Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Bidston Hill Underground Tunnels Part 1

have you noticed that a lot of the things that are being found as poss entrances on the hill seem to be the same red brick is this just coincidence ,and they seem to be of the same type thats in the tunnels ,we have found poss evidence of an old entrance to some where blocked off which has used the same brick;see old flaybrick road

Yes, I have noticed that. I am still not sure we have found the entrance in the rods as yet, I have yet to see any evidence of this, and our planned search for it never happened. Atm, the only evidence I see is the place me and Totopop believe to be the other exit, about 100 yards to the left of the main entrance.

I enjoyed our big skirmish across the hill looking for the shaft last summer, and if the entrance in the rods isnt found in the next few months, I would love to do another one hehe!

In 1979 when they demolished the building they litterally lifted the roof up knocked the walls ito the shaft and lowered the roof back down to the ground, at a rough estimate I would say the slab would be about 10ftx10ft the walls of the shaft are built of brick and the easiest way in would definately be to dig a hole at the side of the slab untill the brickwork is enearthed and then go in through the wall but remember that the walls of the building might have damaged the landings so going in by rope would be the safest bet

If you do get in and you find the steel doors....... who knows what is behind them

Oh, don't worry, jonno, no detention centre for you; straight to the gallows

Do you know how they lifted the slab? It must weigh several tons.

Cheers, Chris.

Well that is what puzzled us at the time been as we were not there when they demolished it I can only assume that they got a JCB up there to do the job

not sure if you guys have found this but,if you follow the path past the cock pit on the left there is a little track that goes off into the wood when you follow it you come accros this (see pics).they are dodgy pics (sorry) but there is a concrete slab that was covered in foliage with a lot of old red brick walls in the soil around it the slab at rough estimate is about 6x8 and extremely thick.we had to dig some to find it .you can see the length on the pic with the other half in she is stood at the far end and pic taken from bottom.think that there has deffo been a small red bricked building there at some point .

I think its one of our first discoveries on the top looking
for the vent shaft.

If where your saying is at the mini cross roads

turn right = cockpit
turn left = that pile of rubble after about 30 - 40 paces?

We can say its pretty much a decoy.
But yes there used to be look out "Red Brick Buildings" Up there.

I think you have the bug like we had too lol

think so.but not sure we r talking about the same place or maybe we are ,dont remember the mini crossroad and there wernt any rubble piles ,there were further up.and when you went did you expose any of the slab because this was pretty hidden.do you know if anyone has been to the archive service in the townhall

its hard to describe exactly where but you guys have been looking longer than me and the more i think about it you would probaly found this.so its back to scouring the hill lol

Hope this helps, the main entrance was one visable from the road and I wont be far off the mark with this, the ventilation shaft was on top of the hill virtually behind the main entrance it was only maybe 100-150 yards away from the main entrance as the crow flys, it was a free standing building in a clearing and not in the woods

well that blows my theory out the water lol ..

Just been back through this thread & from the pics. (page 8) there doesn't seem to be evidence of the brick walls having been knocked into the shaft, although that would seem to have been the logical thing to do. Do any members of the intrepid exploration team remember seeing a load of bricks? Also, the great video is no longer available, which is a pity. Anyone know why?

Cheers, Chris.

chriskay
The walls will not be visible the only clue will be the concrete slab I may well be wrong about about the walls getting dumped into the shaft the bricks may have been taken away I just posted what I believed to be true from what I was told at the time. Everything else I have posted is 100% accurate from first hand experiance. One other thing I forgot to mention though is that inside the shaft on one of the landings is a huge air raid siren so big that you can sit on top of it

Hi, Broad97; yes, I think the bricks weren't thrown into the shaft, I guess because the council didn't want to damage the ladders, just in case of possible future access. By all reports, there's quite a lot of bricks lying around the area, though I haven't seen them myself. The large item on the landing isn't an air raid siren, it's a ventilation fan, same as the ones used in the Tranmere tunnels.

Cheers, Chris.