Underground canals

[tarboat]

I have been asked by archaeologist John Barnatt to review a list of underground canals that he has drawn up whilst preparing an article on collieries in the Buxton area. There are quite a number of such canals listed in the literature although it is by no means certain that all these were completed. We are also unsure whether some are correctly listed. For example; should the Rains Hall quarry canal should be on the list as it may just be a tunnel from the quarry rather than actually serving underground workings? John and I would be most grateful for any comments or suggestions that members of this forum might be able to add to the list which can be found at:

 

http://www.brocross.com/temp/underground.htm

 

Cheers,

[by'eck]

Isn't the biggest array and probably the earliest at Worsley Delph on the Bridgewater with about 47 miles in total on four different levels.

[Pluto]

I have an Excel file of underground canals I drew up in 2001 if it is of interest. Send me a private message with your email address if it is. I had a similar number of locations, but the detail was perhaps a little more extensive, such as including the engineer, if known. I was writing about the Worsley system at the time, and an article did appear in a German mining periodical. I have just rewritten the article and it should appear in Narrowboat fairly soon. I have also just found an article from 1821 in the 'Archive für Bergbau und Hüttenwesen' which compares the cost of boating underground with horse-drawn tramroads in the Chorzow mines in Upper Silesia, which had canals was based on the Worsley system. The Mining Museum there has really good drawings of the system which I have copied. This shows the containers being transferred from horse-drawn wagons underground.

[Heartland]

The Worsley mines, I suppose, must have been the largest network, but this was developed over time and on different levels.

 

In the West Midlands the Dudley/BCN had the network of underground canals at the Tipton that served the limestone mines of the Earl of Dudley. Part are accessible by the DCT boat trips, although the later Wrens Nest canal remains out of bounds.

 

A less known underground waterway link was to the Mons Hill Limestone Quarries, I did mention this link in a Boundary Post Article when discussing the Foxyards Canal. Part of the connecting tunnel fell in during 1994 and this event highlighted the existence of the brick lined tunnel, Steve Powell in his book on Dudley Limestone Quarries suggested that this tunnel went to the canal at Deepfields, I thought the link was with the Foxyards and formed part of the water supply to that canal. Whilst the canal locks were removed during the 1820's the watercourse above remained and I did suggest that limestone might have been carried in tub boats to Cresswells Furnaces at Tipton.

 

Another underground canal is the Ecton Copper Mine that was owned by the Duke of Devonshire and had an underground level from 1769

 

Ray Shill