Tunnel vision

Tunnel

Vision Marsden end of the Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, taken in the 1950s

Earlier this year, we celebrated the 21st anniversary of the reopening of Standedge Tunnel, the longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel in the country. But dig into its history and you’ll uncover a tale of lost fortunes and high folly, where the driving ambitions of ‘canal mania’ blinded its builders to the hard realities of burrowing beneath the Pennines.

Situated on the picturesque Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Standedge Tunnel now links Marsden in the Colne Valley with Diggle below Saddleworth Moor. It has long been considered one of the seven wonders of the waterways; perhaps in part because it’s a wonder it was ever built.

At the tail-end of the 18th century, the textile factory owners of Huddersfield were looking for a cheap, reliable way to transport their goods to lucrative ports like Liverpool. A canal cutting directly beneath the Pennines through a just over three-mile tunnel at Standedge would be the jewel in the crown of the network, delivering a shorter and quicker route than competing canals like the Rochdale or Leeds & Liverpool, which were under construction at the time.

Led by chief engineer, Benjamin Outram, work began on Standedge Tunnel in 1794, and was beset with problems from the very beginning. Due to its length and depth the tunnel couldn’t simply be dug from A to B. Instead, a series of shafts were dug straight down from the wet, bleak peaks of the Pennines. Then, step by step, each of these shafts would be connected as the tunnel was excavated from both ends. With only pickaxes, shovels and gunpowder to work with there were constant problems with water seeping into the works, multiple collapses and accidents in which perhaps hundreds of navvies are thought to have lost their lives. Exhausted by the arduous project and ill-health, Outram resigned in 1807 and Thomas Telford was brought in to advise on completion. It was diagnosed that the workings from each end of the tunnel might not meet in the middle. To this day, boat traffic still needs to be carefully chaperoned through the resulting series of tricky bends that had to be put in place. By the time the tunnel finally opened in 1811, a full 12 years behind schedule, the rival Rochdale Canal had been up and running for seven years. Far from an easy pathway through the Pennines, the tunnel was narrow and difficult to navigate. To save money, no towpath had been built into the scheme, so ‘leggers’ had to lie flat on their backs on horizontal planks and slowly walk the walls to propel boats from one end of the tunnel to the other. This slowed up traffic so much that rival canals still delivered a faster route to market. Ever since, the tunnel has become a symbol of the reckless ambition of the ‘canal mania’ that gripped the age. Ironically, one of the tunnel’s few successes was to ease the building of several parallel railway tunnels some 40 years later. Having a canal tunnel in place to carry away the waste made digging the new railway tunnels much quicker and easier. In time, the railways would only serve to hasten the canals’ demise. The end came in 1944 when the Huddersfield Canal was finally closed to traffic by an act of Parliament, seemingly forever. But our story doesn’t end there. Restoration efforts began in the 1980s and, eventually, thanks to the sterling work of the Huddersfield Canal Society, the local authority and British Waterways, the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and Standedge Tunnel were reopened to boats in 2001. The project cost £5m, and was paid for thanks to some great fundraising efforts, particularly millennium lottery funding. 21 years on, Standedge Tunnel is still open, with a fantastic visitors centre that’s well worth a day out. Just as it was back then, the tunnel today is still a challenge for only the most intrepid of boaters to take on. But despite all the difficulties, it lives on as an icon of canal history, and a testament to perseverance, determination and the indomitable human spirit.