Standedge Tunnels

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Time-lapse through Standedge Tunnel - mint > .  

The Standedge Tunnels are four parallel tunnels through the Pennine hills at the Standedge crossing between Marsden in West Yorkshire and Diggle in Greater Manchester in northern England. Before boundary changes in 1974, both ends of the tunnel were in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Three are railway tunnels and the other is a canal tunnel.

The canal tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament on 4 April 1794. Construction of a 5,451-yard (4,984 m)-long tunnel began months later. Within two years, cost-saving measures pushed back its completion date and progress was slowed by the high levels of water which were much greater than had been expected. It proved difficult to secure skilled help, some tenders went unanswered and Benjamin Outram withdrew from the venture. In 1807, Thomas Telford drew up a new plan for its completion. In 1811, the tunnel opened. It is the longest and oldest of the four Standedge tunnels and is the longest and highest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom. Having been closed to all traffic in 1943, the canal tunnel was re-opened in May 2001.

The first, single-track railway tunnel, built for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) on its line between Huddersfield and Manchester, was completed in 1848. It proved to have insufficient capacity and a second, parallel, single-track tunnel was opened in 1871. The LNWR opened a third, double-track tunnel in 1894. All four tunnels are linked by cross-tunnels or adits at strategic intervals, which allowed the railway tunnels to be built without construction shafts, and allowed waste material to be removed by boat. Only the double-track tunnel is currently used for rail traffic. The others are intact but disused. The Standedge Tunnel Visitor Centre at the Marsden end, is a base for boat trips into the tunnel and has an exhibition depicting the different crossings.