and
were told
exactly that we were not standing on the floor..but about 10ft off the
ground
and all the rubbish that had piled up over the years were covering yet
more
tunnels that we didn't yet know about.
The archway that we looked at was absolutely perfect and yet cut by hand
and you
could not fault it today. It was completely strange to think that all the
work
that had gone in to the various tunnels and archways yet only one person
would
see it and that would be JW himself.
Everything was carefully finished off in the stonework and everything
looked
like it was done 2 weeks ago it was so perfectly smooth and looked so
professional.
While looking at the rubble on the floor, we think that there are more
tunnel
entrances however a small gap in the wall..probably about 2 foot square
gives
the impression that it leads to somewhere, it has not yet been fully
cleared out
mainly because no one seems to want to go down there so I told them that
I was
quite willing to see what was down there once work had begun to clear out

These tunnels, because no contract has not yet been fully signed up are
not free
of rubble and were very slippery and even with my good sense of balance
you
always managed to whack your head (helmet) against something but always
saw the
funny side of it.
Passing the ladder to the otherside, we were led to a passageway that was
no
bigger than about 2 foot and it meant a tight squeeze through..but this
led in
to the banqueting hall..and wow what a sight!!!!
Imagine a room that has massive dimentions..80 foot long..30 foot
wide...30 foot
high and imagine that this once used to be solid sandstone and you just
have to
gasp at the work that went in to it.
Yet again, there is a lot of rubble and we think that were about 20 foot
above
the actual floorway. We thought this as the archway that comes out of the
side
of the wall seems to end about by our feet but there is rubble there and
not
lower down the tunnel so we know the rubble is hiding either a staircase
or
something else of interest..possibly another tunnel?
Walking to the top of the rubble at the other end of the hall gave a good
view
of the hall itself but also the craftsmanship in the roof, the way the
sandstone
meets the brickwork and what else we have yet to discover. We looked upon
the
roofway and noticed that there was an archway that didn't seem in place
to the
rest of the wall and indications from where we are in the tunnels is that
this
'wall' actually conceals a stair case which will lead..well...who knows!
After taking a load of photo's from the hall, I went back through the
narrow gap
and then back up the ladder to find my next port of call which was the
boiler
room.
Going down a short ladder this time, I found myself in the boiler room
which was
basically a smallish room that showed the steps perfectly cut in to the
side of
the room that led down in to another small room. The problem was that
originally
the room used to be quite large and access was very easy but because of
the
structure of the house above was modified in some way metal struts had to
be
placed in the tunnels which had to be cemented and bolted in and because
of this
there was literally about a foot and a 1/2 to get through this
gap...never wear
a leather jacket in the tunnels again!
Although this room was fairly uninteresting, it didn't matter as it was
still
part of the tunnels!
Climbing out of that room and then going in to the wine
bins..wow...climbing in
the wine bins took us all by suprise as this was JW's living quarters for
most
of his later life.
In the wine bin room there was three separate sections for wine and his
produce
all perfectly cut out with sandstone blocks, at the end of the room was a
rather
puzzling half bricked up tunnel but we now think that JW didn't actually
live in
the house that we thought it was his house, but we think he lived next
door. The
reason being is that this tunnel is directly under the house that we
think is
JW's house but the entrance we got only leads to a small narrow section
of
tunnel...FWT had to actually knock through this wall to get to the Wine
Bins.
The half bricked up tunnel we then traced and that actually led to next
door's
house so basically JW was using the land underground his neighbours house
for
his own use giving them little room for their own storage!
In the win bin room, there was the three wine bins, the half bricked up
tunnel
and then on the otherside was very interesting. We had the remains of a
fireplace hacked out but also there were three archways in the wall that
have
been bricked up...we don't know what's behind them at all but are eager
to see
what is behind them..the one thing we do know is that the floor we are
standing
on is the actual floor.
To one side we know that below us is the banqueting hall and we also know
that
other arches may well lead to places that we have not found or even
thought of
yet.
Back on the surface we were able to go to Paddinton for the biggest shock
yet..I
had only seen the pictures of the tunnels under the new Student flats so
I was
expecting loads of rubble and stuff...how different it was in real life.
Looking down at paddington was a newly installed metal staircase which we
walked
down and go to to about 6 foot under the car park on top. There was a
drop to
one side which we think that there used to be some sort of lift mechanism
and
then to the other side all the stairs had been cleaned and looked after
and it
really was looking different to that of the photo's. At the corner of the
stairs
was another boarded up archway..some 10 foot in height which they say has
not
been looked in to and they think actually holds much more tunnels in the
opposite direction!
Walking down the stairs to the second level, we came across an array of
old
bottles that were found there, old milk bottles and some old pop bottles
with
the glass ball inside the bottle, there were a few signs for advertising
and all
the rubble had been neatly stacked up in corners and everything was tidy.

