The Foulridge Tunnel () is a

canal tunnel {{Refimprove, date=September 2009 A canal tunnel is a tunnel for a canal. The building of a canal tunnel is crucial to help a waterway that is normally used for shipping cross a difficult section of terrain. They are also constructed to reduce th ...

on the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

Foulridge Foulridge (pronounced ) is a village and civil parish in Pendle, Lancashire, close to the border with North Yorkshire in England. It is situated just beyond Colne, on the route from the M65 to Skipton, and is an important stopping point on summ ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. Also known as the Mile Tunnel, Foulridge is long and was built by

Samuel Fletcher Samuel Fletcher (died 1950) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba representing the Killarney constituency from 1920 to 1922. Fletcher worked as a farmer, and lived in Holmfield, Manitoba, where ...

, following

Robert Whitworth Robert Whitworth (1734 – 30 March 1799) was an English land surveyor and engineer, who learnt his trade under John Smeaton and James Brindley, and went on to become one of the leading canal engineers of his generation. Biography Whitworth was ...

's 1789 survey. The tunnel is the longest in the country to allow passage of

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

s and

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

Background

The building of the

began in 1770, but work on the over-budget project was suspended during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Under the original plan, the canal's route would not have required a tunnel at Foulridge, and instead additional

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

would have created a long summit level, higher, with the line passing through a reservoir. Before work on the canal resumed with

as engineer, he re-surveyed the route and recommended changes to improve the available water supply.

Construction

Construction of the tunnel began in December 1792, following Whitworth's 1789 survey. The project lasted almost five years; the final three years saw construction of the final of tunnel. Only of the tunnel's length—approximately two fifths—was built by the standard method of sinking shafts and boring horizontally. The majority of the tunnel was made using the

cut and cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A Pipeline transport, pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used ...

method, where the hill was excavated and the tunnel lining constructed before the hill excavation was infilled. This was a result of loose earth in the hillside that was not sufficiently stable to allow tunnelling below the hilltop. Once the tunnel was complete the canal opened to Colne Road in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

in 1796, where it would take another five years to complete the large embankment needed to cross the valley there.

Operational history

After the tunnel's opening in May 1796, the ''

Leeds Intelligencer The ''Leeds Intelligencer'', or ''Leedes Intelligencer'', was one of the first regional newspapers in Great Britain. It was founded in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1754 and first published on 2 July 1754. It was a weekly paper unt ...

'' described the tunnel as "the most complete work of the kind in England, if not in Europe". A local story purports that on 24 September 1912, a cow fell into the canal at Blue Slate Farm,

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds. The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne Val ...

, near the southern portal. She then swam the length of the tunnel before being helped out and revived with

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

(or

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

) at the Hole in the Wall pub in Foulridge. Having no towpath, vessels traditionally navigated the tunnel by legging while the horses traversed above the tunnel. This practice ended at Foulridge in 1886 after the drowning of a legger; a double-ended

steam tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

was introduced in 1880 to haul vessels through and return without

winding An electromagnetic coil is an electrical conductor such as a wire in the shape of a coil (spiral or helix). Electromagnetic coils are used in electrical engineering, in applications where electric currents interact with magnetic fields, in de ...

. A

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

tug later replaced the steam boat; this service ended in 1937. To ensure that boats would not meet head-on in the tunnel, a telephone system was installed to control passage. In 1963, this was superseded by

traffic lights Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic light ...

. In 2017, the

Canal & River Trust The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the ...

allowed unpowered craft such as canoes and kayaks to use the tunnel.

Footnote

References

{{Borough of Pendle buildings Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Buildings and structures in the Borough of Pendle Canal tunnels in England

Background

Construction

Operational history

See also

Footnote

References