Side Openings From Blisworth Tunnel

[alan_fincher]

In his blog Adam Porter (narrow boat Briar Rose) has made reference to side openings present in Blisworth tunnel.

 

I had been aware of this for several years, when I was surprised to spot one with light shining through it.

 

I therefore have been trying to look out for these, although the current traffic levels in the tunnel tend to discourage you from trying to stop to actually examine them.

 

I now reckon if you are travelling South, there are at least two different openings on the left hand side, not long after you switch from the modern relined concrete section, back into the southern portion that is brick lined.

 

First one is at least a recess, easily big enough to get into in a squatted position I would say, but whilst I previously thought it linked to a further passage passing southwards, I was no longer sure of this on our recent passage.

 

However I now realise there are at least two, and the second one is passed only a short while after the first. This seems a smaller opening, maybe well under two feet high, but there is a distinct side tunnel of similar height running at right angles to the tunnel, and away from it by ten feet or more, maybe even twenty. At the end of this, it is very clearly lit by daylight, so it seems it must certainly link with a vertical shaft letting quite a bit of light down.

 

So is that side tunnel actually connected to a full air shaft offset from the line of the tunnel ? Or is it a much smaller shaft, not necessarily topped by one of those large brick funnels ? Either way, why does it exist at all ? Why would any shaft have been sunk from the surface with such an offset from the main tunnel ?

 

I know it doesn't really matter, but I'd love to hear an explanation if anybody knows it.

 

So how many "crawlable" openings or tunnels actually go off to either side, where are they, what do they connect to, and what was (or is) their purpose ?

 

I've not seen this mentioned in a published source, that I can recall ?

[Ryeland]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the tunnel alignment was changed during construction due to poor ground conditions at the Stoke Bruerne end. And the original part completed bore is still in use for drainage? So perhaps this could be a clue. I may have read this in the Stoke Bruerne museum, where I think there are some plans showing the changes.

 

Apologies if my memory is incorrect!!

 

Richard

[n.b.Goldie]

I do not know the answer but wonder if they could be anything to do with the tunnel's construction. I recall that when the tunnel was repaired stuff left over from its construction such as shovels and remains of a wheelbarrow were discovered in 'side chambers'.

 

Regards

Ditchdabbler

[Derek R.]

There has been much written about the tunnel's history and somewhere there are survey maps showing the original line which is a fair bit different to the existing tunnel.

 

Some history HERE, but better elsewhere (if I could find it!). That does show the side conduits though.

 

Some detail and maps HERE.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Derek R.

[Mike Tee]

Go to blisworth.org and look for the section on tunnel repairs

[RLWP]

Go to blisworth.org and look for the section on tunnel repairs

 

Here:

 

http://www.blisworth.org.uk/images/tunnel-1982.htm

 

Richard

[alan_fincher]

Go to blisworth.org and look for the section on tunnel repairs

 

 

Here:

 

http://www.blisworth.org.uk/images/tunnel-1982.htm

 

Richard

Nothing I can immediately see there gives any indication why you are able to clearly see daylight down at least one of these side passageways.

 

That would imply a vertical shaft to the surface, which I can't see serving any purpose for drainage use. What does the top of whatever that is look like - it must be a visible "hole" of some kind at ground level, or a "chimney" rising above it, in the same way the normal air-shafts do.

 

ACTUALLY - LOOKING AGAIN.......

 

Perhaps Derek's second link might be giving the answer.......

 

B1. A particularly short (6 feet) chimney over an off-line shaft that is connected to the existing tunnel by a slantwise heading. This vent can be inspected from the Stoke Road in the direction of the pink coloured arrow. Associating this vent with an earlier tunnel alignment provides a reason for it being built, yet still useful as a vent, 40 feet off the line of the finished tunnel. Its diminutive stature is a puzzle.

 

I'm trying to equate where it is saying that is, with how far through the tunnel you are when you can see a heading with light shining down the end of it.

Edited August 31, 2012 by alan_fincher

[ditchcrawler]

In his blog Adam Porter (narrow boat Briar Rose) has made reference to side openings present in Blisworth tunnel.

 

I had been aware of this for several years, when I was surprised to spot one with light shining through it.

 

I therefore have been trying to look out for these, although the current traffic levels in the tunnel tend to discourage you from trying to stop to actually examine them.

 

I now reckon if you are travelling South, there are at least two different openings on the left hand side, not long after you switch from the modern relined concrete section, back into the southern portion that is brick lined.

 

First one is at least a recess, easily big enough to get into in a squatted position I would say, but whilst I previously thought it linked to a further passage passing southwards, I was no longer sure of this on our recent passage.

