Harecastle Tunnel

Harecastle Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal. It is made up of 2 separate, parallel, tunnels described as "Brindley" (2880 yards) and the later "Telford" (2926 yards) after the engineers that constructed them. Today only the Telford tunnel is navigable. The tunnel is one way and boats are sent through in groups, alternating Northbound and Southbound. Ventilation is handled by a large fan at the south portal.

Brindley Tunnel

The Brindley tunnel was constructed by James Brindley between 1770 and 1777. Brindley died during its construction. At the time of its construction it was twice the length of any other tunnel in the world.

To construct the canal, the line of the tunnel was ranged over the hill and then fifteen vertical shafts were sunk into the ground. It was from these that heads were driven on the canal line. Problems faced was the change in the rock type which ranged from soft earth to Millstone Grit. The construction site was also subject to flooding regularly, a problem which was overcome by the construction of steam engines to operate the pumps. Stoves were installed at the bottom of upcast pipes to overcome the problem of ventilation. [cite book|author=A. W. Skempton|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland|year=2002|publisher=Thomas Telford|isbn=072772939X]

It had no towpath and so boatsmen had to leg their way through the tunnel. This was done by lying on the roof of the boat and pushing on the sides of the tunnel with your feet. It could take up to three hours to get through the tunnel. The tunnel was twelve feet tall at its tallest point and was nine feet wide at its widest, which proved to be too small in later years. [cite book|title=The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette|year=1841|publisher=M. Salmon] The tunnel suffered subsidence in the early 20th century and was closed after a partial collapse in 1914. [cite book|author=Neil Cossons|title=The BP Book of Industrial Archaeology|year=1987|publisher=David & Charles PLC] . Inspections of the disused tunnel continued until the 1960s, but since that time, there has been no attempt to investigate the interior of the tunnel at any significant distance from the portals.

The gated portals can still be seen from the canal, although it is no longer possible to approach the mouth of the tunnel in a boat.

In recent times, water entering the canal from the Brindley tunnel has been blamed for much of the prominent iron ore (responsible for the rusty colour of the water( in the canal, and there are proposals to install filtering (possibly by reed beds) at the northern portal.

Telford Tunnel

Due to the amount of traffic and the slow process of legging, the Harecastle Tunnel was becoming a major bottleneck on the canal. It was decided to commission a second tunnel to be built by Thomas Telford. Due to advances in engineering it took just 3 years to build and was completed in 1827. It had a towpath so that horses could pull the boats through the tunnel. After its construction it was used in conjunction with the Brindley tunnel with each tunnel taking traffic in opposite directions.

Between 1914 and 1954 an electric tug was used to pull boats through the tunnel. In 1954 a large fan was constructed at the south portal. While all the boats are within the tunnel an air tight door is shut and all the air is pulled through the tunnel by the fan. This allows diesel boats to use the tunnel without suffocating the boaters. Today the journey takes about 30-40 minutes.

In the late 20th Century, the Telford tunnel also began to suffer subsidence, and was closed for several years. The towpath, long disused, was removed, allowing boats to take advantage of the greater air draft in the centre of the tunnel.

A series of smaller canal tunnels are joined to the Telford tunnel. These tunnels connected to coal mines at Golden Hill and allowed both the drainage of the mines and the export of coal directly from the mines to the canal tunnel without the necessity of first hauling it to the surface. Small boats of ten tons capacity were used in this endeavour.cite book |last= Rolt|first= L T C|title= Narrow Boat|origdate= 1944|edition= |date= 2000|publisher= Sutton Publishing|isbn= 0-7509-0806-8]

The Ghost of Harecastle Tunnel

The decapitated body of Kit Crewbucket was thrown into the canal in the 1800s. It is believed that she now haunts Harecastle Tunnel. Some boatmen took long detours to avoid the tunnel and today the tunnel keepers relate tales of occasional mismatches in the number of boats going in and coming out. Such tales are, however, fanciful, as any such discrepancy would result in a major search operation.

ee also

*List of canal tunnels in Great Britain
*Legging (canals)

References