Originally Posted by
fortinian
Cad, how can you be so sure without a date that it is a rewording of Stonehouse?
Is it not more likely, as the document is written in first person, presumably by Dr. Watson, that this is the original that Stonehouse based his 1846 MS on?
You'll also notice that the piece isn't just a retelling of Williamson and the Tunnels about sanitary reform in the area.
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Samp, is was their a date on the piece, do you have the LRO Reference Number for it?
And secondly Cad, where exactly does Hand say he walked for 'over a mile without finding a boundry'. It is certainly not in is Historical Society published articles, nor in his original MS for his 'History of Edge Hill'.
Also, you've only got 20ft... how can you be sure it goes a mile or indeed to the Bears Paw pub? A bricked up arch in a pub cellar does not necessarily mean a tunnel.
It's an interesting point, however you have to understand that Dr Watson toured the tunnels in 1830 when Williamson was alive mainly from the Health aspect. Stonehouse released two manuscripts, one which has been reprinted as the 'Streets of Liverpool' of which he toured the tunnels only 6 years after Williamson had died, and then another book came out in 1863 (published under the name of J Hughes) giving a far more elaborate description of the Tunnels which we have worked out to be genuine and true (as far as we can make out) from the buildings that were there at the time.
Hand says that he walked for 'over a mile' along with the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (led by Mr C Hand and Mr Robert Gladstone) which was published in the Daily Post 15th November 1926, of which I have a copy of the clipping.
We've got 20 foot now, but when we found Paddington Tunnels, we were able to scrape back the surface rubble (before the car park went in) and found an archway pointing to the Bears Paw Pub. In the cellar of the Bears Paw Pub is the exact same archway pointing towards the Paddington Arch - of which we have worked out by measuring the road, fits in perfectly as a tunnel from the pub to Paddington Tunnels.
126 Paddington was the home of a Bakers (George Lunt) and Hand spoke of the exact layout of the 1st two levels of Paddington. He spoke of the crossroad at the end of the first level of steps (which is the above picture) and said by walking via this tunnel, and down some stone steps, they went with candlelight for over a mile without finding a boundary - it does not state in which direction.
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