I read this on the Liverpool Forum ............. apparently this was included in a book by Richard Whittington-Egan ... how intriguing ... don't you think ??
It referred to a cylinder, which was found near the junction of Great Homer Street and Kirkdale Road, although my memory is a bit hazy on this. The site had been bombed and burned out during the blitz and when the area was cleared after the war, the cylinder, which was about seven feet long and two feet in diameter, was dislodged from the ruins of one of the buildings which had stood there and left on the waste ground where it lay for a year or so. While some children were playing round it one day, one of them noticed a mummified human foot poking out of one end and fetched the police. It was naturally assumed that the body inside must have been a casualty of the blitz and the cylinder was taken to the city mortuary to be opened. When it was, it caused something of a stir. The body inside was not a casualty of the 1940s but was that of a man dressed in the fashion of the late Victorian period and he had been dead for about seventy years. Far from being in the cylinder by accident, he was actually lying on a rough bed with a pillow at his head. The ends of the cylinder had been hammered shut from outside.
Some documentation was found on him, with letters dated from the 1870s and a forensic scientist was able to decipher his name and address from what he found
Details from Richard Whittington-Egan.
The discovery - Friday 13th July 1945
The location - The corner of Fulford street and Great Homer Street
Date of death - possibly July 4th 1885
Identified as - (probably) Thomas Cregeen Williams (paperwork in pocket)
Resided at - 29 Clifton Road, Anfield.
Married to - Elizabeth Lea (died aged 42 - buried at Anfield Cemetery)
Place of work - Owned T.C. Williams & Co. paintworks at 18-20 Leeds St
Cause of death - Unknown.
Reason for death - Possible suicide - as he was being inspected by accountants.
Or - Possible accident as the result of crawling in there to sleep.