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First Avenue, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST7 1DP

A canal narrowboat waits to enter the tunnel. (Note the tunnel-keepers moped outside the admin office)!

Harecastle Tunnel is on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove. There are actually two separate, parallel, tunnels named Brindley (2,880 yards or 2,633 metres) and the later Telford (2,926 yards or 2,675 metres) after the engineers that constructed them. The Brindley tunnel was constructed by James Brindley between 1770 and 1777, it was closed after a partial collapse in 1914. The Telford Tunnel is only wide enough to carry traffic in one direction at a time and boats are sent through in groups, alternating northbound and southbound. An air extraction fan-house has been built around the south portal to aid ventilation in the tunnel. It takes 45 minutes to travel through the tunnel. The rusty colour of the water is caused by water entering the canal from the Brindley tunnel which contains iron oxide, there are proposals to install filtering (possibly using reed beds) at the northern portal.

The closed old tunnel on the right was barred by an old narrow boat, with walkway to the tunnel keeper's office. The new tunnel still had a towpath right through, but this had subsided below water level in stretches, and the railing was often broken. Consequently boats had to keep off the tunnel centre, leading to particularly reduced headroom in subsidence zones. Few hire operators allowed their boats through, because of real or imagined headroom clearance, and the real hazard of boat damage on the submerged towpath. Since 1961 the towpath has been removed, allowing boats to centralize in the tunnel arch.

Mind your heads please! The chains hanging at the entrance indicate the minimum clearance, if your boat touches them you will not get through. This one will be lucky to keep his coal. The gentleman in the black waistcoat is the tunnel keeper, he is constantly in touch with the keeper at the other end to make sure everybody who goes in comes out. I don't think they have lost anyone yet. The paved towpath ends 3 or 4 yards into the tunnel, at one time there was a wooden platform all the way through for horses to walk on and a rail to stop them falling in. Do you think they are allowed to keep the beans when they do the dredging?

Harecastle Tunnel is on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove. There are actually two separate, parallel, tunnels named Brindley (2,880 yards or 2,633 metres) and the later Telford (2,926 yards or 2,675 metres) after the engineers that constructed them. The Brindley tunnel was constructed by James Brindley between 1770 and 1777, it was closed after a partial collapse in 1914. The Telford Tunnel is only wide enough to carry traffic in one direction at a time and boats are sent through in groups, alternating northbound and southbound. An air extraction fan-house has been built around the south portal to aid ventilation in the tunnel. It takes 45 minutes to travel through the tunnel. The rusty colour of the water is caused by water entering the canal from the Brindley tunnel which contains iron oxide, there are proposals to install filtering (possibly using reed beds) at the northern portal.

The milepost is along the towpath near the northern end of Harecastle Tunnel. Image, for the previous milepost at the southern portal of the tunnel. Image, for the next milepost along the canal.

This is the northern portal of the iconic Trent & Mersey Canal tunnel. The tunnel keeper has put the barrier down indicating that boaters should not enter until they are given permission to do so. This is essential because boats cannot pass inside the tunnel and at the time a convoy of four boats was making its way northwards. In places headroom is restricted so boats must be able to pass under the bar suspended from the tunnel mouth.

The tunnel was constructed in 1777, supplemented by the parallel 'new' tunnel in 1827, and closed in 1914 due to subsidence and structural collapse. It hasn't even been officially surveyed in the last 50 years, though as it is not bricked up (to allow groundwater to drain out), I expect that 'urban explorers' do find their way in.

This is a view of two canal boats waiting to enter the Harecastle Tunnel. The current tunnel, built by Thomas Telford, can be seen to the left of the original James Brindley tunnel. The original tunnel was a severe bottleneck on the canal, hence the reason for the building of the second tunnel to overcome this problem. The original tunnel was closed due to subsidence early in the 20th century.

The north entrance to the 5th longest navigable canal tunnel in England.