Exploring the Abandoned Edge Hill Cutting - Liverpool to Manchester Railway 1 

It's a crying shame to see the state of that area, it would make a superb open air museum with some love and care. That place is as important as the Rocket itself… Thank you very much for this nice video documentary.

It’s almost criminal that locations like this aren’t preserved for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

Walked through the north tunnel from Crown St. in 1975 before the council used it as a tip and filled it in. Edge Hill cutting was hugely overgrown and no tracks. The south tunnel tracks were relaid later. Some kids shouted down to me 'what you doin mister?' 'have you learned about The Rocket steam loco in school?' i shouted back up. 'yeh' came the reply. 'well they kept it here in that hole in the wall' I said. 'wha!?' and down they came. They lived on top of it and didnt know. For 1980 the site was cleaned up and made into a museum for the 150th anniversary. But the museum failed financially and the whole thing was left to rot. Extraordinary. Stockton and darlington was treated the same way. Like Egypt demolishing the pyramids and building on the sites. Both should be UNESCO World Heritage sites with a requirement to preserve and restore.

Your enthusiasm for our industrial heritage is infectious. This part of Liverpool is truly amazing and so well preserved.

Liverpool capital of culture 2008 for it's contribution to Literature, Music, Poetry, Theatre and Visual Arts whilst it's vast industrial heritage and engineering feats are left to fall into decay and be forgotten about like so many other places in the UK. Where I live the recently excavated a car park discovering some of the Towns Victorian past only to cover it back up very quickly to begin erecting the new multi-storey on top of it. We should preserve our heritage and be proud of what we once were rather than what we have now become. Great post by the way.

Ollie...what a belter that was! Sad it's been left to decay, given it's historical importance to England, and even the world for that matter. Thanks for that...looking forward to the next chapter. All the best!

Amazing that this place still exists in such a recognisable condition and even more amazing that it is not treated with the respect it deserves.

Great video. Can't stop thinking how this location could be made as a great tourist destination.

It’s sad that these places aren’t better looked after

Any other country in the world would have tours but there is so much history in the uk its difficult

Superb presentation. I have worked on that stretch of Railway, for many years. The two Lines, that go to a dead end, are called the Up and Down Wapping. They are still used every night, to run round freight trains that arrive via Wavertree jct and then depart across the main line, to go down to Liverpool Docks via the Bootle branch. From what I have read, the larger alcoves, as you said, were for Boilers and believe it or not, some of the smaller ones were used as mess rooms etc, by the shunting staff that worked there back in the day. I believe that Horses were also used as you said and in the far right tunnel, that is fenced off, I believe there is a Water trough, for the horses, but I have never gone down that one. On the other side of the main line, opposite Edge Hill Station, there is another long disused Tunnel, Victoria Tunnel. That used to go down to Canada Dock Station and was used primarily for the Boat Traffic. Edge Hill Station is the oldest operating passenger Station, In the World. Great video mate 👍.

First became aware of this site through Dan Snow's 'Locomotion' documentary and have since watched RU-vidrs walking through the Wapping Tunnel, but you explored the area in much more detail and explained the 3 tunnels, which I don't think anyone else had done. So thank you.

Another mint video, its ace seeing some proppa history on here mate, nice1

What a gem of a place. I'd have loved exploring around there as a kid. I'm guessing it wasn't easily accessible, well done getting down there to document it though 👍

Thanks Ollie. Another great video 🙂. I'll be in Liverpool in the summer, to walk the old lines. I've been a Railway Rambler for about 25 years.....and have bored hundreds of people 😆😆. But I'm still at it, and have lost none of my enthusiasm, or admiration for the men that built these lines with blood, sweat and tears. Have you been to Glasgow? There are some amazing old lines through the city, rapidly becoming stunning countryside walks (it you're fit!) Thank you again for your wonderful videos.

The cutting was saved from being filled in by Eric Steward, stationmaster at Lime Street. These are my memories of being taken round LIme Street, Edge Hill and the cutting in the eighties, just before he retired. He gave a conducted tour to the boys from my model-railway club at St Edward's College. He was a wonderful raconteur about his career on the railways and a very practical railwayman. The tracks laid at present were how he saved the cutting, as he used European grant money, arguing that operations at Edge Hill needed two relief sidings. He improved workings through Edge Hill by designing a bi-directional track through the bottleneck of the station, and used the old wooden wagon wheel inserts to floor the pathway into the station building.

I’m a real history buff, especially industrial history like this, excellent presentation as always, only seen pictures of this of this stretch of the railway, nice to see your view, thanks

Well done again Ollie. Looking forward to your next video.

Top video, mate. Nice one.

Great video, Ollie! What an interesting place that is - looking forward to the future ones.

Fascinating loved it. many thanks for sharing.

I love the way the buildings are just carved into the rock it's like a modern day Petra. I believe that Jaguar actually drove a car through the Wapping tunnel for an advertisement a few years ago. I did go down to Kings Dock Street to find the end of the tunnel once it used to be a goods yard but now a car park. You can still see an old crane just sitting there over the car park.

