Williamson's tunnels
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The Williamson Tunnels in Edge Hill, (Liverpool) are a collection of apparently pointless tunnels built by local men employed by Joseph Williamson from the early 1800s to 1840.
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[edit] The Tunnels
The tunnels are in an area to the east of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in a rectangle bordered by Mason Street, Grinfield Street, Smithdown Lane and Paddington. They run beneath the brow of the Edge Hill, which is one of the highest points in Liverpool. Google maps link
The reason for their creation is unknown. The most common presumption is that they were constructed to provide employment during the economic recession following the Napoleonic Wars. If this is true then the tunnels may be the oldest known job creation scheme. Other less widely held theories include preparing a refuge from Armageddon, secret passageways for secret activities; or the simple belief that he was eccentric and it was a folly for him.
A more recent and logical theory is that the tunnels served the purpose of land reclamation. The site of the tunnels was previously an open sandstone quarry for at least 200 years before Williamson bought the land at a cheap rate from the Waste Land Commission. This quarry consisting of a wide range of holes of varying depths meant that during the early 1800s this void was land unsuitable for anything.
Williamson recognised the potential of the land and made use of this void by encouraging his men to build arches: mainly from bricks but occasionally out of sandstone. These arches started at the edge of the holes from the quarry and could support a great weight above them. Therefore the first formation of the tunnels was likely to provide support for the terraced gardens of his houses on Mason Street.
[edit] Joseph Williamson
Joseph Williamson was a 19th-century philanthropist, tobacco merchant, property owner and pioneer of tunnels. He was born on 10 March 1769, possibly in Warrington. At the age of 11 he moved to Liverpool to seek employment. His mother Sarah permitted him to move from his home at such an early age on the condition that he was to lodge with his employer. His employer was Richard Tate of the Tate tobacco and snuff manufacturers.
He became wealthy by working his way up through the company and simultaneously forming a partnership with Joseph Leigh in a separate tobacco venture. In 1802 Williamson married Elizabeth Tate, his boss's daughter and in 1803 he gained ownership of Tate's after buying the company from Thomas Moss Tate, his brother-in-law. Such was his wealth that he took retirement long before his days were due and sold on the company for great profit. Using his wealth he constructed houses and terraced gardens in the Edge Hill area of Liverpool and excavated a labyrinth of seemingly pointless tunnels and cellars underneath them.
His houses were an early indicator of his eccentricity. It is said that some had coal cellars that could hold 200 tonnes of coal as well as multi-level cellars. Despite the unusual designs, many wealthy people wanted to live in the houses because of their desirable location. Williamson's tenants included artist Cornelius Henderson and philosopher James Martineau.
Williamson died aged 71 on May 1, 1840, leaving no children. The tunnelling ceased immediately upon his death and never resumed. The tunnels were abandoned and rubbish was allowed to accumulate. Williamson was buried in the Tate family vault at St Thomas's Church, at the intersection of Park Lane and Paradise Street in Liverpool city centre. The church was abandoned in 1906 and demolished in 1911 and in later years the land was used as an NCP car park.
During the summer of 2005, excavations took place on the site as part of the Paradise Street Redevelopment. On October 23, 2005 the gravestone of Williamson was revealed for the first time in nearly a century. Sadly the stone was broken in half but the inscription on the stone records that Joseph Williamson and his wife Elizabeth Tate are buried there, along with her mother Hannah Tate, father Richard Tate and grandmother Ann Tate.
[edit] The Tourist Attraction
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Even during Williamson's lifetime many of the tunnels that he created were used as cess pits and rubbish dumps, there being no sewers in the area until the 1860s and very little in the way of refuse collection.
By the 1860s the stench arising from beneath the Mason Street area was unimaginable and the Corporation's Health Committee, in remedying the situation, embarked upon a program of burying the 'smelly stuff'. Across much of the Edge Hill area thousands of tons of demolition rubble, ash from local factories and other inert material was dumped in the vast subterranean labyrinth.
Fortunately, the tunnels that had once been the hub of Williamson's underground meanderings on Smithdown Lane remained visible though all but impassable, giving a tantalising glimpse of what lies beyond.
It is here that the Joseph Williamson Society created the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre, opened to the public in 2002 in the former Central Stables on Smithdown Lane.
The stableyard came into the possession of Liverpool Corporation in 1858 and in 1867, with the appointment of a veterinary surgeon and shire horse enthusiast, Richard Reynolds became one of several 'stud' stables owned by the Corporation, Reynolds having persuaded the city fathers that keeping and breeding their own horses was cheaper and more efficient than relying on private contractors.
The Central Stables at one time accommodated upwards of 50 horses, ranging from ponies to the magnificent shires for which the City Of Liverpool was justly famous in the early years of the 20th century. The duties of these horses covered everything from transporting mail and Corporation personnel around the city to moving the heaviest of loads.
In 1924 two horses belonging to Liverpool Corporation, 'Vesuvius' and 'Umber' appeared at the British Empire exhibition at Wembley and from a standing start pulled a load estimated at 50 tons. This record has never been equaled or beaten and the two geldings received a heroes welcome when they returned to Liverpool. (Edward N. Clark, The Cart Horse on the Quay. Countryside Publications. ISBN 0-86157-289-0)
The Central Stables was home to some of Liverpool's mightiest horses until 1960 when the last of the working horses were 'phased out'. From this time onwards the yard was home to the motorised bin wagons of the Corporation Cleansing department and just a few reminders of the past - the proud horses which were retained to haul the City of Liverpool State Coach on grand civic occasions.
The Central Stables were finally closed in 1993 and put on the market as a prime development opportunity but they had not seen their last horse - in late April 2000 they were used briefly to house overnighting horses from around Britain for the Millennium Liverpool May Horse Parade.
In 2002 the Joseph Williamson Society undertook a major refurbishment of the southern block of stables to form the core of the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre and a year later the stable yard welcomed its first permanent equine resident in 10 years when the Society rented space to the Liverpool Stagecoach Company for 'Pop', the first of what it is hoped will be a team of carriage horses stabled in, and operating in the centre of Liverpool.
[edit] Timeline
- 1769 Born in Warrington, England on March 10
- 1780 (circa) Moves to Liverpool
- 1780 (circa) Finds work at tobacco and snuff firm of Richard Tate
- 1802 Marries Richard Tate's daughter, Elizabeth Tate
- 1803 Buys the family firm and builds his mansions in Edge Hill
- 1815 Napoleonic Wars end and he employs former soldiers for tunneling
- 1822 Elizabeth Tate dies and he immerses himself in the tunnel project until his death
- 1840 Williamson dies aged 71 from water on the chest on May 1
[edit] Further reading
Streets of Liverpool, James Stonehouse, Liverpool Libraries
[1] The Mole of Edge Hill, David Clensy
Underground Liverpool, Jim Moore
Liverpool Characters & Eccentrics, Richard Whittington-Egan
[edit] External links and references
- Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre How To Visit the Tunnels
- Friends of Williamson tunnels The History
- BBC: The Williamson Tunnels More background
- Demolition of the Stable Yard
