Shrewley Tunnel is a

canal tunnel {{Refimprove, date=September 2009 A canal tunnel is a tunnel for a canal. The building of a canal tunnel is crucial to help a waterway that is normally used for shipping cross a difficult section of terrain. They are also constructed to reduce th ...

near

Shrewley Shrewley is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about 5 miles north-west of Warwick. It consists of Little Shrewley, and Shrewley Common, Hatton Station, Station Road and Five Ways. It has the Grand Union Canal, which passes thro ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, which opened in 1799. It became part of the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter s ...

in 1929.

History

The Warwick and Birmingham Canal Company obtained an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislat ...

in March 1793, which authorised the construction of a canal from the

Digbeth Branch Canal The Digbeth Branch Canal in Birmingham, England is a short canal which links the mainline of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction and the Grand Union Canal at Digbeth Junction (or historically, at the adjacent Warwick Bar) i ...

of the

Birmingham Canal Navigations Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and opera ...

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and W ...

, where it would end at Saltisford Wharf. The plans showed three tunnels, at Shrewley, Rowington and Yardley, but as construction progressed, the last two became deep cuttings. This was not an option at Shrewley, as the route passed under the village. The plans also specified that the tunnel would be suitable for boats but not barges, implying that it would have been suitable for narrow boats, common on the Birmingham system, but not for wider craft. However, construction of the Grand Junction Canal, which would provide a link to London, was started at a similar time, and the committee wisely took the decision in April 1794 to increase the width of the tunnel to , allowing wide barges to pass through it. The width of the bridge holes was similarly increased to in May. Shrewley Canal Tunnel - geograph

The tunnel is long, built of brick and is wide enough for two narrow boats to pass each other, although it has no

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport ...

inside. It officially opened on 19 December 1799 when the rest of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal was completed, although no trading took place until the following March. It became part of the

in 1929 following the amalgamation of the canal company with several others, including the Grand Junction. There are actually two

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s: at the northern portal, the towpath splits off and rises on a ramp and then enters a tunnel of its own, until it reaches the road which crosses the tunnel; having crossed this the path then descends on another ramp to reach the southern portal. The interior of the tunnel is unusually wet and this has led to the creation of

flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothe ...

formations.

Location

The tunnel runs from the south-east to the north-west. From the northern portal, the canal is level for to the bottom of a flight of five

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance * Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lo ...

at Knowle, which raise the level of the canal by .

Kingswood Junction Kingswood Junction () is a series of canal junction where the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal meets the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood, Warwickshire, England. History The Grand Union Canal was a late addition to the British canal system, being form ...

, which connects to the

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England. The canal, which was built between 1793 and 1816, runs for in total, and consists of two sections. The dividing line is at Kingswood Junction, which gives access to the ...

occurs about halfway along this stretch. To the south, the canal is level for around to Hatton Top Lock, the first of a flight of 21 locks which drop the level by to reach Warwick.

Coordinates

Bibliography

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References

External links