Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, in the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
West MidlandsThe West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, is part of the
Birmingham Canal NavigationsBirmingham Canal Navigations is a network of navigable canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country...
, (BCN). It was constructed at a 453–foot
elevationThe elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
, the Wednesbury or Birmingham level; it has no locks. The total length of the branch canal is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) and the
canal tunnelA canal tunnel is a tunnel for a canal. The biggest canal tunnel in the world is the Rove Tunnel in France. The oldest canal tunnel in the world is the Malpas Tunnel also in France, built in 1679. In the United States there is the Paw Paw Tunnel that opened in 1850.In some canal tunnels the towpath...
is 9081 feet (2,768 m) long.
Netherton Tunnel was the last canal
tunnelA tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
to be built in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the Canal Age. The first sod was turned by Lord Ward on 31 December 1855 and the canal opened on 20 August 1858, providing a waterway connection between the
Black CountryThe Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...
towns of
NethertonNetherton is a town in the West Midlands within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. It lies around south of the town of Dudley and north of Cradley Heath...
and
TiptonTipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000. Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is a part of the Black Country....
. It was built to relieve the bottleneck of the adjacent
Dudley TunnelDudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today....
which is very narrow, has alternating blocks of one-way working, and had waiting times of eight hours or more, and sometimes several days.
The Netherton tunnel was built with a width of 27 feet (8.2 m) to allow two-way working of
narrowboatA narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of Great Britain.In the context of British Inland Waterways, "narrow boat" refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals...
s; and is
brickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
lined throughout. It has
towpathA towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge...
s running through it, one on each side, which enabled horse-drawn narrowboats to be pulled through it. Chainage (distance) markers are still visible on the Eastern wall. The tunnel was fitted, from the start, with gas lighting over the towpaths, though this was later converted to electricity and it is now unlit.
The towpaths were closed to members of the public in early 2007 but from October walkers are once again allowed to access the eastern towpath of the tunnel as a through route; gates have placed on both towpaths but only those on the western towpath are kept locked and can only be unlocked by authorised personnel. Today (July 2009) the northern gate on the western path is open and unlockable and the one on the southern gate disappeared altogether. Nevertheless the western towpath is very derelict with long and deep potholes full of water.
The air vents that run along the line of the tunnel and provide ventilation, and a shaft of light into the canal, are known by the locals as "pepper pots", because of their shape. They are brick lined and the openings are covered by an iron frame or grill. The wide bore and good ventilation mean that boats using the tunnel today are allowed to use the power of their
internal combustion engineThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
s, which is prohibited in the narrower Dudley Tunnel.
The tunnel cost £302,000 as opposed to the £238,000 estimate prior to construction. The main reason for the project being overbudget was the extra works necessitated by the condition of the ground through which the tunnel passes.
In 1983, the
British WaterwaysBritish Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...
Board had 80 yards (73.2 m) of the brick invert replaced with concrete as a result of the invert rising sufficiently to impede navigation.
Route
The canal runs south-west from the
BCN New Main LineThe BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line describes the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England....
at Dudley Port Junction and under the Old Main Line at Tividale Aqueduct. The northern mouth of the tunnel is near Dudley Road West, close to Tipton's border with
OldburyOldbury is a town in the West Midlands in England. It is a part of the Black Country and the administrative centre of the borough of Sandwell.-Local government:...
. An air-vent stands in the middle of Aston Road; another stands between two houses in Regent Road, both in the
Tividale Hall- History :The village was in the parish of St Michael named after the church built there. It was created in 1878 as an extension of the town of Tipton in the county of Staffordshire, England...
estate near
DudleyDudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
. The southern mouth of the tunnel is in Warrens Hall Park on the border of Dudley and
Rowley RegisRowley Regis is a town in the Sandwell metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county and a part of the Black Country in the United Kingdom. Being part of the Black Country, locals speak with the traditional dialect, though in a form regarded by many as the quickest and the hardest to...
- the
Bumble HoleThe present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit, in Bumble Hole and Warren's Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley No...
and
Cobb's Engine HouseCobb's Engine House in Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England, is a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade II listed building built around 1831. It housed a stationary steam pump used to pump water firstly from Windmill End Colliery and later other mines in the area...
are nearby. The Bumble Hole is a landscaped man made lake on the site of a former
clay pitA clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...
. The
Dudley No. 2 CanalThe Dudley Canal is a canal passing though Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh connected network of navigable inland waterways, and in particular forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising route....
and the Boshboil Canal Arm are joined at Windmill End Junction. The Boshboil Arm was once part of a loop of the original Dudley Canal which went around Bumble Hole. This loop ceased to be part of the main line when a more direct line was cut. The loop became severed into two arms as a result of subsidence. The northern arm is the Boshboil Arm the southern is the
Bumble Hole BranchThe present day Bumble Hole Branch Canal and Boshboil Branch surround Bumble Hole, a water-filled clay pit, in Bumble Hole and Warren's Hall Nature Reserve, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, England. They formed a looped part of the original Dudley No...
.
Features
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| Point |
CoordinatesA geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represent vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position...
(links to map & photo sources) |
| Dudley Port Junction |
52.52204°N 2.04331°W |
| Groveland Bridge (Tipton Road, A457) |
52.51758°N 2.04760°W |
| Tividale Aqueduct (Old BCN Main Line) |
52.51640°N 2.04843°W |
| Northern tunnel portal |
52.51534°N 2.04948°W |
| Aston Road air vent |
52.50850°N 2.05518°W |
| Regent Road air vent |
52.50697°N 2.05708°W |
| Approx. tunnel mid-point |
52.50435°N 2.05932°W |
| Southern tunnel portal |
52.49335°N 2.06916°W |
| Windmill End Junction |
52.49157°N 2.07019°W |
External links