Report - Standedge Railway & Canal Tunnels, Marsden - August 2012

[Fudge]

Visited this one with Mr Beady & Bad Batz

To say we planned to spend the evening taking some night shots of a local landmark, plans which quickly got abandoned by the brilliant British weather, tonight ended up being rather enjoyable. Met another new local and had a good laugh!

Nabbed the history of this place from MJS' report seeing as though he's the guy that first brought it to my attention on here.

The Standedge Tunnels are four parallel tunnels that run beneath the Pennines between Marsden and Diggle, on the edges of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. There are three railway tunnels and a canal tunnel (on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal). The canal tunnel is the longest and oldest of the tunnels, and holds the record as the longest and highest canal tunnel in Britain. All four tunnels are linked by cross-tunnels or adits at strategic locations within the tunnels. The adits allowed the railway tunnels to be built much more quickly by allowing 'waste spoil'(sic) to be removed by boat and reducing the need for shafts for construction.

Of the railway tunnels, only the tunnel built in 1894 is currently used for rail traffic. Closed in 1943, the canal tunnel was re-opened in May 2001. The Canal Tunnel is the longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel in Britain. It is 5,029 metres (16,499 ft) long, 194 metres (636 ft) underground at the deepest point, and 196 metres (643 ft) above sea level.

We didn't get all the way through the tunnel this evening so there aren't many pictures, but I'm sure Beardy'll tag his on to the end.

To round it off, an incredibly shit panorama that could have been really good if I'd have taken my time instead of rushing it. Note to self, slow and steady wins the race.

Moral of this explore, longer exposures and a higher F-stop..

We will be back, there's more to see.​