Sapperton Canal Tunnel
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Sapperton Canal Tunnel
The Sapperton Canal Tunnel is a tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England. With a length of , it was the longest tunnel of any kind in England from 1789 to 1811. Construction, following an Act of Parliament, began in 1784. Twenty-six shafts were dug along the line of the tunnel and workfaces dug in each direction eventually joining up before the diameter of the tunnel was expanded. Difficulties were encountered related to strata of Great Oolite (solid limestone) and Fuller's Earth clay. These caused roof falls and narrowing of the channel which continued after the tunnel opened in 1789 and required frequent maintenance. The stone portals at either end are listed buildings. Boats passed through by legging until 1911. The canal was abandoned by 1933 and subsequent roof falls mean that it is no longer navigable. Cotswold Canals Trust have proposed restoration. History The Thames and Severn Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament on ...
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Thames And Severn Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south-west of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a cargo route from Bristol and the Midlands to London, linking England's two largest rivers for better trade. The route climbs the steep Cotswold escarpment through the Golden Valley, tunnels underneath the summit of the Cotswold Edge, and emerges near the source of the Thames. At its eastern end, it connects to the top of the navigable Thames at Inglesham Lock near Lechlade, while at its western end, it connects to the Stroudwater Navigation at Wallbridge near Stroud, and thence to the River Severn. It had one short arm (branch), from Siddington to the town of Cirencester. It includes Sapperton Tunnel, which when built was the longest canal tunnel in Britain, and remains the second-longest complete tunnel. There were always problems with water supply, as no reservoirs were built, while the summit section near the tunnel ran through p ...
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Spoil Tip
A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of Carboniferous sandstone and other residues. Spoil tips are not formed of slag, but in some areas, such as England and Wales, they are referred to as slag heaps. In Scotland the word ''bing'' is used. The term "spoil" is also used to refer to material removed when digging a foundation, tunnel, or other large excavation. Such material may be ordinary soil and rocks (after separation of coal from waste), or may be heavily contaminated with chemical waste, determining how it may be disposed of. Clean spoil may be used for land reclamation. Spoil is distinct from tailings, which is the processed material that remains after the valuable components have been extracted from ore. Etymology The phrase originates from the French word ...
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Thames Basin
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn. The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary. From the west it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The Thames also drains the whole of Greater London. In August 2022, the source of the river moved five miles to beyond Somerford Keynes due to the heatwave in July 2022. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its long tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of . From Oxford to the Estuary the Thames drops by 55 metres. Running through some of the drier parts of ...
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River Severn
, name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_caption = Tributaries (light blue) and major settlements on and near the Severn (bold blue) , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_size = 288 , pushpin_map_caption= , subdivision_type1 = Country , subdivision_name1 = England and Wales , subdivision_type2 = , subdivision_name2 = , subdivision_type3 = Region , subdivision_name3 = Mid Wales, West Midlands, South West , subdivision_type4 = Counties , subdivision_name4 = Powys, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire , subdivision_type5 = Cities , subdivision_name5 = Shrewsbury, Worcester, Gloucester, Bristol , length = , width_min = , width_avg = , width_max = , depth_min = , depth_avg = ...
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Cotswold Edge
The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat rare in the UK and that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone. The predominantly rural landscape contains stone-built villages, towns, and stately homes and gardens featuring the local stone. Designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1966, the Cotswolds covers making it the largest AONB. It is the third largest protected landscape in England after the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks. Its boundaries are roughly across and long, stretching southwest from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath near Radstock. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties; mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of W ...
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Sapperton Railway Tunnel
The Sapperton Railway Tunnel is a railway tunnel near Sapperton, Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom. It carries the Golden Valley Line from Stroud to Swindon through the Cotswold escarpment. It was begun by the Cheltenham and Great Western Union railway in 1839 and taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1843, being completed in 1845. There are actually two tunnels, the main one at in length, and separated by a short gap, a second at . Construction, engineering, and maintenance difficulties The initial plans for the tunnel, dating from 1835, were unusual in that it was proposed to construct the tunnel on a curve, but this seems to have been abandoned before any construction was done; some works remain which are thought to relate to the approach route for the original line, but no excavations were made on that line for the tunnel itself. In 1836 "Mr Brunel" was appointed as engineer for the project; this refers to Isambard, but the involvement of "Mark (sic) Brunel" i ...
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Tourist
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic (within the traveller's own country) or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown (the late-2000s recession) between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and in consequence of the outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered until the COVID-19 ...
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Fuller's Earth
Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite. Modern uses of fuller's earth include as absorbents for oil, grease, and animal waste (cat litter) and as a carrier for pesticides and fertilizers. Minor uses include filtering, clarifying, and decolorizing; active and inactive ingredient in beauty products; and as a filler in paint, plaster, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. It also has a number of uses in the film industry and on stage. Etymology The English name reflects the historic use of the material for fulling (cleaning and shrinking) wool, by textile workers known as ''fullers''. In past centuries, fullers kneaded fuller's earth and water into woollen cloth to absorb lanolin, oils, and other greasy impurities as part of the cloth finishing process. The original spelling was without an apostrophe, but th ...
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Thames And Medway Canal
The Thames and Medway Canal is a disused canal in Kent, south east England, also known as the Gravesend and Rochester Canal. It was originally some long and cut across the neck of the Hoo peninsula, linking the River Thames at Gravesend with the River Medway at Strood. The canal was first mooted in 1778 as a shortcut for military craft from Deptford and Woolwich Dockyards on the Thames to Chatham Dockyard on the Medway, avoiding the journey round the peninsula and through the Thames estuary. The canal was also intended to take commercial traffic between the two rivers. Construction The first practical attempt to build the canal began in 1799, when an engineer named Ralph Dodd published a pamphlet and began to solicit investment for the scheme. Dodd's plan was for a six-mile canal with locks and basins, taking two years to build and costing £24,576, part of the cost to be defrayed by selling the excavated chalk as agricultural lime. Dodd was confident that the canal would be ...
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Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The 60% smaller island of Ireland is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a landbridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's third-most-populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales, including their component adjoining islands. Great Britain and Northern Ireland now constitute the ...
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Standedge Tunnels
The Standedge Tunnels () are four parallel tunnels through the Pennine hills at the Standedge crossing between Marsden in Kirklees, West Yorkshire and Diggle in Oldham, Greater Manchester in northern England. Three are railway tunnels (containing the Huddersfield line) and the other is a canal tunnel. Before boundary changes in 1974, both ends of the tunnels were in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The canal tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament on 4 April 1794. Construction of a tunnel began months later. Within two years, cost-saving measures pushed back its completion date and progress was slowed by water levels much greater than had been expected. It proved difficult to secure skilled help, some tenders went unanswered and Benjamin Outram withdrew from the venture. In 1807, Thomas Telford drew up a new plan for its completion. In 1811, the tunnel opened. It is the longest and oldest of the four Standedge tunnels and is the longest ...
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