Daft as it sounds, I like that you guys at least seemed to make a legitimate attempt at the ghost hunting lark. Very respectful, both to the memory of the folks who may or may not BE ghosts and to the people who genuinely believe in these things.
Martin zero should become the next Fred dibnah with his own documentry all tho Thier subjects are different the way they go into such detail is exceptional ..... Well done Martin pal
Ha agreed....... he has a certain kind of character that just captures you. Just the love the honesty of his vids, not only that, a decent chap too! ;)
Not to decry what Martin does, which is excellent. Fred Dibnah walked the walk. The videos of Fred were created about what he created, not what he observed.
@@garyhardman8369 Really? What did Fred Dibnah create? I thought he was a steeplejack with an interest in old mechanical engineering. Bit of a demolition boffin too wasn't he? I'm led to understand he repaired some stuff but certainly didn't create anything. Perhaps I'm wrong..?
@@sputumtube Fred did build 2 steam engines and a tiny mine shaft in his back yard but my comment was ment on his ability to grip an audience just like Martin but I agree with you in what your saying he was mainly a steeply that became famous due to his technique he used to fall the chimneys
Grew up living in the old flats that where on moore lane in the 70’s,crazy as it sounds we use to play round there,miley tunnel was the challenge to show how brave us was,walking on your own no torch,at night,still remember it like yesterday walking the tracks to make sure you was going kinda straight,you knew when you wasn’t as you stubbed your toe on the tracks lol,all the time waiting for the blue lady to appear, fun times
Many thanks Martin, another great video of local history. I particularly enjoyed seeing yard where the railway crossed the Lancaster Canal. I often wondered if the place where the Canal terminated was known as Preston North End !
The canal crossed Fylde rd on an aqueduct. the area was large enough that it had another major road - oddly enough named aqueduct st. If you walk north from aqueduct st you will find the current canal basin (check a map for access.). If you walk along Fylde rd looking south you will find a side grass strip heading south. this is the old canal, now filled in, heading towards the old canal basin.
Brilliant Martin as always! abit closer to home for me this time....great to see some track still in place, if you look further along the line where it crosses Skeffington Rd the tracks are still in the road👍
Once again a great video giving us a window into the past which is sometimes sad to see when you look at it now.🤔 The soundtrack / music playing through the video was also great 👍 Thank you
Got to say Martin and Gordon work well together..All you need is one more person of equal personality and you'll have a nice trio. Top Gear trio meets Time Team?
Caught up on a few of ya vids n brilliant as always, i find these old tunnels fascinating, love the architecture techniques they used, its sad but also beautiful how nature claims back these old tunnels, bridges and stations. Brill vid
I remember as a lad with a few mates going through the Miley Tunnel sometime in the late 60's, as we walked through with a pathetic old torch, some of the lads were saying what happens if a train comes, I said "don't worry it is not used any more", needles to say we heard a noise and sure enough a train was coming very slowly behind us, we ran out terrified ahead of the train, luckily were not that far from the end, when we got out at the end closely followed by the train the driver was leaning out of his window playing holy hell at us to probably put us off going in again, he needn't have worried we were terrified enough already not to try again, another interesting fact is that the fire brigade still use the tunnel for training near Cold bath street, they practice lifting stretchers up out of the cutting part that you showed.
Still catching up. Hello Martin and thank you for your intrepid rediscoveries, surely this would make a great walkway or cycle path if cleared, at least then the architecture would be visible, accessible and not lost to the ever increasing sub tropical change in our climate. We could even plant exotic fauna along the sides.
Interesting video and content exploring the Miley tunnel. Perhaps also of interest are some additional snippets. first, this part of the line continued in use well into the 1950s to supply coal daily to yards located nearby bottom end of Deepdale Road, in Fletcher Road. This was achieved using a spur line nearby Skeffington Road. Next, the lower platform part of Deepdale Station shown as demolished ruins in the video was still in place in the 1950s, indeed with steps down, although correctly described as long disused. However, the main station building up top remains and is the stand alone solicitor's office by side of the bridge. Finally, the Miley Tunnel ghost sort of morphed into a New York Times best selling novel called "Cold Bath Street" by A J Hartley, sometime lecturer at nearby UCLAN. Cold Bath Street remains nearby, once site of cleaning up for the construction workers.
