Patcham Tunnel (or Compulsory Tunnel) is a railway

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

on the

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through the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

between Preston Park and

Hassocks Hassocks is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields. Located approximately north of Brighton, with a population of 8 ...

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, England. It is 446 metres (488 yards) long. Its construction was neither necessitated by the local geography nor originally intended but, following the objections of a local landowner, the tunnel's creation was specifically stipulated by

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in the authorising Act. Accordingly, the London and Brighton Railway had their line directed through a purpose-built tunnel instead of a cutting. Patcham Tunnel was constructed between 1840 and 1841; the work was beset by a collapse part-way through. Entering service as intended, the tunnel has demonstrated a tendency to flood and has been repeatedly blamed for the sporadic cancellations of services on the Brighton Main Line.

History

Patcham Tunnel was constructed by the London and Brighton Railway as one element of the first line between

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

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. The original plans for the railway did not involve a tunnel at this location, but engineers had not predicted that the owner of Patcham Place, a Major Paine, would refuse permission for a cutting to be constructed through land that he owned. Thus, it was decided to construct a tunnel running underneath Coney Wood. In reference to the origins of the tunnel, said to have been unnecessary save for a clause inserted into the Act of Parliament authorising the line's construction, it was sometimes referred to as the ''Compulsory Tunnel''. Construction of Patcham Tunnel took place between 1840 and 1841. The engineer for the line was

John Urpeth Rastrick John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...

, but the contractor responsible for the brick lined tunnel is not known. It features a single ventilation shaft along its bore. Partway through construction, the tunnel suffered a collapse, although no fatalities were attributed to the incident. Between October 2018 and February 2019, Patcham Tunnel was subject to a series of scheduled repairs as part of a £300m improvement programme on the Brighton Main Line; work was undertaken to reduce the ingress of water and re-lay the tracks during temporary closures. However, occasional closures of the line due to flooding of Patcham tunnel have persisted even after these remedial works were completed.

References

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External links

Patcham Tunnel via routeyou.com

Patcham Tunnel, north end via geograph.org.uk
Railway tunnels in England Tunnels completed in 1841 Tunnels in East Sussex