Somerton Tunnel is located between

Somerton Somerton may refer to: Places Australia * Somerton, New South Wales * Somerton Park, South Australia, a seaside Adelaide suburb ** Somerton Man, unsolved case of an unidentified man found dead in 1948 on the Somerton Park beach *Somerton, Victoria ...

and

Langport Langport is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Somerton, Somerset, Somerton. The parish, which covers only part of the town, has a population of 3,578. Langport is contiguous with Huish Episcopi, ...

on the

Reading to Taunton Line Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word r ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. The tunnel was constructed by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(GWR) on the

Langport and Castle Cary Railway The Langport and Castle Cary Railway is a railway line from Castle Cary railway station to Cogload Junction near Taunton, Somerset, England, which reduced the length of the journey from London to Penzance by . History Through trains from Londo ...

. Remnants of its construction remain in the villages of

Charlton Mackrell Charlton Mackrell is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Charltons, in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, situated east of Somerton. The village has a population of 1,020. The parish ...

and Long Sutton. Completed during 1906 and in use since, the tunnel is just under a kilometre in length.Langmaid, Nancy. (c2009) "The Wooldridge Album." Somerton Tunnel, Retrieved: 31 July 2021.

History

Tunnelling was aided by the use of explosives. During its construction, explosives were stored in a powder house in Charlton Mackrell; according to local historian Derrick Warren, this structure is still standing. Another building believed to have been used as an explosives store, is located at some distance from the tunnel's western portal in Long Sutton and is in a derelict condition. A worker was killed during the tunnel's construction in an incident that involved blasting charges that had failed to detonate as planned. Somerton Tunnel has been subject to minor remedial works. In March 2020,

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

undertook work to improve drainage in the tunnel.

References

Railway tunnels in England Tunnels in Somerset Somerton, Somerset {{Somerset-struct-stub