Swainsley Tunnel is a tunnel on the route of the former

Leek and Manifold Light Railway The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway (L&MVLR) was a narrow gauge railway in Staffordshire, England that operated between 1904 and 1934. The line mainly carried milk from dairies in the region, acting as a feeder to the system. It als ...

, which connected the market town of

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...

with Hulme End, via Waterhouses, in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. The tunnel is located between Ecton and

Butterton Butterton is a small village in the Staffordshire Peak District of England (). It overlooks the Manifold Valley and Ecton Hill, which rises 1,212 feet above sea level. Butterton lies 5 miles east of Leek and roughly 8 miles from Alton Towers th ...

. It was closed in 1939, along with the rest of the line from Waterhouses to Hulme End. Today, it is used as a shared bicycle, automobile and pedestrian tunnel. Due to its narrow width, there are enforced regulations on car users and there is a weight limit of three tons. The tunnel is located in a very deep cutting, running under a minor road. The site of Butterton station was located at the north end of the tunnel, near the modern day Swainsley Farm; this is quite a distance from the village it was built to serve.

References

{{coord, 53.116, -1.866, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Staffordshire Tunnels in England