วีดีโอ

I'm afraid it's been proved long ago that it doesn't work under these circumstances. All of the chambers we've discovered over the years had been completely backfilled with rubble many years ago, simply treated as a convenient dumping ground. this means they don't show up as any different to the surrounding ground. An even more up-to-date and sophisticated system was tried a few years ago on land adjacent to the Williamson house site. It was very expensive but turned out to be worse than useless, and didn't identify a large chamber that we later discovered by digging. The answer as always is "keep digging".

That quote is very dated now. The story of the Williamson Tunnels will always be a strange one and difficult to unravel, but we know far more about their construction and the reason why they were created now that we have emptied some of them out of all the infill in the last few years. The story makes much more sense now that we view Williamson as an eccentric but benevolent one hundred percent philanthropist. Try looking at our website - www.williamsontunnels.com. There are also 30 plus talks in this series on the subject of Joseph Williamson on our TH-cam channel.

@@Friends-of-Williamsons-Tunnels I'll look at it more, but it was from the Introduction/FAQ section of that website that I was quoting. You shed no light on "the reason why they were created". I am casually interested, in particular as to why the tunnels were dug, but I'm not now motivated to listen to hours of talks about Joseph Willliamson.

Thanks for that. I had no idea, but it seems likely to be the same business. I think I was told there were a father and son in the business and some kind of disgrace over dodgy dealings with prescriptions. Don't quote me on that because it may not be true.

looks megalithic

I believe he may have added the brickwork, but he's done it on top of something ancient, maybe as old as the pyramids. Same as The Anglican cathederal and quarry.

​@@memecoinmafia2732Brickwork has been added on top of something ancient for sure.

Thanks Phil, much appreciated. If only there was some new tunneling work to show you on here, we would all be delighted. Unfortunately There isn't anything happening at the moment. Negotiations are slow and difficult, but it all hinges on getting permissions in place to occupy plots of land adjacent to the Williamson house site where there are more known chambers waiting to be explored and excavated.

@@Friends-of-Williamsons-Tunnels thanks for the update, I really hope it changes soon, but understand why it's taking so long.

Hi there. Yes, we open for the public every Wednesday and Sunday right through the year. We do guided tours of one section of the tunnels. Tours are usually at 11am - 12.30 and 2pm. We don't charge for these tours but we do appreciate donations which help to keep us working as a small volunteer group. To find out how to book a tour, you can head to our website at www.williamsontunnels.com where there is a booking form, or simply email your enquiry to info@williamsontunnels.com

@crankjazz Built in Imperial, best stick to Imperial :)

My answer to that is simple. I'm of an age where I find it easier to work in imperial for some measurements and metric in others. I've got so many facts, figures and dates in my head that I can't remember all of them in both units. The tunnel I was referring to runs across from one side of the street to the other, beneath it.

I'm afraid we don't have any answers about this chamber yet. We don't know if it was simply a slot quarry where they dug straight down in the ground, taking out the sandstone, and then vaulted over it as some others, or does some passage lead into it. We will need to empty it to find the answer to that one. But we do know that it was at least partly filled by smashing holes through its roof and pouring the quarry waste down from above. The most intriguing thing for me is that a Williamson building was still standing above this site until the 1940s and yet the filling took place in the 1850s. The London and North Western Railway Company had taken possession of these buildings in 1882, knowing that their railway cutting would be coming through this land. Perhaps the building above was vacant at that time, allowing them to gut it internally for the purpose of pouring the waste material down through the cellars below it.

Ah right, interesting.

Hi Phil. Glad you're enjoying the talks. We're actually due to be aired on TV tonight in a program on Channel 5 at 9pm with Susan Calman. I don't suppose that was what you were asking though. As and when we get the opportunity to access and explore any more of the underground chambers we know about, and get going with excavation work again, we will be sure to record progress in videos and photos. We can only hope that will come soon.

Hi, yes, I have used those side by side maps. They're very good. There were three areas in the rear of the properties that I call "sunken yards". I know that's what they were because we unearthed one of them at the rear of Williamson's house. It extends backwards on the site behind his basement kitchen with a big bay window looking out onto it. A very detailed 1891 OS map shows two more of them immediately alongside, behind the houses next door, with several sets of stairs leading down to them. I presume they all led down to tunnels at one time. Ours certainly does. It would have been difficult to ever work out what they had been if we hadn't discovered the one on our site and excavated it out after having been filled in and buried under concrete since 1936.

Another thing Tom. I used to live on Highgate St in the 70s-80s. In 1983, a friend of mine got employed at Magnet and Southern on Mason St. After a few weeks of working there, he told me that he was looking around the site and had accessed a giant chamber, that was below the building. At the time, none of us had any idea that the Great Tunnel existed. We knew of the tunnels at the heritage site, but not under the Magnet site or Williamsons house. Thinking back, I wonder if he somehow found his way into the Great Tunnel, or at least part of it ?

@@TheBlackJuJu Without wanting to sound dismissive of what your friend told you, we've heard so many stories like this related by people who used to live in the area, which can't be substantiated in any way. During the years from 1996, when we were investigating the area, and right up to 2016, when Magnet's was demolished, we looked at the site in detail, and there was no way to get below ground there. After the demolition, we got permission in 2017 to undertake three digs on the site, when we uncovered the area where the Great Tunnel should be, down to about 18 feet below ground. We found some massive stone walls in an L shape, and other features that were obviously "Williamson", but no sign of the Great Tunnel, and in fact, no sign of any bedrock level that could have formed the spring line of the Great Tunnel arch. We have to assume that it's much lower in the ground, built into a massive stone quarry dug from the Smithdown Lane end. The most likely scenario is that the tunnels has been destroyed and collapsed by the Territorial Army who occupied the site for so many years, and who demolished a whole row of Williamson's houses to build a new barracks and drill hall.

Thank you for your comment, that is so interesting. The area where this tunnel lay, was cleared in 2019 for the building of a multi-storey car park. Because of the proximity of our tunnels, a comprehensive ground survey was undertaken which may have been the final nail in the coffin for that tunnel as I described. The interesting thing is that although I had read the survey report and it contained a report on war time bomb damage in that spot, with buildings damaged, I didn't make the connection. However, during the discussion after my presentation at that meeting, someone asked exactly that question. That's when the penny dropped and I said yes, that's very likely. I went back to the report and I'm now quite sure that the bombs dropped on that site were very likely to be the cause of the damage. You may have been able to tell from the photos in the slideshow, that the tunnel roof was massively thick. We had already decided that the damage was likely to have been caused by external trauma. I now know that a school and a plaster works on that spot were damaged enough that they were demolished soon after the war. Tom

Hi Ronald, I think nine years ago we would have been about half way through the clearance of the Paddington tunnels with not much idea how much more there was still waiting to be uncovered below us. There are two organisations looking after the tunnels so it might not have been us you visited. People often don't realise, and miss seeing what we have to show at our two sites. If you visit Liverpool again, please be sure to make contact with us, The Friends of Williamson Tunnels. Check out our website at www.williamsontunnels.com for contact details to book a tour and lots more.

Thank you. I must try that.

I think there are a couple of indexs available on line. However you might be more interested in ads, unfortunatly nothing like that. @@Friends-of-Williamsons-Tunnels