# Williamsons Tunnels, Liverpool



## Wrench (Oct 13, 2016)

*Following a very early start for Fragglehunter, Blacksnake and myself for a successful visit in Oldham we jumped back in the Venga bus and over to Liverpool.
Luckily for us we had a Williamsons Tunnel digger with us so that granted us very rare and privileged access to the public but also non public parts of this/these sites, in fact our guide hadn't even been in all these areas.*

Here's a bit of history
(stolen form Wiki)

The Williamson Tunnels are a labyrinth of tunnels in the Edge Hill area of Liverpool, England, which were built under the direction of the eccentric businessman Joseph Williamson between 1810 and 1840. They remained derelict, filled with rubble and refuse, until archaeological investigations were carried out in 1995. Since then excavations have been carried out and part of the labyrinth of tunnels has been opened to the public as a heritage centre.​
In 1805 Joseph Williamson acquired an area of land in Mason Street, Edge Hill, Liverpool, which was then a largely undeveloped outcrop of sandstone with a scattering of scars from small-scale quarrying. He started to build houses on the site. These houses were eccentric in design "of the strangest description" without any rational plans. The ground behind the houses dropped sharply and in order to provide large gardens, which was the fashion at the time, Williamson built arches over some of the quarrying, and arched terraces over which the gardens could be extended. When these were complete he continued to employ his workmen, sometimes to carry out apparently pointless tasks, such as moving rubble from one place to another, then back again. His major project was to build a labyrinth of brick-arched tunnels in various directions and over various lengths within the sandstone. This tunnel-building continued until Williamson's death in 1840. In August 1867 the Liverpool Porcupine described the tunnels as being "a great nuisance" because drains ran straight into them, in one place creating a cess pool full of offensive water 15 feet (5 m) deep, and they were being used for dumping refuse, including down chutes built into the buildings above for the purpose.

*The public areas of this site are very busy and lit with very harsh lighting so hard to take a good shot but the non public places we were able to keep the lights off and paint them and by god was it dark down there.
Heres a few pics.
​*
*Public area but even in here we got to go where the public don't go.​*​










*A few fire buckets that have been dug up*





*All of this stuff has been unearthed by these volunteers*










*Then it got a bit more interesting and a lot less public.
This a place they call "The Banqueting Hall" and it is huge!!​​*​








*
Our Guide holding in his hand a tool he just unearthed from the pile of muck in the "Hall" oh he was very excited.*



*This Is the wine cellar, our guide had only ever been in here a couple of times, Maybe they have heard about his drinking!*





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If you are ever heading over here and fancy a look it's well worth it. So far these guys have dug out by hand 157 very large skip fulls , all paid for by donations.*​

*In this last shot you can see the "elf n safety" lengths they have to go to so you can climb down a 12' ladder and also you can see the belly of a Fragglehunter I believe lol​**




This was an excellent explore made all the better by and excellent guide 9/10 from me.*


This link will take you The Williamsons Tunnels Heritage Centre website
https://williamsontunnels.com/​


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## smiler (Oct 13, 2016)

That is rather good, Old privy buckets and I think at least one gin bottle, I loved it, Many Thanks


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## krela (Oct 14, 2016)

That's fantastic, cheers tbolt.


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## Wrench (Oct 14, 2016)

Thanks guys.


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## Conrad (Oct 16, 2016)

Great stuff. I did wonder what this was all about when I saw the rescue tripod on your flickr.


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## Newage (Oct 16, 2016)

Wow 
Nice one, the place has been opened up a whole lot more since the
last time I went.
The scale of the place is mental.

Cheers Newage


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## blacksnake (Oct 16, 2016)

Excellent report and some great pics in what is a very challenging environment to photograph. Glad you and Mr Fraggs enjoyed visiting my hole (despite not using a shovel) Any of you guys wanna come and see "My Hole" then just let me know, all are welcome and the tour is free, all's we ask is a donation of your choosing as we're all volunteer idiots!

Today we hit the bedrock floor in the last section of the Paddington dig, and reckon we've only one more skip full to go before the site is finally cleared... That will be a total of *159 skips of spoil, toil, coke ash and sandstone excavated!*

















Paddington with the harsh light bulbs of evil switched off! Looking from Level 4 (lowest level) to the drop hole of Level 2...







Looking across from Level 3....


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## Conrad (Oct 16, 2016)

Wow, very awesome black snake. Some serious digging. Would love to come and take the tour some time.


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## blacksnake (Oct 16, 2016)

Anytime squire... All fellow Urbex Idiots are eligible for Blacksnakes behind the scenes tour!


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## Conrad (Oct 16, 2016)

blacksnake said:


> Anytime squire... All fellow Urbex Idiots are eligible for Blacksnakes behind the scenes tour!



Very awesome, cheers.


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## flyboys90 (Oct 17, 2016)

Cracking shots from you both and what an awesome set of tunnels...eye watering!


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## Wrench (Oct 17, 2016)

You turned the lights off and still stayed down there? Were you not fricky sir.
Seriously Mr Snake,hats off to you and the other, monumental effort by all and the tour was a privilege. Thanks mate.


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## blacksnake (Oct 18, 2016)

Tbolt said:


> You turned the lights off and still stayed down there? Were you not fricky sir.
> Seriously Mr Snake,hats off to you and the other, monumental effort by all and the tour was a privilege. Thanks mate.



That's nowt Mr Tbolt, wait till I tell you what happened on last Friday's "Paranormal Night!" Spooky stuff indeed...


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## Wrench (Oct 18, 2016)

Bollocks Sir!


blacksnake said:


> That's nowt Mr Tbolt, wait till I tell you what happened on last Friday's "Paranormal Night!" Spooky stuff indeed...


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## druid (Nov 14, 2016)

Great photos Tbolt.



blacksnake said:


> ... All fellow Urbex Idiots are eligible for Blacksnakes behind the scenes tour!



This has got to be done. Looks like a different place to the bit I saw a few years ago.


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## Wrench (Nov 14, 2016)

Thanks Druid.

Talking to the snake a couple of days ago there is one bucket left to bring up and part of it is finished, the other areas you will need to ask Blacksnake very nicely and with a bit of luck you might get to see them, we were very lucky with the access we had.


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