Page 3 of 7 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast
Results 31 to 45 of 105

Thread: Williamson Tunnels

  1. #31

    Default

    The Urban M62

    The route was essentially following the rail line in towards the city, approximately as far as Edge Hill station, with three lanes each way. At Durning Road, there would have been an east-facing junction where one lane was dropped; Durning Road and Upper Parliament Street were to be dualled as part of the scheme to provide access to the south of the city centre from here.



    The remaining two lanes of the M62 would then enter twin two-lane bored tunnels, emerging at a final west-facing junction, and heading west along the line of Islington to end at a three-way junction near Lime Street Station.


    SOURCE
    Ermine tastes much the same as sackcloth when there's nothing left to eat.

  2. #32
    Otterspool Onomatopoeia Max's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Nowhere
    Age
    38
    Posts
    1,908

    Default

    Some BBC2 Documentry of some fella going inside the tunnels.

    Wanted to set a horror story in it and too and had some story that was not set in the willliamson tunnels.
    Gididi Gididi Goo.

  3. #33
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

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

    sale going through anyway!!

  4. #34
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

    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!

  5. #35
    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Under The Stairs >> Under The Mud.
    Posts
    7,488
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default

    wow, thanks for sharing
    Become A Supporter 👇


    Donate Via PayPal


    Donate


  6. #36
    MissInformed
    Guest MissInformed's Avatar

    Default

    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

  7. #37
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

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

    Source - Liverpool Record Office
    Last edited by theninesisters; 03-23-2007 at 07:59 PM.

  8. #38
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

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

    Source - Liverpool Record Office
    Last edited by theninesisters; 03-23-2007 at 07:59 PM.

  9. #39
    MissInformed
    Guest MissInformed's Avatar

    Default

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

  10. #40
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MissInformed View Post
    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
    Last edited by theninesisters; 03-23-2007 at 07:59 PM.

  11. #41
    MissInformed
    Guest MissInformed's Avatar

    Default

    Trust you to be on it!! hehe

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


  12. #42
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

    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!

  13. #43
    MissInformed
    Guest MissInformed's Avatar

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jona76 View Post
    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!
    oohh all good stuff.
    saw some williamson guys knocking around today with hi-viz's on...

  14. #44
    theninesisters
    Guest theninesisters's Avatar

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MissInformed View Post
    oohh all good stuff.
    saw some williamson guys knocking around today with hi-viz's on...
    I wouldn't trust those dodgy chaps - especially the one in the centre
    Last edited by theninesisters; 03-23-2007 at 07:59 PM.

  15. #45
    MissInformed
    Guest MissInformed's Avatar

    Default

    hehe
    he looks the most dodgy of the lot!

    any idea what they were up to today?

Page 3 of 7 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. New Excavations at the Williamson Tunnels
    By Williamson Tunnels in forum Buildings and Structures
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 04-14-2011, 11:23 PM
  2. Williamson Square
    By SteH in forum Liverpool Streets and Areas
    Replies: 65
    Last Post: 07-03-2008, 12:28 AM
  3. Joseph Williamson
    By Howie in forum Scouser Hall of Fame
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 05-30-2008, 11:34 PM
  4. Williamson tunnels
    By sweetcheeks in forum Architecture in Liverpool Suburbs
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 01-28-2008, 02:13 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •