Maritime heritage was hidden beneath our feet

Sep 18 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered the remains of a dock wall going back to 1730, during a TimeTeam- style dig close to Liverpool’s Pier Head.

The excavation has unearthed a glimpse of Liverpool’s waterfront spanning three centuries - also including two long-forgotten cobbled streets, and remains of an ornate police station.

The treasures were discovered during work to prepare for developer Neptune’s £150m project to build three granite-faced wedge shaped buildings at Mann Island.

A team from Lancaster University-based Oxford Archeology North were commissioned to carry out the dig as part of the planning conditions set by Liverpool City Council.

So far one of the most intriguing finds is a complicated air ventilation system – a series of brick chambers – constructed as part of the first tunnel beneath the Mersey.

The tunnel was built for trains in the 1890s, and the ventilation chambers were needed to extract the vast amounts of steam and smoke from the steam trains transporting passengers between Liverpool and Wirral.

It was a spectacular failure and as a result the line was electrified – making it the world’s first electric trains system, now part of the extensive Merseyrail network.

The dig has also uncovered the remains of the original streetscape, including Bird Street and a street known as Nova Scotia, said to be named after the fact it was a Scottish engineer who worked on the dock developments in the 18th century.

The hope now is that the names will be remembered within the new schemes due to start later this year.

The excavation is aimed at recording an important slice of the city’s maritime heritage.

Boards detailing what is happening at the site have been posted up along the Strand, explaining the emerging historical finds to hundreds of passers-by.

Project manager Jamie Quartermaine says the excavation has given a snapshop of Liverpool’s maritime development – from the 1700s to the recently-demolished concrete and brick Mersey Mirror House, constructed in the 1960s.

“We have a number of old maps going back to the early 1700s and we can see the changes that have taken place since then. Our oldest find is a dock wall going back to around 1730.

“There is still a section of the old cut that linked the dock system with George’s Dock which itself was filled in to provide the land on which now stands the Three Graces.

“We have uncovered the remains of what was the old dock police office which appears to have been a grand structure facing the Strand, and there was a network of warehouses scattered around the site.

“Our job is to make a record of the site, using photography and, in some cases, three-dimensional imaging. We are talking to the developers about moving the building piles for the new structure to preserve the old 18th century dock wall,” said Mr Quartermaine.

ONCE the archeological team pull out in a few days’ time, the site will be handed over to the contractors who will cover up the remains of a slice of Liverpool’s history. Mr Quartermaine accepts that developments inevitably mean the memories of the past have to be covered.

“We’ve shown this site has undergone many changes and now it is entering its next phase,” he added.

Neptune is picking up the bill for the exercise, expected to cost thousands of pounds, before construction work begins.

What has been unearthed will be re-buried, but the knowledge gained during the dig will be recorded for future generations.

larryneild@dailypost.co.uk