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Report - - Birkenhead Town station tunnels, Monks and Woodside, Sept 16 | Underground Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Birkenhead Town station tunnels, Monks and Woodside, Sept 16

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The Kwan

28DL Regular User
Regular User
This place has been one of those elusive places, it gets opened up and locked down within hours and it has been a pain in the arse for along while, last time it was open was in 2014 and myself , Ojay and Stopforth Lad got round there swifto only to find two brand new locks fitted by Network/Mersyrail that very afternoon, so we dipped out and ended up in the pub which helped ease the pain :)
Roll on 2016 and after numerous whispers about them being open and rolling up to find them locked down, we got a heads up that they were open again, so Ojay made the trek up again and we met Trancentral near the tunnels.
This time we found them open and we were thrilled to get inside after such a long wait, it was a peice of local history that for me was long overdue to see in the flesh.
We ended up in the pub again afterwards but this time we were a very happy bunch :)

Birkenhead Town Station
was openend in January 1889 and had tunnels reaching to Woodside ferry and Monks Ferry, it was via two single track tunnels and the Monks Ferry Tunnel was normally used to take supplies and equipment to Cammell laird Ship builders.
Birkenhead town station as it was
birkenhead_town6.jpg

The station provided a dwindling service until 1945 when trains stopped altogether, the building remained until the late 1960's but was derelict and unused.
here you can see the two tunnels that still exist today and you can also see the remains of the booking office above the tunnels.
towntunnel.jpg


All these years later and the tunnels still remain but they are overgrown and the area is ravaged by smack heads, it really is so overgrown that it is like walking through a jungle, if you look at te image above, we are standing outside the Left portal.
here is el Gruppo shot when we found the tunnels open, this is the Woodside leg of the tunnel
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Some lovely calcite deposits on the brick walls, there was water running down sections of the tunnels and at points we could hear traffic passing overhead.
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This section is now under a housing development at what was once Monks Ferry, this lid pops up in a courtyard that is now a gated carpark for some posh flats.
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I was pleased with the sharpness of my newly rebuilt and repaired sigma 10-20mm, check out the blue engineering brick..blue blacks I think they were called.
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I was not sure WTF this was but decided that it was probably for a built in telly or something :)
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lovely brick sections built off the sandstone rock


This place has gates behind gates but it was nice to be on the inside this time.
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The Woodside tunnel seemed to be mainly Sandstone block
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BSA I reckon?
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Me and Deano, giving it Large..Ojay was off doing creative lighting.
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I went back two days later with L-iam to get some video footage, only to find it locked up again with tons of vandal grease spunked all over the show, but I was feeling a little bit smug with myself this time :)

Thanks for looking.
 
Last edited:

The Kwan

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Happen it was the other way round ;)
Haha, this is true, I should be ashamed of myself sometimes being so close and being so lazy, Ojay was on to me after hearing whispers, he wanted to see the tunnels and I wanted to go to the pub...we both won :D
seriously, it was a long time coming :thumb
 

The Kwan

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Thanks for the kind words folks :)
@0xygen Thief there must be a good 5 feet of silt and mud built up in there, we could see the top of some brick arch refuge points just showing above the present floor level :)
 
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