The Sapperton Tunnels

During the mid 18th Century industrialists and engineers had their first thoughts about the possibility of linking the Severn estuary with the Thames, so providing a direct and quick link between Bristol and London. However the high limestone ridge of the Cotswolds provided a considerable natural barrier. Tunnelling seemed inevitable but technique and experience was limited to the construction of mine shafts.

The canal tunnel was first proposed in 1782 by Robert Whitworth and was to extend from Sapperton to Hailey Wood, some two miles in length with a clear internal width of not less than 15 feet reaching a maximum depth below the surface of about 250 feet, a preliminary estimate of the cost amounted to £39,017. This proved to be hopelessly low but despite this the work was completed and opened only 6 years later at a considerably enhanced cost.

At the time the Sapperton Tunnel was the longest to be attempted in any canal in Great Britain, painstaking hard manual labour assisted by horse, pick, shovel, ropes and pulleys were supplemented where necessary with hazardous blasting! The tunnel was eventually opened to canal traffic in November 1789.