 

However I now realise there are at least two, and the second one is passed only a short while after the first. This seems a smaller opening, maybe well under two feet high, but there is a distinct side tunnel of similar height running at right angles to the tunnel, and away from it by ten feet or more, maybe even twenty. At the end of this, it is very clearly lit by daylight, so it seems it must certainly link with a vertical shaft letting quite a bit of light down.

 

So is that side tunnel actually connected to a full air shaft offset from the line of the tunnel ? Or is it a much smaller shaft, not necessarily topped by one of those large brick funnels ? Either way, why does it exist at all ? Why would any shaft have been sunk from the surface with such an offset from the main tunnel ?

 

I know it doesn't really matter, but I'd love to hear an explanation if anybody knows it.

 

So how many "crawlable" openings or tunnels actually go off to either side, where are they, what do they connect to, and what was (or is) their purpose ?

 

I've not seen this mentioned in a published source, that I can recall ?

I asked BW about this some time back and got nowhere.

[Mike Tee]

Only thought I had when I noticed the light from the side was that it was the tunnel light on my boat reflecting down another shaft. Apparantly the area above the tunnel itself has quite a few shafts, both access and drain.

[jeannette smith harrison]

Alan

Two Centuries of Service (The Story of the Canal @ Stoke Bruerne & Blisworth)

Written by David Blagrove around about 2005.

This book is worth a read.

ISBN 1 8719 1813-8

Jeannette

[alan_fincher]

Alan

Two Centuries of Service (The Story of the Canal @ Stoke Bruerne & Blisworth)

Written by David Blagrove around about 2005.

This book is worth a read.

ISBN 1 8719 1813-8

Jeannette

Jeanette,

 

I have that book, but no reference is made in there to the questions I am raising, I think.

[jeannette smith harrison]

Alan

Just thought the book would make interesting reading.

Derek's theory sound a strong possability.

It would be intresting to hear from local people & Historians on what they think.

How many people will now slow down to take a better look ??

Just dont read Margaret Cornish story The Tunnel beforehand.

Stoke Brurne @ War 29/30 Sept

Jeannette

[Derek R.]

Alan

Just thought the book would make interesting reading.

Derek's theory sound a strong possability.

It would be intresting to hear from local people & Historians on what they think.

How many people will now slow down to take a better look ??

Just dont read Margaret Cornish story The Tunnel beforehand.

Stoke Brurne @ War 29/30 Sept

Jeannette

 

Well, not 'my' theory - Tony Marsh's - but I know what you mean.

Seems he has done a lot of research both in books, papers, and on the ground.

 

He mentions Blagrove's book too.

 

Derek

[jake_crew]

Just dont read Margaret Cornish story The Tunnel beforehand.

If thats the ghost story, its a great tale.

 

I'm collecting canal based ghost stories if anyone has any please post or PM.

 

There was a ghost story thread a few years ago ................

[jeannette smith harrison]

The ghost story "The Tunnel" has been around for years. I was told this in the 60's

Most tales where told to protect the children in a funny sort of way. The tunnel story would scare the life out of me

(it still does) & when we came to a tunnel i would run down & hide in the cabin. The safest place out of the way & out of danger.

lots of books around

Still waters Mystery tales of the Canals by Margaret Cornish my copy is old but it has been re released

Death on the Waterways by Allen Scott- Davies isbn 978-0-7524-5966-0

Shadows on the water The Haunted Canals & Waterways of Britain also by Allen Scott Davies isbn 978-0-7524-5592-1

Canal Crimes by R.H. Davies isbn 978-1-4456-0045-1

Sleep no more by L.T.C. ROLT isbn 978-0-7524-5577-8

If you dont want to buy these books find yourself an old working boatman (there is still a good few around) take him to the pub & he will spin you his yarns & tales all night long

Jeannette

[Heartland]

The suggestion that the side openings were associated with construction may prove to be the answer, as this task proved difficult and was the last piece to be finished. There was a tramway constructed over the top, whist construction proceeded where all goods were tranported between the temporary terminus at Blisworth and the other terminus at Stoke Bruerne.

 

Side tunnels do exist at Harecastle Old and New Tunnels, which were associated with mining in that area. Butterley Tunnel also had side tunnels and loading shafts from above at the "Wide Hole".

 

Ray Shill

[RLWP]

 

Side tunnels do exist at Harecastle Old and New Tunnels, which were associated with mining in that area. Butterley Tunnel also had side tunnels and loading shafts from above at the "Wide Hole".

