The Edge Hill cutting, just to the West of the existing Edge Hill station, still preserves abundant evidence of the original features of the 1826-30 construction. At the time of our visit it had been abandoned for railway use, it leads to three tunnels (from right to left in the illustration): the 'Stephenson' tunnel to Crown Street (1829 date Stone at far end!), a tunnel to Wapping Goods Station, and the wider, 1846 Crown street tunnel. We visited the site in August 1980, just as it's management had been temporally taken over from British Rail, by the Edge Hill Railway Trust and a Visitor's Centre and cleaned up railway trail were under construction. We were given a personal guided tour by a member of this group, and shown the various features excavated during the mid 70's , including the base of the Moorish Arch and the stone edged rope haulage channels used to haul coaches and waggons up from the docks. An excellent, colour, illustrated pamphlet, describing the history of the site , "Railways Began Here" was published at the time, and we still have our copy, shown here on the right! Since then the Edge Hill Railway Trust has died, as access has been restricted because the Crown Hill tunnel has been taken over as part of the Mersey Rail underground system.

View of the Moorish Arch, Edge Hill Cutting, Liverpool, published by R. Ackerman 1831

Edge Hill Cutting, Liverpool, a similar viewpoint to the above, August 1980.
A guide from the Edge Hill railway Trust explains the site to my wife and young son Andrew.

Explanatory key to features visible in the photo:

  S= Stephenson's 1829 Crown Street Tunnel,
I was just in front of this when I took the above photo.
  ST= Original entrances to Stables.
  BH1= 1836 Boiler House for Lime Street Engines at Edge Hill.
  RW= Stone edge to rope haulage mechanism.
  ES= The Engineer's Stairs
  MA= Base of the Moorish Arch (now demolished)

A Ventilation Shaft visible between Edge Hill and Lime Street.

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