Not only do you make videos of Manchester , the place I’ve worked in for ten years now, and visited for much longer, covering sites and locations well, you now do Preston right where I went to university! My uni buildings were all near where you finished your trek, and one of our projects, we got into that area and filmed around there. Would love to get you the footage but it’s from 20 years ago and I don’t have a DV tape machine anymore
I think one of us needs to buy Martin a pen and notepad so he can make a list of all the things he needs to take on his expeditions 😊 A machete will be on the list, just under "microphone" and "flask", lol 👍
You missed a level crossing on skeffington road before the point you started from. It’s still got gates and rails across the road which is cool. I always park down there when I’m a Deepdale stadium
The `Grey Lady` was a girl named Margaret Banks aged around fifteen years who was playing on the platform with a group of around seven others. As the train was leaving a man named Henry Whittaker who was completely unknown to the girls, leaned out of the carriage window with his hand out - possibly asking for a light for his cigar. One of the girls went to take hold of Henry's hand but Margaret pushed her out of the way and took it herself. She started to run as the train started, still holding hands, then, possibly because she was wearing a crinoline, she fell below the platform edge and was run over by the wheels of the carriage. Henry was charged at Preston magistrates' court with manslaughter, but after hearing a number of witnesses the magistrates said "The evidence which has been brought forward before us this morning has been weighed and considered by us, and I have to inform you that we don't consider that evidence is sufficient to warrant us in committing you for trial, and, therefore you are discharged. The prisoner, having thanked the bench left the dock" (Preston Chronicle January 5th 1867) It was mentioned several times that it wasn't clear whether she was holding his hand or he was holding hers.
Hi Martin. Good video, thanks for that. For a pic of the station building have a look here: www.flickr.com/search/?text=deepdale%20station The first pic is the old station building/railway company offices and platform where you were stood with the chaps examining rubble from it. Second pic is of the station entrance up top at street level. It was all derelict when I was growing up but I presume you went in at street level and there were stairs down through the building to the platform??? Anyone remember?? As a kid I used to climb up on the wall next to the station entrance and peer over down at the old building, wishing my parents weren't there then I could have carried on and explored it! Sadly all gone now. The street level bit of the station entrance has been chopped level with the walling of the road overbridge but you can still make it out. Happy memories, thanks Martin.
Hi do you know about the rails being constructed in Rochdale , it’s while ago since I went as they had a running line then they needed a personal track safety certificate, so I with a doctor we went there every time one of the personal certificates expired , being a nurse we had lots of fun ! Know the feeling walking the lines I went with the trackmen , I did a full shift with them , my goodness they walk for miles ! So yes so did I !
Well done as always. It's interesting just how much of our current rail network was built in the victorian times. It's equally interesting to get the chance to explore the sections that have become disused. I don't blame you for putting it off until the foliage has died off. In summer that would have been 10 times worse.
This is so cool. When I was a kid growing up in Preston in the 80s my friends and I used to dare each other to go through Miley Railway Tunnel on our own with no light or anything. Of course none of us ever did haha. Probably down to urban legends circulating at the time about dismembered bodies and the bogeyman. Good times. Thanks for the video very interesting.
Great work. I spent 3 years in Preston in the mid 90’s and must have walked over the top of the tunnel entrance on Fylde road 100’s of times without once bothering to take a look over the bridge. Amazing that these feats of engineering from an era when the North West of England literally was the epicenter of the industrial revolution lay forgotten and rotting away. I applaud your efforts and enthusiasm for reminding us about them in such an engaging way.
Before I was thrown out of Preston Poly, a friend and I used to conduct guided walks through the Miley Tunnel. Fascinating to find out how that central box came about. On walks after dark, we would turn our torches off at this point and experienced absolute darkness. It wasn't overgrown back then and the line was still in use for occasional freight. Of course, no high vis jackets were worn. Don't try that at home, kids!
Who is to be credited for the music?Would love to know. Dean? Wonderful match to the mood, reminds me somewhat of the music in the Shetlands (Douglas Henshall) series. And those reflectors a nice visual treat ;-)
Thanks Martin! as a Prestonian, I found that very interesting. I quite often use parts of the disused track, which is now a designated cycle / walking path from the back of the leisure centre going North. It is easy walking from the leisure centre as far as the 'Roman Way' industrial estate, from there it is less easy but 'do-able' [easier than in your video] as far as Grimsargh, where I think it peters out opposite 'The Plough' pub.
Trains of household coal used to run till the early nineties to Deepdale Coal Yard. Crewed by Warrington Men, and using a mixture of anything available on Warrington Arpley at the time. 20's, 31's, 37's, 47's or maybe even a 56.
I knew it was later than he said, I remember in 86 seeing locos and coal wagons there but was working at the other end of town in the 90's and never noticed it's demise. Do you know exactly when they stopped?
@@69waveydavey Not exactly sure, but a mate of mine was a Guard at Warrington till about 93, and he worked the trains. Said you needed a JCB on the front of the train to shift all the dumped fridges and washing machines off the track.
Thank you for taking us all along on another of your fantastic journeys Martin. Don't be scared of any "Gray ladies" though as she's obviously doing a fantastic job of keeping all the fly tipper's, druggies, graffiti morons and all the other scrotters out of her tunnel. Notice how clean tidy and preserved it is in there. If only there were more ghost's like her 😅
Massive potential and what a gem, the tunnel is in very good repair, I cannot believe the rails are still in place, it is substantial, wide and too valuable to be just abandoned. If this was south of Cheltenham it would have been exploited already!
