575 replies to this topic

[james seddon]

i have been visiting crank for years and me and my grandad often go to crank caverns. My grandads name was vernie seddon, he worked at st.helens college electrical section for over 37 years and sadly last year he died of cancer. He introduced me to to sum wonderful areas of the town and of these crank is my favourite, but id love to know more about crank caverns and where they go, can u still explore them ect (i have been in the enterance caves but thats it after i have had one too many ghostly erxperience there) please help me

Thanks

James

[Jay]

I once went deep into the caves with a friend and a member of the council (or so he said, He did have the key to the gate).

We did a little trip around the centre caves (the one's available for access to all the public), If you go into these caverns on the left and go about 4 steps deep, turn 90 degrees so you are looking straight across the rockface, and you will notice you have a clear view inbetween all the rocks to the far wall, on the back wall where this strange circle made by rocks appears you can see the face of a witch. (sorry for the bad explanation).

Away from the main cave now and down to the left of them, you enter a large ditch outside with a big cave entrance on your right and a little entrance infront of you, the entrance infront is the one that is locked with the gate. The one to the right can be accessed but doesn't go too deep. I have heard that the cave on the right people have report seeing images of Monks wandering this cave, I cannot back this up as i didn't see this unfortunatly.

The cave with the locked gate has two stories i know off about it, I'll tell you more about them in a bit, now i'll tell you about my experiance in there. We met up with the council guy on the arranged time (We got to know him after seeing him there the week before just as he was leaving, and he agreed to show us deep into the cave). He unlocked the gate and in we went, after about 2 minutes of walking through we came to what i thought was a dead end, but the guy pointed with his torch to a very tight hole at the side which lead deeper. After squeesing through we entered a large chamber, we carried on down some more passages and ended up at what i would call a alter. It was a long square room and at one end was the stone alter built into the cave. I can't remember much more after this, but we were in there for a good 3-4hours. On the way back out we entered the chamber again, the guy told us to lead the way and to our terrior we couldn't find the exit. He let us look around the room for aboout 5 minutes before he laughed and got down on his hands and knees and pointed to the exit which was hidden by a overhang. If he hadn't have pointed it out we would have never found it. I don't remember this mans name.

Once outside the man told us about the history of the caverns, Firstly he told us that they we used by monks in the church in billange as an escape route. The church can be seen from just outside the caverns. I don't know the name of the church, I'll do some research and get back to you.

Secondly he told us about a story that happened not so long ago (Will be about 12-13 years ago now if my memory is right). He told us two young lads entered the caverns and got lost, they had told there parents where they were going and when they didn't arrive home there parents informed the police. After a couple of days searching the police sealed off the area and removed to body bags from the caverns. This is were it get strange, they were also reported to have remove 7 more body bags from the caverns, one of the bags was said to have not been in a body shape but was square. Again I have no evidence to back this up but I'll research it and get back to you again.

[splus]

weird.

[doddy]

fascinating story,i have lived in tellins 55 years and still dont know where crank caverns are.

[ellie ellins]

come on Jay the suspense is killing us... I tell you I don't want to know where Crank Caverns are they scare me like Purple Aki - thought he was an urban myth an all till I saw he had been convicted of his crimes.

[Madmogg]

I've been to Crank Caverns - I was disappointed that you couldn't get deeper into them.

[Alan]

When I was a lad in the 1950s we used to go there on our bikes. They don't go very far. Maybe 50 yards at the most. They're old sandstone workings from mid 1800s

[Jay]

Quote

When I was a lad in the 1950s we used to go there on our bikes. They don't go very far. Maybe 50 yards at the most. They're old sandstone workings from mid 1800s

Well you obviously didn't goto the left of them and down into the main cave. Also do they look like sandstone to you? Sorry to p!$$ on your bonfire but your talking out your arse.

[ellie ellins]

..so Jay how did you manage to get a council man to turn up for you? I've been waiting years.

[Alan]

Quote

Well you obviously didn't goto the left of them and down into the main cave. Also do they look like sandstone to you? Sorry to p!$$ on your bonfire but your talking out your arse.

Oh OK. There's a passage that goes from Crank Caverns to Billinge Church and an underground cathedral. Oh and Oliver Cromwell fired a cannon ball from top of Billinge Lump and it hit that ruined chantry in Cemetary.

The Reporter did a huge article on Crank Caverns about thirty years ago

[Jay]

As i said in my post he agreed to show us inside when we saw him there the week earlier.

Quote

Oh OK. There's a passage that goes from Crank Caverns to Billinge Church and an underground cathedral. Oh and Oliver Cromwell fired a cannon ball from top of Billinge Lump and it hit that ruined chantry in Cemetary.

The Reporter did a huge article on Crank Caverns about thirty years ago

I never said they did. All i said was that is what i was told from the guy. Also i never said underground cathedral I said a square room with a stone slab which "looked" like an alter.

The maker of this post asked for infomation on the caverns, I told him what I know and have heard.

[james seddon]

yea thanks alot its been a big help. i was at the central library and i found out that the area was indeed quarried but hundreds of years ago. apparently tho you can get into the caves another way in the main cave area. ive heard stories about monks ect and i have an interesting pic from the 1920's of the caverns with what looks like a ghostly highwayman leaning aginst them. me and a few friends conducted a vigil in the cave and we asked for nocking and we got it, in fact we asked it to nok 5 times and it did, also there are satanic symbols on some rockfaces in the caves. we heard strange voices too. i think that they should run tours of the caves with trained ppl, bcaus i think they would prove really popular, i no id love to explore them. is there really an underground lake tho?

[johnc]

Reading these posts about crank caverns stirs a few memories.
I think it was summer 74 school hols ,there was a gang of us
lads and girls we would go up too crank ,rainford etc and like kids do
just explore the surrounding area.Well this particular day we were
going to explore the caverns ,so equiped with matches and paper
we entered what i think was called the mouse tunnel ,this enterance
was to the left of the main larger cave.
We had been down there for ten mins when we ran out of matches
and we were completly lost ,i remember it was a scorching hot day
so we only had t shirts on but it was -5 down there we were ambling
around for ages crawling through tunnels , stumbling around in circles
it was freezing,i remember my mate saying we had too keep warm
so we did exercises too keep us warm.
i reckoned we had been down there for about ten hours we were tired
and covered in cuts and bruises,we saw a light in the distance it was the
cave and mountain rescue team .
When we got outside there was police cars ambulances,the doctor who
checked us over told us we were lucky to be alive .
to top it all off it was reported in the papers and on granada reports
got a good walloping off the old man for my silly adventure.
I was told by one of the c+r team that these caves extend all the way too
billinge .last time i went up too the caves the mouse entrance had been
blocked off with metal bars

[james seddon]

yea its got a gate. however which mousey do u mean bcaus the one i know to be called that is near the main cave enterances round the corner. my dad said that he went into the caverns through the main caves, he said there was a small hole that lead to a long winding tunnel which had arrows painted on showing direction. im goin up there filmin a ghost hunting programme soon so it shud be interesting, ene 1 no of ghosts ect , ive heard a few stories but id love to no more

[Jay]

I like the sounds of you going up making a video and I'd be quite happy to assist. Also i want to see the pic you have of the guy leaning on the caverns.