We recently started to digitise quite a large archive of photographs that had been stored away out of sight. These Photos date back to around 1999 when FoWT made its first major discovery, the amazing Paddington Chambers which extend down 18m (60ft) below Street Level.
We were determined to find these chambers, and knew how important it was to search at this location, as this example of historic writing reports. In 1925 Mr Charles Hand & the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire visited these chambers which would soon be sealed up and inaccessible, that is until FoWT rediscovered them in 1999. This visit was reported in the Daily Post 1925, along with the tantalising statement “They went for nearly a mile before giving up their search for a boundary”
In this series of photos you can see the old Paddington Gardens tenements, which once demolished allowed us to carry out our search with the help of the developer. We dug down, finding a few Williamson structures which are now rafted over, then we found the top of an arch we broke through and we were in…
Once in, you can see the mounds of rubble that were discovered inside, including what we thought would be stairs being just a slope of infill. Eventually, our big dig would start, which would result in the Paddington we have today…
Nice to see these photos featured in the Liverpool Echo online on 1st Jan 2021 here
Quite a few of these photographs, we think were taken by the Late Steve Moran
Updated: 3rd Jan 21
Added, a scan of Page 14 of the Liverpool Echo
great photos interesting to see,
That must have been exciting times for you all. Has anything further been pursued in the tunnel at the bottom of the great hall. Still want to see more, hope 2021 will enable more work.
Hi, oh it was an exciting time. No I’m afraid very little digging has happen this year. Fingers crossed that we will be able to get back to work as soon as possible. Chris🤞 😀