Wiki says 1980 but I was born in ‘81 and I remember the coal train going past the level crossing on Skeffington road so it could back up and switch onto the coal yard track. Must have been upto to mid to late 80s. I remember seeing the train before school. Usually class 37s from memory
With the long and rich history you guys have in your country, If ghosts were real you wouldn't be able to step five feet out of your door without seeing one.
OMG been down that Tunnel many a time as a kid lol was scary and probably still is but I got over it or should I say through it alive! Thanks for memories
On recent O/S Maps the Preston Longridge is shown as Railway (Disused) meaning the line still has tracks which your excellent video proves forty yrs after closure.
I've only lived in Preston for a couple of years and had worked out the route of this old line using Google maps, but I didn't realise that the track and tunnels are still under some of the current buildings.
Used to walk through miley tunnel all ti.e as a kid I lived in Deepdale my pals lived in Ashton so was quickest route cant believe the over grow on tracks wasnt like that 20 years ago 🤣🤣
I love railway history like this that was amazing i hope that infrastructure gets a new lease of life thats PRICELESS railway infrastructure there it still exists and is in place it should be used again for what it was intended for! Amazing video!
We go down from deapdale at Paul's road and come out at the back of where the uni is now late 70s early 80s shit myself every time as a kid good times😁
you know that used to be a line running from preston to southport? bit of it runs through avemham park, luckily i have filmed and walked that bit as well as the old tram/canal bit as well, i would love to give you the videos and join for that section of the west lancashire line as well
Three good operators,a bobcat and a wood chipper would have a great outcome- a recreational area-paths and a food outlet even a skate park in a few days.Maybe a fast food sponsor?
Great videos Martin! On a less positive note, than the one I put on the Manchester's Lost Island of Pomona video, I attempted to get into The Miley Railway Tunnel today. I had the same bright idea as peebee143 and took some garden shears with me. After hacking my way through over 100 bramble branches etc. I got to the tunnel entrance to find the fence sealed up again! :-( Oh well, maybe somebody else will open it up again. If they do, people's transit in will be easier until the spring! Thanks for education me about things on my own doorstep that I didn't know about. Cheers! 4 days ago
I used to walk along the line to school (St John Southworth) if I'd missed the bus. As well as the tram idea, there was also talk of a cycle path. I think the last train would have stopped earlier than 1980 as the freight trains were only used to service Courthaulds. The plant closed in 1980, but it took a couple of years to decommission it.
Hi Martin Gordon form Preston. And not your fellow exploring Gordon. You was correct in thinking it closed in mid eighties, because I was stood on the platform of one of the stations as a little boy watching them load up platform stones and rails as the took them up, a class 25, I live fight next to one station that still remains, and if you are free at somepoint would love to invite you for a very detailed tour of the eastern direction of the line. I've lived there since 1975. And so lhe line open and working, you was also correct, there was steps down to Deepdale station that served Preston royal infirmary, and before miley tunel used to be a big coal yard with multiple sideing with over head hopper sheds. If you up for a part two. Let me know, fantastic video, so close to home, great job once again, thanks pal 👍
Wonderful video Martin. I am Preston born and bred and as a kid you hadn't lived until you had done the Miley. My last jaunt through was in 1990 but had to make a quick exit because a coal train chased us out.. I will never forget seeing the Headcorn lights of the Class 37 and running like he'll to the safety of the embankment on Cold bath street.
The Brambles are giving me flashbacks! I dealt with that stuff all the time when I did land surveying for a living. It was always a nightmare. I still have a few scars......
very good video enjoyed this martin thank you mate you are a natural speaker and it works so well just discovered your vids here on you tube I shall now watch the lot good one mate PS....COOL SURNAME
Sir, you make such good video's that are so historically accurate and well documented that they could/should be used to teach kids in school about the history of where they live. Outstanding job Martin.
Be great if they could get into the glenfield tunnel in Leicester the worlds longest underground railway tunnel in the world when built u end up coming into someone's driveway via a drain cap at the end through a drain lid
Another Attenborough-quality documentary Martin; Thanks for taking us along. No-one seems to have mentioned this in the comments: yer beams in the cutting are flying buttresses/flying arches. In your area, there's a famous set on the Manchester - Preston line at Chorley but the best-known are probably the set in Sydney Gardens at Bath. There was a great hoo-hah about them because of the proposals for the GW electrification. Don Coffey gives some history of the Chorley ones on his Hazel Grove - Blackpool North video at about 55 mins in ........... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G1_x21mCfoE.html Loved that still of the reflectors in the tunnel too ~ very arty-farty👏 The effects at the very end were very atmospheric too - the purple, maybe not so much but that's probably just me. Another CLASSIC Sir, well done.👌 Cheers for now, Dougie.