Great stuff hard to believe such fascinating places still exist.

Whoa fantastic! I love seeing the hidden history of cities!

Really enjoyed that! Have subscribed and am looking forward to the next part. :)

Another interesting video well done 👍👍

Briliant video, thank you very much for sharing!

Very enjoyable. Been watching some of your other videos as well!

Another well made and informative video! Thanks for making and posting.

It's totally unbelievable that somewhere as important as this has simply been allowed to decay, I am certain that people the world over who know anything about railways have heard about this and be totally amazed that Britain has done nothing to preserve somewhere so important. Thank you for going into so much detail and sharing it with us.

What a fantastic video. Thanks!

great to see the old stations still around great find cheers mate.

Really interesting information. Thanks for that.

Class loved it .

*Absolutely superb video.*

Great closeups of the pick marks showing that it was basically hand built. The Navvies moved on from canal building to railway building.

It's a pity they haven't restored this to it's former glory. :( This would make an awesome tourist attraction!

Another great vid Ollie.

I didn't know any of this . Thanks very much for taking the time and effort to do this video - a real historical eye-opener !

All that railway history and look at the overgrown state of it, very little pride in our country. Thanks for drawing our attention to this site, brilliant.

Fab video. Love your enthusiasm 👍

It still astounding that no one has considered partial restoration or even just turning this into a museum

Love it pal, cheers 👍

thanks for this informative video. it's been a real inspiration. cheers..

So hooked on these especially since the history of Stevenson and Rocket are ones I enjoy.

Hi Ollie, This is an amazing Video. I learnt so much more about my home town heritage watching it. Your videos are great. You put so much love and care into them and their history, and you are so good and at ease talking to the camera. Thank you very much. Take care

Thanks

Your enthusiasm is infectious my man :-)

It does look absolutely amazing down there.!

13:10 was the shunters cabin.Had many a cup of tea in there as a young fireman 1963

I’m from Liverpool near edge hill and really enjoyed the video, really informative thanks.

Good one, mate. Your enthusiasm is catching! I've always thought the tunnels and cuttings on the approach to Liverpool Lime Street is one of the most impressive entrances to any British railway station.

Excellent. Thanks.

Great video too!!!

Fascinating stuff, beautifully presented. Can't wait for more ... new sub.

Love your videos mate. Your enthusiasm for our industrial heritage puts a smile on my face all the way over here in Western Australia.

Excellent video. Subscribed!

Nice vid, thanks !!

What an amazing place! Only in England could the crucial setting that bore witness to such important history be left to become overgrown. This should be opened as a public park and outdoor exhibition centre. I imagine the acoustics from public performances in that cutting would be pretty awesome too?

This has me gripped. Loving the history, didn't know anything about this place and just realised ...at 51yo, and a Yorkshire lad, I've never been to Manchester. Keep your content coming.

im so glad i found this my granddad worked for that railway early 1900s ,im trying to find out what he did . thanks for showing me this . i never knew my grandparents its nice to see some places that he might have seen or worked on ,he might have even drove a train i dont know .

Wow, what else can I say other than SUBSCRIBED!

very informative . interesting . thx for this . i hope you get more subcribers

Just found your videos, great and informative, its sad to see such important historical sites in such disrepair.

Loved the video. Found all the tunnel vents on Google Earth as well as what looks like a small junction near the docks and maybe some tracks still in an old warehouse at the very end.

When railways made money! So quiet now and to think how busy it would have been. Nature reclaiming it.

Loving your videos .I love the tunnels that the train to lime st go through.some engineering going through all that mass of rock and sandstone.great places for mini party's 👍,Birkenhead has tunnels and an air raid shelter on Hoylake road 😙

Really interesting, thanks for sharing. What a shame it has not been preserved to show the importance of this historical site.

Hi mate,great video. Just come across your channel on here and love what I have seen so far. Good to see you down at Liverpool as thats where I am from but now live in Manchester and have recently started my own channel since moving here as the history between the two cities is fantastic. I want to get back to Liverpool myself and revisit some of the mad railways and tunnels where I grew up. Keep up the good work. Peace,Andy.

I can't believe they've let this important historic area rot. This place could be a true historic showpiece of benefit to Liverpool. Seeing this has brought the old original illustrations alive.

Good stuff, really love this social history and civil engineering

Stockton/Darlington/Witton Park is the true cradle of the railway 💪😉

i used to live in St Andrews garden in Liverpool in 2000, overlooking the cutting arriving in Lime Street. was always curious about what was there. btw, great video: tone, music.. clapping

Always wanted a nosey down there so thanks for sharing, I used to go to the Edge Hill depot often when i was in the job and there were arches and nooks and crannies all over the place you could feel the history .

