Report:
I entered the Williamson Tunnels public bit which contained the famous double tunnels, bar/ snack area and was met by Ian who has been working on the tunnels for many years and began speaking passionately about them including the planning permission they had just applied for to begin excavasion of The Paddington Tunnels, a mile of more tunnels under the Bears Pub area (Click here for map). Ian gave me his actual sausage roll as they had none left, a nice gesture and very kind of him.
I've highlited the approximate area in red to show you the limited area that was open to us, plus the other tunnel locations that are known and have been identified and explored by members of the Williamson Tunnels.
Various artifacts have been found and are on display in the entrance area plus around the tunnel route.
After we all paid, plus a little bit extra to help the Tunnels organisation stay afloat, we were given hard hats and met our guide. He assembled us in front of these large 'stable' type doors and began his talk, in which he spoke with passion and enthusiasm about The Mole of Edge Hill, where he was born plus more background history of the great man himself.
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The doors were opened and we were greeted by an excavated area of the tunnels. The area on the right used to be a floor laid by the Williamson Tunnel people until they discovered that there
were more tunnels underneath, so the floor came up! It was truely amazing to listen to the history of the area and how the tunnels were used and abused over the years, they were filled in at one stage by ash from the houses above.
Everywhere we turned there were tunnels 'here, there and everywhere'.
The Kebab
Various bore holes were made over the years by workman above at ground level, these were drilled and filled with concrete and nothing to do with Joseph Williamson and his men. The stayed and this one was affectionately called The Kebab .
We had completed a full circuit of the section opened to the public which took 40 minutes. The end brought us back to the 'double tunnel' just above the bar area. Our guide explained that any artifact that was found undamaged was taken to the museum, on display here were many broken examples of pottery etc.
We were taken back down the stairs and into the entrance area were the talk continued. He was recruiting volunteers to dig out more holes so if you fancy it give them a ring!
This tour comes highly recommended. View the other pictures here. You may also be interested in the videos (dark but lots of information) here and here.
Next, it was off to Coopers for a beer and to meet up with Doug Roberts and Woody.
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