Great to be back and in the groove of your wonderful videos ! I've been on the move for the last few months , so , I have some good viewing to catch up on ! thank you Martin for making it so worthwhile !!xx
@@MartinZero I haven't Martin, I'm in Liverpool. I mentioned it as most of the disused railways here have been turned into trails, some link up to the Transpennine way. Hopefully someone from Preston will raise it.
So many videos . . . You must spend all your spare time researching Martin!, btw next time you do disused railway lines . . . take some small Secateurs with you!. Another fantastic video Martin, Thank you :)
Thanks for another interesting video. Coal trains were still running through Miley tunnel to the Household Coal depot at Deepdale until the mid 1990's.
Another fantastic video Martin, I am currently working at the Red Scar Works which as you rightly say was the old Courtaulds works which was once the largest Rayon Fabric producing factory in Britain. Only last week during some excavation work, some old rail lines were uncovered. Keep up the good work.
Another great video, Martin - Well done. The survey targets in the tunnel wall look as if they were placed there to measure any tunnel wall movement/distortion. Judging by the extensive amount of rebricking of the crown of the tunnel, there have been ongoing stability problems in the area and if they are planning to open part of the tunnel for use, they want to be sure there is no significant movement still occurring. Another thought - the bricks are quite clean compared with the sections where the tunnel is fully masonry lined. Why no smoky deposits? Surely relining would have been done pre 1960s? Have you explored the line going in the other direction? Towards Grimsargh and the Whittingham Hospital (The largest mental hospital in England in its day)
I'm another ex Mancunian who even now living hundreds of miles away and likely double your own age simply relishes your channel. . As you will know the Lancaster Canal was never connected directly to the Leeds and Liverpool. Instead a tramway was built between a spur of the latter and the Lancaster. in Preston There's a lot of detail to be found on the old OS maps on the NLS site. The track of the tramway was largely passable a couple of decades ago and might be worth exploring . The basin on the L&L was obliterated when the M6 was constructed. It might also be be interesting to try and access the tunnel that passed under Preston from the North Bank of the Ribble starting not very far from the existing railway main line and Preston Station.
It’s fascinating just how much Victorian infrastructure is still around but hidden...as ever the use of old maps really brings our rich industrial history mostly lost right back to life....brilliant..and as I’ve commented on nodrog’s video you guys must do more of these....👍
Don't know if you're interested but the tall church at the end of the Miley tunnel is St Walburge's it is the third tallest in England Spire height 309 feet (94 m) and was designed by Joseph Hansom who is more famous for the Hansom cab of Victorian England
I've just watched this video after a really stressful day of trying to figure out how to turn a steel casting into a copy of the original 1950's forging. Yes there are a few people still making things in Britain. I love that the track bed is still there so there's hope that some of it will be reinstated once our dumb as ditchwater governments realise what a mistake wrecking the railway network was. Sorry, I don't want to get political but I think railways are the future as well as the past!
Paused it at 2:11 and straight off the bat - Soot plume on that bridge! It'll be a long time since the steamers that left that, last ran down that line, and then, "Tracks" - But sadly neglected tracks! The 'bull head' is flattened, and the edges well rolled over. I'd guess those tracks were abandoned in situ because they're well knackered and weren't worth recovering - It would need a good lad with an angle grinder to restore the profile to those tracks! 🚂 There isn't a lot to be found about the intermediate stations, but there is, on Nick Catford's excellent website "Disused Stations", this about Longridge www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/longridge/index.shtml . For those who haven't yet discovered the site, it's well worth a visit. Aargh, a ghost! You need to invest in a 'PK' meter, and a 'MEL' meter, those are what all the professional ghost hunters using these days! 😋 👻 🙀 and don't forget, ghosts don't like 'infinity' mirrors - apparently, they can get in, but can't find their way out. 😥 All-in-all, that's a ruddy good video there, Martin, Nodrog and Martin (sounds like a firm of solicitors!) - "Nodgrog" was my pet name for Gordon Brown, a former British PM (Nodrog the Broon). That's going back a few years! Anyway, it's good to hear that the line could be reopened and reused, even if not as a 'real' railway. It certainly looks a lot more complete than some lines I can think of, an I will always maintain that it was a mistake to close down so many railway lines, and a gross error in judgement to allow so much redevelopment on former railway sites. Ooh, how I'd love to ride a handcart through that tunnel! Oh, and remember, ghost are just as scared of us, as we are of them! 😜 👲 💀 👻
I really enjoyed that video , thankyou Martin and your two pals. When you have people who really have a passion for what they enjoy ,they pass on their knowledge in an understanding and enjoyable way ,.Well done guys and keepup the good work , thanks again
