I lived for a while not too far from here around 1980, in Monton, and actually knew people in Temple Drive, so have a bit of interest. The lost houses site where the collapse happened had all the appearance of a WW2 bomb site, couple of houses missing, the semis on either side cut in half with obvious new side walls. I was told initially it was mining subsidence, not unknown in this part of onetime South Lancashire. The site has since been taken for a decidedly ramshackle looking set of garages.
Reading the 1950s accident report on the collapse after the thread of just a few months ago, linked above, mentioned it, I felt straight away that the issue of the railway records being lost in 1940 during the war was somewhat irrelevant, as the houses quite obviously dated from about 1910, around the time when the electric tramway had been put in along Manchester Road, at the end of the street, when there seemed much development of this part of suburban Manchester (which the area in reality is). Our house in Monton was very similar, possibly by the same local builder. The tunnel has always been clearly shown on detailed OS maps, and it seems both original landowner who sold it, the builder, and various solicitors who did searches, probably never enquired of the railway in the 30 years between building and the loss of the records.
From a railway view, the LNWR seems to have built this line, expensively, to make a connection with the then independent line from Clifton Junction to Bury and beyond, which had got into arguments with the main Bolton company's line it used into Manchester. Once these two consolidated up together into the Lancashire & Yorkshire, this purpose was principally lost. It seemed a bit strange anyway as it didn't offer an alternative route for the Bury company into Manchester as the junction at Patricroft faced the wrong way, towards Liverpool, though it could readily have gone the other way. It's almost as if they were looking at traffic from Liverpool and its docks to Bury and East Lancashire.