I am always interested in the Edgehill Ascent, that stretch of bridge that climbs now to nowhere and I remember when I lived up there in early eighties it was still energised and used to store overhead units. Rail has always been a bit confused around the 'pool with normal, overhead and third rail all over the show and quite common to see DMU's running on a full overhead line. Then there is the weirdness at Kirkby where once trains used to run through and they stuck a barrier in the track making two termini lol

Great video, full of great interesting stuff. Would love to see you do a video of Manchester Central Station and the nearby Great Northern Goods shed👍

The Edge Hill cutting was originally narrower, but was widened later and that's when the Moorish Arch was lost. Oh! You told us that later in the video after I wrote this comment! Great video as usual.

Great video! It's a shame that the Moorish arch isn't still there.

There are some old paintings of Edge Hill cutting, the largest of the nooks in the side where the Engine "sheds" to store and maintain them and there were small turntables connecting them to the lines.

Petition to re-build the Moorish Arch, clean, restore and preserve the area. It's the starting point and spark of the first serious railway service in the world.

This is great, just like a more local version of "abandoned engineering". I've spent plenty of time in the past in and around that area trying to find old remnants of past railways and nearly got mugged by some of the more hostile locals in the process. And it lets you see the areas I could never reach.

You're making great vids, sure to get the numbers subscribed if you keep up this quality

Thanks for your insight and explanation of the history of this place. One wonders if the first steam InterCity link had been in London whether it would have been left in such delapidation? Many thanks

great explore, love the comparison photos the Victorians must of loved these grand tunnels and railways ,shame they're not preserved. the running tunnels are a comparison to eurotunnel today.

i bought you a coffee, much love for what you do all the way from Sunny Southport

OMG what an amazing place and amazing architecture with so much history. Why oh why has this not been listed and protected. It is absolutely criminal that such an historical place as this has not been preserved. It just annoys me that so much money and lottery funding is thrown at so many less deserving places.. Surely, Liverpool and Manchester councils the historical value of this.

Brilliant video mate. Why this isn’t a highlighted heritage site is beyond me. Well filmed and well researched. Good on ya 👍

Hope you do more Liverpool videos

nicely done, thank you. especialy caught by the map @19:00/19:14.

Much of the tunnelling here was done by former workers from the famous Williamson Tunnels at Edge Hill. Williamson and Stephenson became friends.

Amazing vid. Just wandering how you managed to get down to the tracks??

Those original pictures or prints are very well-known. I’ve often seen them and wondered about whether or not the area still existed. I am so glad that it does, and that someone actually cares about it and has the enthusiasm to share it. It should be restored as far as possible and reused as a living museum. Railways as an institution have been extraordinarily badly treated and misused. It is sacrilege. They were all privately owned, seized by governments, then discarded and depleted or destroyed, subsidised by me (taxpayers) and the countryside disfigured by thousands of square miles of motorways and trunk routes (funded by me), and the continuous din of heavy traffic. And now, there’s no more fuel for the vehicles, which are FAR less efficient than railway vehicles.

Many years ago. I used to live in the house on the right of the cutting. As you can imagine, as a young lad I used to play down there. The two small tunnels in the boiler room, used to be for the ropes that pulled the trains from the Crown st terminus. A friend and I actually crawled down the left one but turned back after about 100 yards in as it started to get a bit sketchy. It just seemed to go on and on. We also went all the way down the Wapping tunnel. Every few hundred yards there used to be ventilation shafts that you could stand under and look up and see the sky. The very end of the tunnel was flooded with about 2ft of water. There is another abandoned tunnel called the Waterloo/Victoria tunnel at the other side of Edge Hill station that also runs down to the docks, it is actually longer than the Wapping tunnel..

18:00... Just shows how the environment was changing all the ways back then. Would be a GREAT place to take school kids to show them how Geology goes about its day to day.!

How is love to visit this (and other spots) you show in your videos...

excellent video, love the enthusiasm. fyi it's generally agreed that the boiler houses that you thought you had erroneously called engine houses were, in fact, engine houses. bournes' illustrations (you can see it in the Moorish arch one you've used) show locomotives on mini turntables exiting the little houses. remember that that unlike later generations knew locos were not permanently coupled to their tenders. great stuff

If walls could talk. I loved the people who carved their names into the walls, i wonder how their lives panned out. The Victorian trolly was still in good nick as well, who’d have thought they used those type of things in the 1830’s.

After watching this, I watched the video "Keith Chegwin - 1986 railway history documentary" on the VintageLynx channel. The changes are amazing after just a few decades. The steps up to the Moorish Arch, for example, were not overgrown and were easy to climb (see 6:50 in that video).

The tunnel to the port could become a walking/cycling trail and the whole cutting could become part of it too. Clean it up and get the vegetation off the walls as that will slowly destroy the walls. Fence off the used railway and the rest could be public access. The rail lines still there are very recent as the track is fastened with pandrol clips and these were invented in 1957.

All the links we have between our two great Cities via canal rail and road ... yet we have a negative rivalry !. I do not have any rivalry as a person from Liverpool, I have a sense of Unity with people of Manchester. We wear the first two Cities with economic and social links ... Yes we have our own Football Teams, but we have gone through our times of industrial/economic highs and lows together. We have inter socialized because of those links we have, and I think that is Great