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#304820 28th Mar 2009 5:04pm
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Hi, I recently read that there is a fourth tunnel under the Mersey linking Wirral (Bebington, Rock Ferry or New Ferry) and Liverpool.

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For 300 years, until the Reformation, much of what was then South Lancashire was owned by the Cistercian monks from Whalley Abbey near Clitheroe, and Stanlawe Abbey in what was then Cheshire, on the Wirral Peninsular. There are local legends that the monks once built a tunnel from Speke, under the River Mersey to Bebington on the Wirral, and these may indeed have some basis in fact. The Wirral, like Liverpool, is also riddled with underground passageways and caves, many of these are natural, but many are also man-made.


link here

Does anyone know whether this is true or just local legend?

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I dont think they had the technology or understanding to build a tunnel under the Mersey at that distance mate. Think that ones deffo up there with the Lock Ness Monster


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BlueLou Offline OP
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That's what I thought to be honest, too good be true...

I mean if there was a way for us to avoid tunnel/ferry/train fare, we'd all know about it! wink laugh

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ha ha yeah that would save me a fortune !


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Whether there are tunnels there or not it can not be dismissed on the lack of technology or know how. The Romans, Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians built tunnels at a much earlier date.


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BlueLue whats so strange is without using that link you gave I ended up on that site,if you scroll further down it tells you why it's called Speke

It was once called "Spic" Meaning Bacon because there where swine fields EVERYWHERE!


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"There's the secret Mersey Tunnel, used by the monks of Birkenhead Priory in the days of King Henry VIII [21 April 1509 – 28 January 1547], which runs from Speke to a location beneath Rock Ferry." - Tom Slemen http://www.slemen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16031


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Tom Slemen - hmmm, writes good stories...

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Could the monks build a pumping station on the scale of the grasshopper at Shore Road?

Would the monks know where the bedrock was to tunnel through? Probing through 30ft of mud/sand from a rowing boat sounds fun.

Would the monks have the skill and accuracy to tunnel in the direction they wanted to go?

Did the monks have explosives or power tools? (the explosives is a genuine question - how did they quarry in those days?)

Slemen needs shootin'!


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I always make my self look "Dupid" on here, so yes you know what Im goin' to say. Who's Tom Slemen? laugh


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Good to ask mate, its better to ask and know than remain ignorant.

He makes money by writing books about haunted stuff which he backs up with HIS historic facts, some of his historic claims are questioned by others.

http://www.slemen.com/


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Soon as I seen the "Haunted Stuff" I thaught HAUNTED LIVERPOOL
So I clicked the link and Yay me I was right... For Once laugh


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no i think not sorry frown

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Originally Posted by bert1
Whether there are tunnels there or not it can not be dismissed on the lack of technology or know how. The Romans, Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians built tunnels at a much earlier date.


The Romans and other civilisations did build tunnels and some of them fairly complicated but im sorry there is no possible way that a group of monks had the technology or know how to build UNDER the mersey in those times here in Wirral.

Also you would have to ask yourself why ? In the 1500 Wirral was still fairly desolate and heavily forrested. One quote says that a squirrel could jump from tree to tree all the way from one end of the peninsula to the other. Why would the monks needs to build a secret passage over to liverpool. Im fairly sure that most people could travel off the track without being seen if they wanted in those days.

Also who would pay for this this enormous civil engineering feat ? and how would a project of that scale be kept secret.

Our survey says " X "


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Originally Posted by Doctor_Frick
Originally Posted by bert1
Whether there are tunnels there or not it can not be dismissed on the lack of technology or know how. The Romans, Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians built tunnels at a much earlier date.


The Romans and other civilisations did build tunnels and some of them fairly complicated but im sorry there is no possible way that a group of monks had the technology or know how to build UNDER the mersey in those times here in Wirral.

Also you would have to ask yourself why ? In the 1500 Wirral was still fairly desolate and heavily forrested. One quote says that a squirrel could jump from tree to tree all the way from one end of the peninsula to the other. Why would the monks needs to build a secret passage over to liverpool. Im fairly sure that most people could travel off the track without being seen if they wanted in those days.

Also who would pay for this this enormous civil engineering feat ? and how would a project of that scale be kept secret.

Our survey says " X "


I tend to agree with you why would a group of monks want a tunnel to Liverpool, and that would be the reason i don't think they exist, but i still believe it would be possible to build such a tunnel if so desired at that period of time. The Romans and other civilisations done it way before the period were talking about. Lets not forget mining was going on in Britain before that time, way back BC and gunpowder was in production in the mid 13th century, so the tools and know how were available.


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