Aqueduct and northern portal of Netherton Tunnel

At 3027 yards long Netherton Tunnel is the third longest tunnel navigable by most boats under their own power - the longest tunnel of all is the Standedge on the Huddersfield Narrow and Blisworth on the Grand Union is the second longest. Dudley Tunnel, which runs parallel to the Netherton, is longer than it but many boats are too large to fit the profile (and because of limited ventilation, may not use their engines). Netherton was built to bypass the Dudley Tunnel and being built late in the canal age (it opened in 1858) it was made tall, wide enough for two boats to pass, and, extraordinarily, with twin towpaths. The photograph shows the approach to the tunnel from the north - the aqueduct carries the Old Main Line over the branch. At this point there was, at one time, an electric generator turbine, powered by water flowing from the Old to the New Main Lines to provide light for the tunnel (when built it was lit by gas, nowadays you must rely on your boat's headlamp).

Photograph taken by Stephen Atty and was added to the database before Saturday the 1st of January, 2005

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence, see the terms of use

This photo is one of 5 of Netherton Tunnel (northern entrance) on the Birmingham Canal Navigations (Netherton Tunnel Branch) [Previous | Next]