St James' Cemetery.  Liverpool

A Closer look at the Hearse access Tunnel

Recently, this tunnel has suffered at the hands of vandals, to the extent that the powers that be are about to close off the tunnel completely.   To this end Myself and Marc Williams (who is much younger and more sprightly than I) decide to take the opportunity to photograph the interior of this tunnel.  

A close look at the wall and roof of the tunnel, the wall is solid sandstone while the roof is well built sandstone blocks.

Looking at the walls you can clearly make out the marks of the chisels that dug the tunnel during the early to mid 1700's

The end of the tunnel.   This brickwork is perhaps 15 meters into the tunnel.   The tunnel did stretch some 80 - 100 meters to where it emerged at the corner of Rodney St and Duke St.   The quality of this wall is very poor.   Maybe it was constructed in a hurry?

Looking back to where Marc climbed in, comparing the brickwork on the roof with that in the previous picture, you can see the difference.   You can also see the Ivy which shrouds the entrance.

As has been noted earlier, Brooke in 1853 said "The tunnel had two 'eyes' to admit light and air, and on each side over the entrance was the figure of a Lion carved in stone" You can imagine the tunnel to be quite an eerie place, especially with only two holes in the roof to admit light.  

Many thanks to Marc for doing all the climbing and photographing, I did buy him a pint afterward.

Several days after these photographs were taken, the tunnel was blocked off.   The reason that this action was taken was to prevent the tunnel from being used by some drug users as a 'home'.   At least at the moment, this 18th century tunnel is preserved behind brickwork.   Maybe one day it will be opened again.