 

Ray Shill

 

Ray, do you know why Netherton has side arches? If I remember correctly there are two pairs of them

 

Richard

[bizzard]

Now be sensible and realistic folks. Surely you lot they've got to be toilet refuges, and probably there was a lot more of them now bricked up, for the workers to take a comfort break, ''as they say in snooker'','' especially for a sit on''. I don't think they'd be over keen on sitting on a bucket in front of their mates in the middle of the tunnel ''would you!!''. Think of all the time wasted if the men had to trundle all the way out of the tunnel and back again for this comfort break, half the time they wouldn't even make it in time before a disaster occured''very embarrassing in front of their mates eh!.

And after all during big scale road construction and the like ''Privy's''are a regular feature dotted about the landscape for the men to use.

So, were these navies some kind of special breed of creature that never went to the bog ? i ask you.

 

P--ss. I reckon the ones with vents in where daylight can be seen were the extra smelly ones.

[stagedamager]

I thought they had been put in recently to house the new C&RT staff trying to sign people up.......

[bizzard]

I thought they had been put in recently to house the new C&RT staff trying to sign people up.......

I wouldn't put it past em.

[bizzard]

Now be sensible and realistic folks. Surely you lot they've got to be toilet refuges, and probably there was a lot more of them now bricked up, for the workers to take a comfort break, ''as they say in snooker'','' especially for a sit on''. I don't think they'd be over keen on sitting on a bucket in front of their mates in the middle of the tunnel ''would you!!''. Think of all the time wasted if the men had to trundle all the way out of the tunnel and back again for this comfort break, half the time they wouldn't even make it in time before a disaster occured''very embarrassing in front of their mates eh!.

And after all during big scale road construction and the like ''Privy's''are a regular feature dotted about the landscape for the men to use.

So, were these navies some kind of special breed of creature that never went to the bog ? i ask you.

 

P--ss. I reckon the ones with vents in where daylight can be seen were the extra smelly ones.

If toilets are not set up on site men tend to wander off to the nearest inn or pub under the pretense that they need a ''sit on''.

Not so long ago when the railways had a couple of lines-men to check and maintain every mile of track every day ''their stretch'' had a ''Bothy'' a hut of their own to keep their tools in with a stove and bucket to have a sit on on cos again they'd be off seeking out the nearest pub otherwise. And years ago these chaps quite openly drank bottles of beer whilst working on the track, twas allowed and was the norm all over the system.

[Arthur Brown]

IF the tunnels were cut with explosives these could have been shelters where the crew hid from flyrock during the blast.

In old mine workings the ventilation was created by having two openings and a fire burned under one of them. This caused air (smoke) to rise and this was replaced by air coming in through the other shafts. A fire at the base of any shaft sends smoke up so air would come in through the tunnel mouth.

 

Coal mines used black powder before the advent of permissible explosives so BP would have been trade available to tunnel borers too.

 

"openly drank bottles of beer whilst working" -Beer was a safer drink at one time than water! Water contains all sorts of nasties without some purification -which wasn't possible in the early days for mains water. However beer demands good water for the mash and that is boiled before the fermentation. If the mash water is "off" the mash will smell "off" and will not be fermented. So beer was safer than variable local water.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Arthur Brown

[bizzard]

IF the tunnels were cut with explosives these could have been shelters where the crew hid from flyrock during the blast.

In old mine workings the ventilation was created by having two openings and a fire burned under one of them. This caused air (smoke) to rise and this was replaced by air coming in through the other shafts. A fire at the base of any shaft sends smoke up so air would come in through the tunnel mouth.

 

Coal mines used black powder before the advent of permissible explosives so BP would have been trade available to tunnel borers too.

This was of course the method used for ventilating coal mines and the like for many years,John of n.b.Esk is the coal mining expert on here maybe he'll spot this thread and air his view, and as you say probably for a nearer the surface straight tunnel too. Probably served the two purposes ''Extra tunnel ventilation and latrines'' nice!!.

[bizzard]

This was of course the method used for ventilating coal mines and the like for many years,John of n.b.Esk is the coal mining expert on here maybe he'll spot this thread and air his view, and as you say probably for a nearer the surface straight tunnel too. Probably served the two purposes ''Extra tunnel ventilation and latrines'' nice!!.

N.B.Esk Hello, we need your expert opinion on mining and burrowing ventilation.

[Heartland]

Netherton Tunnel Refuges,

 

I recall being told that these refuges were for boat horses to pass. Whilst horses could use either side, they could also use the same side in either direction. This seems to be a reasonable reason for their existence. With the introduction of mechanical propulsion, the use of horses did reduce through this tunnel, yet railway boats in particular were still horse drawn. The pictures of Tom King seem to indicate that railway boat horse used both sides in either direction. Tom Foxon notes that the tow rope was shortened for haulage through the tunnel. I cannot remember the number of refuges and I did try once to count them whilst on Hecla. It would be interesting to see if any have been bricked up.

 

Ray Shill