RAIL 475/255

Special supplement from Liverpool Daily Post dated 16 July 1934, commemorating opening of tunnel

Date range	1934
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series RAIL, subseries RAIL 475

Context

As the title of the piece suggests, this is a copy of the special supplement published by the Liverpool Daily Post in July 1934 to mark the opening of the Queensway (road) tunnel under the Mersey. It is hard to say why it is filed under 'RAIL' when it is entirely of road-related significance. Category:Subseries RAIL 475 contains the files of the Mersey Railway Company, the owners of the only previously-existing crossing of the Mersey, so presumably it was collected by them and was then retained when their files were archived after nationalisation of the railways. Other files make it clear that they were very concerned by the new tunnel and objected to it at every opportunity. It follows that they were keen to collect all available information on the project.

The file contains just one item - the broadsheet newspaper pull-out itself. It is on eighty year old paper which is thinner than the newsprint used today, and as such is incredibly fragile. It has been roughly folded into four, so most pages have a worn hole in the middle, and the paper is not so much in danger of tearing as flaking away. Opening it out and turning pages can be a slow and tedious exercise.

Chris Marshall has filled in a form requesting preservation work, but it's difficult to see what can be done to it, as it is printed very finely on both sides of every sheet.

Contents of note

• Text describing - in excruciating detail - the administration, construction and opening of the tunnel.
• Photographs of the tunnel, inside and out, not found elsewhere.
• Contemporary adverts, etc.

Links to other files

MT 39/123 TUNNELS: Mersey Tunnel (1923-1928)

MT 39/488 WAR MEASURES: Mersey Tunnel: storage of war material (1940)

MT 118/261 Birkenhead Mersey Tunnel approaches , A41 (1966-1970)

RAIL 475/241 Pontoon bridges at Birkenhead and Liverpool (1913-1925)

RAIL 475/250 Operation of tramways and buses through vehicular tunnel (1925-1927)

RAIL 475/276 Plans showing tunnel entrances, route of tunnel and longitudinal section received from Basil Mott (1925)

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy, including only the photographs.