Looking around at the roof, it was very clear that the stonework was
immaculate
and it's hard to believe that only JW saw it and yet so many people want
to see
this now. I was taking pictures like there was no tomorrow as usual but
nothing
kept me from the info I was given next.
We walked down to the third level and came to a very deep cutting which
was
boarded up along both sides and went down about 30 foot. Basically we
were
standing on ash as the house (when it was standing) used to be a bakery
and they
used to pour all the ash down the tunnels as some easy place to put
it...the
guys at FWT have dug down and cleared 30ft of ash from one section,
boarded it
up either side and its looking very good...however, we wanted to know how
deep
this room was and what was there as we suspect that once we get to the
bottom
then we uncover a mass of other tunnels and archways leading who knows
where so
FWT managed to get a 30 ft metal rod down the tunnels...they placed the
bottom
of it on the top of the ash (which was 30 ft down) and then put the rod
in to
the ash to see when it stopped....if one of the guys hadn't have kept
hold of
the metal rod..it would have disappeared!!!!
This basically indicates that we have found that the tunnel floor is a
minimum
of 70/80 ft down below us..indicating that we are standing on that much
ash and
that's gonna take some shifting. However we don't know how far we have to
go but
this will be cleared and we'll be sure to find other tunnels in different

directions leading up out of Liverpool or possibly in to town..who knows

Les (the guy taking us round) was extra pleased that there was some young
people
at last with bags of energy to help clear the rubbish and as soon as I
discover
anything..who knows I may be the first person to walk in to another room
full or
something for the first time in almost 200 years!

[Kev]

wow, thanks for sharing

[MissInformed]

Went driving around the Mason St/Tunnels area today with Bunf.

Some great buildings around there, but the area as a whole is in need of a severe cash injection.

We watched a Dvd last night about the tunnels, that's what sparked our little adventure today! (the one narrated by Roger Philips)

Must have been a fantastic little area in the day though

[theninesisters]

Mason Street - the Gentry of Liverpool lived here in the 1800's!!

Source - Liverpool Record Office

[theninesisters]

Smithdown Lane - the view is taken where the new flats are now on the corner of Smithdown Lane/Grinfield Street.

Source - Liverpool Record Office

[MissInformed]

great pics jona.
have you seen the dvd?
is that ruined house on mason street joseph williamson's?

[theninesisters]

great pics jona.
have you seen the dvd?
is that ruined house on mason street joseph williamson's?

I'm ON it

Look for the Heritage Centre bit, there is a snipit of the opening day where there's a good crowd waiting to go in. I can be spotted in the blue T-shirt and the very short haircut looking around at various people - did the security for the first day opening and quaffed lots of free Champers!!!

Sort of! Williamson moved all around Mason Street but this was once his house and is the only standing structure left above ground of his 'works' (apart from bits of his boundary wall on Smithdown Lane)

House picture below when it was a 3 story jobbie!

Source - Liverpool Record Office

[MissInformed]

Trust you to be on it!! hehe

Took this pic today...is this the same house as in your pic?

[theninesisters]

You know me

Yeah that's Williamson's House. On closer inspection you can see the bricked up doorway - the archway was used for access for the digging out of the tunnels!