stephen nulty Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 The 1927 map of Prescot shows that there is a tunnel running under Delph Lane. The extract below shows it, close to where the council offices are (or were). It seems to run North-South. Does anybody have any further information on this tunnel, specifically what it was there for? And is it still there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olliebeak Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Is that just an extract from a much larger map, Stephen? - just that we get any idea of where it starts/ends from that small segment. A wider ranging map might help in getting some ideas thrown up. For instance does it start across the junction with Warrington Road? How far along Delph Lane does it go - and does it turn off at some point, or follow the main route of Delph Lane. Very intriguing ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halj Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed here before in the dim and distant past. BICC used to draw water from the quarry in Delph Lane and when I was serving my time there in the 1950's I used to go down the quarry to maintain the water pumps. It was quite a hairy descent down to the bottom as the ladder had no safety hoops and was always loosening from the sidewall. At the bottom of the quarry there were several tunnels and I was informed not to venture down any of them as there could be old explosives still hanging about. I think the quarry belonged to Syd Reakes and the stone quarried used to build several of the buildings in the hospital at the bottom of Delph Lane. The quarry has long since been filled in but I believe one of the tunnels may have been found when the housing estate near-by was being built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschip Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 SN, that's a new one on me. I went to school there and can't remember any talk of a tunnel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen nulty Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Yes, it is part of a larger map but there's nothing else to do with the tunnel that is obvious about the larger map. HALJ's response ticks a lot of the boxes, actually. I remember the quarry at the end of Delph Lane, some local climbers used to use it for practice. I also recall that the BI had a water tower just inside the factory around the junction of Warrington Road and Kemble Street - my great-grandfather was one of the men who built it just before the start of the Great War. And it is logical to suppose that the water was brought in from somewhere. Incidentally, I noticed that they are buidling houses on the site of the old quarry. Not sure if I'd live there. they might disappear overnight. I mentioned it to my sister-in-law who works at Whiston Hospital and she said she parks there and they have to keep coming and filling the car park up after subsidence, but now half of it has been sold to the builders for development. Talk about caveat emptor !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halj Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Hi Stephen, I remember the water tower very well. I, also did a bit of work on the pumps on the top of the tower. To get to them we had to climb the ladder on the outside of the tower and halfway up the ladder leaned backwards. Not a nice climb especially when you had a toolbox on your shoulder. Remember going up once with a new mate and he froze on the top part of the climb. Had a hell of a job trying to get him down again. He was a great guy an ex boxer, I think his name was Billy Barton, used to be the doorman at the Blue Ball pub on Prescot Road in Liverpool. Always wore a dress suit and dickie bow when he was on duty. Oh, forgot to say, I did venture down one of the tunnels in the quarry once, there was a huge sump hole at the bottom where the water was drawn from. As it was pitch dark down there, frightened the life out of me when I came to it. I belive they did fill some of the tunnels up at the time of building the houses but how full is anybodies guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RATTY Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I remember this, it wasnt really a tunnel as such just a passageway into the quarry on an incline into the ground a short way (under the entrance to that plant hire place) used to get lots of druggies and homeless sleeping in there in the 70/80s. There were three quarries down Delph Lane, the other two being behind the sanatorium on that map or behind the nurses homes today, they have built a housing estate on there now, they were quite deep at one end and had a few cars and trucks dumped in them, I nearly fell in there when I was younger, tried to climb above one side and nearly slid in. Prayed to god that day Ill tell ya The main sandstone quarry has been filled with landfill and is capped for methane so they cant build on it yet but is a temp car park for whiston hossy while they rebuild it, what they are building on is the old truck haulage place(name escapes me) and it will be called Quistan Grange which of course is one of the old names for Whiston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpa lumpa Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Ratty The haulage firm was Holt lane Transport owned by Sid Reakes, most of their work was for the BI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halj Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Ratty, The passageway, as you say, was put there because it was considered too dangerous to climb down the ladder to maintain the pumps. I think it went in towards the end of the fifties/early sixties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsygeoff Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 That was the last quarry in the area to shut,it was still operational when I left school in 1968. We went down it a few times with a bloke called John Murphy,he worked for Sid Reakes or Holt Lane Transport,as a carpenter.