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posted by martyb on Saturday September 05 2015, @04:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the beware-the-balrog dept.

The BBC has an interesting piece on the recently rediscovered tunnels beneath the city of Liverpool.

The air is still. It's quiet. Occasionally, the sound of a water droplet bursting feebly onto stone echoes through the chamber. Somewhere, somehow, moisture is getting in. But for the most part, it's dry. And were it not for the smattering of electric lights, this 200-year-old tunnel beneath the streets of Liverpool would be very dark – and very lonely.

The number, depth or purpose of the tunnels is largely a mystery. Over time, they were filled with waste or used for storage and fell into history.

The patron of the tunnels, tobacco merchant Joseph Williamson, was extraordinarily secretive about their purpose. Even today, no one is sure exactly what they were used for. Nor does anyone know for sure even how many of the tunnels there are, scattered underfoot beneath the Edge Hill district of Liverpool in northwest England.

After the tunnels were rediscovered in 2001, a small group of volunteers have spent time excavating them.

Over the last 15 years teams of volunteers, digging up to twice a week, have removed more than 120 skips [dumpsters -Ed.] of waste material. They have revealed forgotten cellar systems and, in several cases, multiple levels of tunnels – some with stone steps leading down to deeper caverns. There are also some debris-filled passages branching off in odd directions; it's not clear how far they go or to where they ultimately lead.

The piece goes on to talk about the large number of items that have been found in the tunnels, the amount of work that goes into their restoration, and some theories as to why they were constructed.

Note: I'm submitting this in the hopes that some Soylentils find this as interesting as I, or in the hopes that anyone has ever seen or entered these tunnels.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday September 06 2015, @11:57AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday September 06 2015, @11:57AM (#232948) Homepage Journal

    There is a movie in which a telephone lineman receives a vision: DIG

    So he digs. And digs and digs and digs. His wife comes home to find their backyards all dug up:

    "Why are you doing this?"

    "It softens the dirt."

    He's holding a garden hose, see. I myself am quite obsessive, whenever Bonita asked me why I was doing anything I would politely, matter of factly reply "It softens the dirt". She rented the video when my hallucinations of The Thought Police [warplife.com] were at their very worst.

    (Some were real police. I will never know.)

    I don't recall the title but it will come to me.

    The heir to the Winchester rifle fortune lived in San Jose, California. Sarah Winchester? At the time her home was out in the countryside a few miles from town; in modern times it is near the junction of I-280 and I-880 on the right as you go from San Jose to Cupertino. IIRC correctly it's on Winchester Boulevard; there is no highway exit there, you want to turn off Stevens Creek Boulevard.

    She was haunted by the spirits of the Indians who perished as a result of her father's guns. She was convinced they would get her if she ever stopped building her home. For a few bucks you can tour the house, there are staircases that lead to blank walls and the like.

    The house is not as big as you would at first expect however it is very, very well constructed in the manner of Western US Victorian homes. Lots of Victorians in Santa Cruz, most are very nice to live in. I expect most of her effort went into finish work.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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