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
div>
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!
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