Somerton Tunnel is located between

Somerton Somerton may refer to: Places Australia * Somerton, New South Wales * Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb ** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach * Somerton, Victoria ...

and

Langport Langport is a small town and civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Somerton in the South Somerset district. The parish, which covers only part of the town, has a population of 1,081. Langport is contiguous with Huish Episcopi, a separate ...

on the

Reading to Taunton Line Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. The tunnel was constructed by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) on the

Langport and Castle Cary Railway The Langport and Castle Cary Railway is a railway line from Castle Cary railway station to Cogload Junction near Taunton, Somerset, England, which reduced the length of the journey from London to Penzance by . History Through trains from Londo ...

. Remnants of its construction remain in the villages of

Charlton Mackrell Charlton Mackrell is a village in civil parish of The Charltons, in the county of Somerset, England, situated east of Somerton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 1,020. The parish consists of two villages, Charlton ...

and Long Sutton. Completed during 1906 and in use since, the tunnel is just under a kilometre in length.Langmaid, Nancy. (c2009) "The Wooldridge Album." Somerton Tunnel, Retrieved: 31 July 2021.

History

Tunnelling was aided by the use of explosives. During its construction, explosives were stored in a powder house in Charlton Mackrell; according to local historical Derrick Warren, this structure is still standing. Another building believed to have been used as an explosives store is located at a distance from the tunnel's western portal in Long Sutton, is in a derelict condition. A worker was killed during the tunnel's construction in an incident that involved blasting charges that had failed to detonate as planned. Somerton Tunnel has been subject to minor remedial works. In March 2020,

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

undertook work to improve drainage in the tunnel.

References

Railway tunnels in England Tunnels in Somerset Somerton, Somerset {{Somerset-struct-stub