Hi there, welcome .
Just below a housing estate on the north of Leicester is what once was the longest railway tunnel in the world.
Back in the 1820’s the Leicestershire mining industry was facing issues with efficiently transporting coal. The solution was moving the coal by rail rather than the traditional method at that time of road or canal. Gat this time George Stephenson had recently constructed successful railways in the north of England. John Ellis, a local businessman and farmer approached George Stephenson with a view to link the Leicestershire mines with Leicester.
Following discussions work on the Leicester to Swannington line commenced in 1830 with George’s son, Robert Stephenson as chief engineer.
The route of the line required some major engineering work. 2 inclined planes had to be built and also a route across the higher ground in Glenfield had to be resolved. The usual method to create a tunnel to cut through high ground in the 1800’s was “cut a cover” system. This system required a channel to be dug to form a channel which would then be roofed over and the excavation filled in. As the proposed routed was 40 feet deep this method was not possible so a tunnel was the only solution.
A 1 mile route was mapped out above ground by William Stenson, and 14 borehole shafts (4 large and 10 small) were dug down vertically. The tunnel was created by linking each of these shafts horizontally. It is astonishing to know that the 1 mile tunnel is straight and if you stood at the eastern end of the tunnel the west end would be visible. An incredible piece of engineering as obviously no GPS or laser measurement devices were used.
The tunnel is lined with brick. Due to difficulties with brick suppliers a brickworks was set up on the site. Variations in the brickwork can be seen at joints between the horizontal sections. The total quantity of bricks used is unknown, but is believed to be in excess of 5 million.
There was one fatality during the construction of the tunnel. One of the contractors, Daniel Jowett fell down one of the constructions shafts and was killed. A road on the housing estate built over the tunnel is named after Mr Jowett.
The line officially opened on 17th July 1832 with a train of VIP’s leaving West Bridge station in Leicester for Bagworth. As the train passed through the tunnel the chimney was knocked over and covered all the passengers in black spots as the carriages were not covered. The reason for the accident was an error in the track gradient half way through the tunnel.
The railway line passed over a brook at which point the train was halted to allow the VIP’s to clean up.
The tunnel is a narrow construction with only 2 inches of clearances either side. For this reason recessed refuges were built into the construction.