Joseph Williamson

[Bevy]

n the 1820s Joseph Williamson had a series of tunnels built under Liverpool. The labyrinths consist of as yet uncharted multi-level tunnels including two complete four roomed houses cut from solid rock and an 80ft long banquet hall.
He made his money in the tobacco trade and gave work to soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars. This work was the cutting of tunnels with the apparent sole intention of giving the men a weekly wage in a time of great need and depression. One of the first job creation schemes.
The subterranean world was built apparently without plans yet they were well made. While the railway engineer Robert Stephenson’s miners were excavating the tunnel beneath Edge Hill to the present day Lime Street station they came across Williamson’s tunnellers working below them. After a tour given by Williamson himself, Stephenson declared the Edge Hill tunnels were marvels of construction.
After his death the tunnels were blocked and largely forgotten. A geophysical survey team from the university has indicated possible sites for as yet undiscovered tunnels. At present there are plans to develop the tunnel site around Mason Street and it is hoped that more regular access to them will be provided.

[Kev]

brilliant that m8....

[ftp]http://www.williamsontunnels.com/index.htm[/ftp]

[Howie]

The Mole of Edge Hill

Beneath the streets of Edge Hill in Liverpool exists an extensive network of tunnels. This labyrinth was constructed by one Joseph Williamson who has come to be known as ‘The Mole of Edge Hill’.

Little is known of Williamson’s early life. He is thought to have been born in Warrington in 1769 and moved to Liverpool at about 11 years of age to seek his fortune. He found work with the tobacco firm of Richard Tate and having risen through the ranks, and become a successful businessman in his own right, married the boss’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 1802.

Around 1805 he built a number of properties in Mason Street, the gardens and orchards behind them supported by brick arches on the sandstone outcrop above Smithdown Lane.

He then turned his attention to extending these arches underground – an endeavour which continued until his death in 1840. Quite why he did this is unclear.

The favoured explanation is that it was a philanthropic act. Struck by the unemployment and poverty of those living in the area, in particular that experienced by the returning soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars, he sought to improve their plight by providing them with paid employment rather than charity.

A competing explanation is that Williamson, a deeply religious man, became involved with one of the extremist religious sects, common in Liverpool at the time, and constructed the labyrinth as a place in which he and his fellow believers could escape Armageddon.

Or, it may be simply, that following the death of his wife, Elizabeth, he became obsessed with the tunnelling as it provided him with some kind of solace.

Williamson’s true motives for constructing the underground folly are presently unclear but the historical research and restoration of the tunnels being conducted by the ‘Joseph Williamson Society’ and ‘Friends of Williamson’s Tunnels’ may shed more light upon the mystery surrounding the man and his dark subterranean kingdom.

References

BBC News (2002), The enigma of Liverpool’s labyrinth, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2342183.stm.

Friends of Williamson’s Tunnels (2002), The Story, www.williamsontunnels.com/story/storyr1.htm.