Friends of Williamson's Tunnels

.....News added on 18th April 1999.....

· Latest on Stable Yard site

The developers of the Stable Yard/Grinfield street portion of the overall tunnels site will be having a meeting with the Government Office in early May to seek public funding for their project. Dependent on this, they should start work on the site in May. They have some funding, but are seeking more. The development consortium has made much of its plans for a small tourist attraction centred around the two tunnels in the corner of the yard (the 'double tunnel' and 'corner tunnel'). The money they are now seeking is to finance this. They told us very recently that this money would allow them to clear any additional tunnels found during building work and to leave them empty. This is the first time the consortium has been this specific about the extra tunnels we are sure will be found and we very much hope that the intention is real.

· Latest on Williamson's house

Shortly after our last visit to the house, City Estates, the property wing of Liverpool City Council, sent in contractors to carry out the planned work to make the structure safe before it is made available for lease or sale. Work is apparently going on at present to remove the roof and side walls (we hope none of the sections of original wall are removed) and to cap the entrances into the tunnels in such a way that only authorised access can be allowed. We are told that this work will be complete by the end of May.

· Liverpool University surveying

No, the photo above hasn't gone funny! It's the result of a ground-penetrating radar scan taken outside the Magnet shop on Mason Street, next door to Williamson's house. Our friends at the Earth Science Dept. at Liverpool University have been looking for a suitable subterranean location or feature to try out new ground-penetrating radar equipment. The Williamson tunnels were settled upon and the team carried out a series of readings around Magnet's. We were thrilled that their readings showed a tunnel. The image is a cross section of it. The dark streak just below centre is the tunnel floor, about 10 metres below ground, and the dark areas above are an arched roof, apparently cracked. The flat top of the dark blue area is the ground surface of Magnet's car park.

· Alex Cox visit

Fans of contemporary cinema may well be familiar with the producer Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy, Repo Man). In March, we were delighted to lead Alex, his representative Christine Colvin and the writer Frank Cotterill Boyce on a brief tour of the tunnels under Williamson's house, having secured access from the City Council. Alex had come over to England to look for potential locations for a new film he is working on and had wondered whether the tunnels would be a suitably unusual place. It may well transpire that access for a full film crew would be too difficult, but our visitors were very impressed and we were delighted to welcome someone famous into the tunnels!

· The Williamson Student Village

Work is proceeding quickly on the construction of new student flats on the site of the old Paddington Gardens. The developer of the site has decided to acknowledge the presence of a number of Williamson tunnels under the site by naming the new complex the "Williamson Student Village". When the foundations were laid, the builder filled in the two large caverns we found (see below). However, we are currently talking to the developer in order to arrange further excavation work before the building is completed. In particular, we would like to dig again at the top corner (see 21st June news, below). We believe that this point gives access to the deep-level tunnels under the 'Paddington' site and that the large caverns we found earlier are effectively 'junctions' of these.