(his mum was the florist in Prescot, Marie Lawrenson) The other quarry that they built houses on was half way up View road on the corner of Owen road.The quarries, and there must have been 4 or 5, were all originally owned by Bartholemew Bretherton who built St.Barts church. Mal do you remember that lad from Honiston avenue getting badly hurt down the Delph lane quarry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john n Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Hi Stephen, I remember the water tower very well. I, also did a bit of work on the pumps on the top of the tower. To get to them we had to climb the ladder on the outside of the tower and halfway up the ladder leaned backwards. Not a nice climb especially when you had a toolbox on your shoulder. Remember going up once with a new mate and he froze on the top part of the climb. Had a hell of a job trying to get him down again. He was a great guy an ex boxer, I think his name was Billy Barton, used to be the doorman at the Blue Ball pub on Prescot Road in Liverpool. Always wore a dress suit and dickie bow when he was on duty. Oh, forgot to say, I did venture down one of the tunnels in the quarry once, there was a huge sump hole at the bottom where the water was drawn from. As it was pitch dark down there, frightened the life out of me when I came to it. I belive they did fill some of the tunnels up at the time of building the houses but how full is anybodies guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EOEvans Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I believe the quarry nearest the road was set up by the Twist family (who it's said also built Quarry House on the corner of Two Butt and Delph Lane in the 1830s). In the mid-19th century it was owned by James Whittaker, then it went to a couple of men called john Harrison and Joseph Webster, who sold it on shortly after to William Longton (of Longton Lane fame, who owned Greenhouse farm there but lived in Whiston Hall). The Twists owned the land that the nursing home was built on as well. It's a timely post as I was in Prescot Library researching that very area last week! Didn't come across anything concerning the tunnel though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsygeoff Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I was always told it was one of the Brethertons quarries,you live and learn,they were more into running coaches.Also Bartholemew Bretherton rode his horse JERRY to victory in the 1840 Grand National. Things those nuns taught us!!!!!!! One good thing about Delph Lane quarry, it didn't have a few thousand tonnes of waste blue asbestos dumped down it,as the quarry at Dukes Clough did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EOEvans Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Bartholomew Bretherton owned it between Twist and Whittaker, I think, but I was concentrating more on the second half on the 19th century when I was a-researching When I was at the old site of Rainhill High we used to go and look over the wall into the quarry. We watched them fill it in. I was quite put out about it! Also used to play round Dukes Clough and the old Marl pit near the triangulation point on Stony Lane. Kids just don't bother with these little adventures much anymore! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsygeoff Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Well I was part right,cheers EO.Dukes clough was the deepest by a country mile,we used to go down it to get tennis balls that had no covers,and also syringes!!!!!!!!!!! We used them in water fights.The main demise of the sandstone industry was, I believe, the amount of ducky stone in the sandstone,this can clearly be seen in Pex hill quarry.When you look at the buildings that were in the area built from local stone, it must have been a thriving industry.Was the Anglican cathedral built with local stone? You've got me knackered with the Marl pit,I remember the triangulation point,and also the big dell in the feild.and the sweet smell of the Enamelling shop at Stovies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EOEvans Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Boggart Lane (now Vining Road) near the old quarry site has always intrigued me as to how it got its name. I wonder what the story was behind that? I went abseiling at Pex Hill once when I was in the Scouts! Not been there for years now. I'm not sure where the sandstone came from for the Anglican cathedral, though I know the second phase of building used a cheaper source and it's weathering a lot faster than the earlier part of the building. The big dell in the field near the triangulation pit is the old marl pit actually, but I only know that from looking at maps from the 19th century! It was an old Marl pit in the 1840s, so it's been there awhile.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpa lumpa Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Geoff, I think the lad your talking about from Honiston Ave was Frankie Halpin, he lived on the corner of Honiston Ave and Chatsworth Rd, I think another lad who lived in the same block was Dave Robinson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsygeoff Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Frankie Halpin,yeah Mal thats him.He was never the full quid after the accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainhill99 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Stephen: The Tunnel you mention was in fact the entrance to the Quarry itself,used as a service road, it was accessed through a gate just beyond the Nurses home, the incline travelled along side Delph lane and under the entrance to the Sanitorium and Holt Lane Transport entrance, we where often chased out of the Quarry, this gate was also the access to the other Quarry close to the smallpox Hospital and backed on to Longview Avenue, to my knowledge it never went under Delph lane, a good friend of ours Brother died after falling into Holt Lane Sandstone Quarry, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phyll Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Rainhill99, Welcome to Connect, hope you find lots of memories on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpa lumpa Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Yes Welcome Rainhill99, both myself and gypsygeoff are from Rainhill, hope you find it interesting and fun on Connect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen nulty Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Matt Thanks for that. It makes a lot of sense, given the incline around Delph Lane area. Welcome to the forum, by the way ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsygeoff Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Welcome 99 (do have a flake in your 99) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainhill99 Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Thanks for the welcome everyone, I am an old Longton Laner, opposite Houghtons Farm, we have so much History in and around Prescot and Rainhill its unbelievable, keep up the good work Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumpa lumpa Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Rainhill99, I also lived in Longton Lane and Geoff lived in Second Ave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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