During Thursday morning I
moved the boat ½ mile to the far side of Shrewley tunnel. As we set off under the bridge we had been
moored next to at Hatton station, a crowd of people were looking over the
parapet and waving at us.
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I can only assume these
are avid blog followers waving us off on our journey
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After a short while we
were at Shrewley tunnel; it’s not very long, only 433 yards, and is also
straight so you can see right through.
It was opened in 1799 when the Birmingham and Warwick canal was
opened. In 1929 the canal became part of
the Grand Union canal which saw an amalgamation of several southern canals and
thus providing links from London to Birmingham and to Nottingham via the same
canal company. If its various arms to
places like Market Harborough, Slough and Aylesbury are taken into
consideration, the Grand Union canal is the longest in the UK at 286 miles.
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Entering Shrewley tunnel –
wide enough for two narrowboats but no towpath
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The old adage, “The light
at the end of the tunnel”
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A lot of water was coming
through the roof and down the walls so I had to wear my wet weather gear. I seem to remember we have always found this
tunnel very wet.
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Water coming in from the
side
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Because of the constant
water ingress, the brick walls are covered in most places with flowstone that
has built up over the decades.
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Similar concept to
flowstone but this is silt that has washed down over the years from the hill
above and held together with mosses at the tunnel exit
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For some reason there are
two rings on the straight outside the tunnel so we used those for mooring. There are also bollards but they are used for
boats to wait if a broadbeam is coming through or vice versa. It’s a short walk into Shrewley, through the
towpath tunnel, hence the rings being for 48hour mooring only.
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Moored at Shrewley visitor
moorings – both tunnel portals can be seen in the background
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We have been through 35 of the 41 canal tunnels
still open in the UK, most of them a few
times. The ones we have been through
range from the longest (the 3 ¼ mile Standedge tunnel) to the shortest (Dunsley
tunnel at 25 yards). The six tunnels we
haven’t been through yet are:
- Froghall tunnel (Caldon canal) - the sides of our boat are too near the vertical for the tunnel profile
- Dudley tunnel (Dudley No 1 canal) – no powered craft allowed through although we could book an electric tug
- Foulridge & Gannow tunnels (both on the Leeds & Liverpool canal) – our previous boat was too long for this canal. Now we have the new one we will go up here in 2018
- Ashford tunnel (Monmouth & Brecon canal) – can’t really get to South Wales!
- Drakeholes tunnel (Chesterfield canal) – maybe visit when we go up north in 2018
In the afternoon Buddy and I took a walk to Rowington again and had a look around and just got home before the clouds burst yet again.
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