The Severn tunnel of 1810 was an unsuccessful plan for a

tramroad A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...

tunnel beneath the

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_c ...

. The tunnel was to cross the river at Arlingham Passage, at a location between

Newnham on Severn Newnham or Newnham on Severn is a village in west Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Royal Forest of Dean, on the west bank of the River Severn, approximately 10 miles south-west of Gloucester and three miles southeast of Cinderford. It is ...

and

Bullo Pill The Bullo Pill Railway was an early British railway, completed in 1810 to carry coal mined in the Forest of Dean Coalfield to a port on the River Severn near Newnham, Gloucestershire. It was later converted to a broad gauge steam line by the G ...

on the west bank, to the promontory near

Arlingham Arlingham is a village and civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, England. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 410, increasing to 459 at the 2011 census (226 males, 233 females with 176 Households). The parish contai ...

on the east. The intention was to take coal from the expanding

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

collieries. The proprietors of the Bullo Pill Railway Co. had already, in September 1809, completed the Haie Hill tunnel. They acquired the rights to an existing ferry crossing at Newnham Ferry and began construction of the tunnel, from the West bank. This tunnel was to carry road traffic and horse-drawn coal wagons on the tramroad. The bore was to be 13 ft high and 12 ft wide. This tramroad would have been built to match that already constructed onshore, as a four-foot gauge

plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...

with L-section

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

rails. Work began and the tunnel was extended well under the river. On Friday 13 November 1812 water broke into the tunnel. The tunnel was immediately flooded, and the workmen all managed to escape. Unlike the flooding of the later

Severn Tunnel The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...

, this flooding was too much for the rudimentary pumps of the day and so work was abandoned. In 1845, the engineer James Walker prepared a report, ''River Severn and South Wales Railway'', on

Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

's plans for railway bridges across the

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_c ...

. These bridges were to cross from nearby on the Arlingham promontory. Walker's report formed evidence for why the bridge plans were rejected, mostly on the grounds of their effect on shipping. A comment in the report though considered the tunnel plans to be sound and for the rock strata at this location to be amenable to tunneling. This positive report was sufficient to cause Brunel to again consider the crossing the river, this time by tunnel, and he is thought to have consulted with Vignoles on the subject. Brunel would later consider a bridge with a massive 1,100 ft span at this same point. Some masonry work, including a portion of tunnel lining, can still be seen in a field near Bullo today.

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Further reading