Hey folks, we took a walk along the top of the Sapperton Canal Tunnel. Here is our Adventure.
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This is the Sapperton canal Tunnel, built between 1783 and 1789. When built it was the longest Canal Tunnel in the world measuring 2.4 miles long with 25-26 shafts. We found a few of these along our trip and decided to explore one a little closer! Amazing forgotten architecture throughout we a view of both portals including a trip in one!
Thanks for watching. See you next week.
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Great and relaxing as usual. Thanks guys xx
Paul and Rebecca I feel compelled to write a comment having had wellyage , a double entendre, and a doobly doo all mixed in with truly enjoyable content is an absolute joy !!! I thought this was a great idea to devote 1 episode ,an in depth look if you like to the skills and genius of engineers and navvies long past though I'm sure you could have made this 2 hours long and still not done them true justice !!! To think this is probably done on a shoestring budget and only in your spare time amazes me . I myself grew up next to a victim of the Beeching cull and would have loved you to have devoted some time to it's history and sad demise but as you know progress waits for no man ( and his wife ) and no longer is this closed station there ................ after much time and effort it's been RE-OPENED !!!
Hey Paul. What is the song in the intro?
Thanks for that, it brought back memories of a few years ago assisting the canal trust with an inspection using canoes. Was quite the adventure dragging the boats over multiple collapses until eventually we were halted by the mud rather than the collapses themselves.
Think we might be related?
Really don’t know why people bother with TV anymore when people like you produce quality like this on KZhead. Thank you. That was a brilliant watch.
I don't bother with TV anymore 😁
Honeysuckle Blossom so did I !! 😆
Nathan Lucas and they dont need a fleet of TV detector vans to terrorise anyone into paying for it either 😁
Give it a few years and there'll be KZhead detector vans roaming the streets 😆
I don't bother with TV any more either.
Paul and Rebecca, you are my heros. Is there nowhere you have not explored. Sapperton is a ‘big one’ in every sense. So glad I found the Whitwick take on Sapperton.
I love the way at 2:25 he’s speaking all softly into the camera, as if the tunnel is a gazelle that we don’t wish to frighten off 👌
Oooh, you has no idea what I'z seen and hurrd out that tunnel since I were a booay in nineteen-fordy-sem
A real Martin zero experience down that shaft. Exciting 👍👍👍
Absolutely yup.
This is better than anything on tv x
Brilliant idea ☺️👍🤠😉 made me happy.. gotta love a curious mind.🐶
Always
Spectacular images, in the tunnel, the shaft and surroundings. I enjoyed it a lot. 🤩
After your quiz question in Feb2021... had to look up the video!
Lovely day for it.
For someone like me who never had an interest in any form of history, let alone abandoned canals and shafts, i find myself in later years really enjoying what has been a great part of our past. I've said in a later video that the one big reason that i enjoy watching your video's are because of you both! You have a wonderful attitude to what you both do and explain things in layman terms. This, like all the others i have watched was very interesting. Looking forward to catching up on a few more. Thanks guys.
"Dave's an engineer and has designed a 'tunnel rover'": promptly produces a skate board with a camera and torch nailed to it lol. Love it :)
Proper engineering - nowt too clever or fancy.
I've been a member of the Cotswold Canal Trust for many years and have walked large parts of the Thames and Severn, Stroudwater and Sharpness canals. I have been in the tunnel, in January when the water level is high the CCT used to run boat trips into the tunnel from the Sapperton end. I've had quite a few excellent lunches in the Inn. All days gone by for me as I now live in France but really enjoy your videos.
*Coates end.
This is Pauls favourite Video.
Great vid guys esp at 3.33 when Rebecca cant hold back her smile and tries to keep a serious face as you talk about shafts, as for the T.I.T rover made me smile, well done very entertaining and interesting.
a big thumbs up to that
The Tunnel House Inn above the Coates portal is one of my favourite pubs and well worth the long journey down from the north-west of England where I live. Have had many wild nights in there!
Used to be the haunt of the royals from Highgrove
Indeed, Tunnel House is in beautiful setting. A favourite among Royal Ag College students and local royalty. Last tenants took it over in 2017, but sadly they shut it and quit at very short notice in Sept 2019 - "unable to agree terms with the landlord". Spooky place today with it gated/ fenced off😢 The Daneway Inn at t'other end is alive and well - great food and ale there 👍
" lets talk about shafts " ...... naughty smile from your mrs
Not _that_ shaft.
& lets not talk about the "Deep hole in the woods " :)
"Number 2: Bottom" :P
lol I used to live down the road from the canal hahaha 😂 We always got letters through the door saying DONATE TO SAVE THE CANAL TUNNEL!
I think you'd been to donate millions!
I love this couple. I could watch them all day long......
Ahhh thanks Max.
We would like to see down some more of these deep dark holes, thank you. Not just here but you often come across places like this and we always wonder whats down there, lol.
Always a pleasure
Another great watch, as said before, better than any TV. I was fully expecting to see deer skeletons at the bottom of that shaft but no ??? First Coc Rover, now Tit Rover, whatever next ?
Watch this space
That was very good. Loved the Rover and the shaft footage. i still think it should have been Called A.R.S.E Rover but I cant remember what it all stood for 😀
Shaft footage reminded me of your Standedge Tunnel 'GoPro on a rope' video
Hahahaha.... I forget myself now!
So now we have COC Rover, TIT Rover, and Tank Rover. Am I forgetting any?
can see a new business here for you martin, martin zero's rovers-will fit in any shape hole you can find :)
@@everhope6364 Easy Tiger.
Great video, as always. The holes in the brickwork in the tunnel are most likely “putlog” holes. They are part of the original construction to support the centering that supported the arch roof.
Thanks David. That makes a lot of sense
That's interesting. Having been on a canal boat trip many years ago we actually had to walk our boat through a long tunnel 'old style' - it was great fun at the time but I can't imagine having to do that for a living...
But I just love waffles with butter and syrup! Thanks for showing us the deep shaft in the woods 🌳🕳🌳
Just re-watching because of your new video!
Been watching your videos for a few months now and find them really interesting, so pleased to stumble across this one as living between Stroud and Sapperton I've run along past the tunnel entrance and shafts many times but never equipped to take a look inside - Thanks!
Love your videos can't believe how many miles you must cover👍
Gem of a channel.👍
Ah thank you.
Great video guys! Top effort. Fully enjoyed. I think it'll be a few years before a survey, but the more people that join the Cotswolds canal trust, the quicker it will happen!!
Lovely film. Who doesn't love a fascinating woodland hole? Plus one for antique Kerplunk! Amazing how you can do this while being so smartly dressed.
I am farrrr from smartly dressed.... 🤪
Considering the activity you were undertaking Rebecca especially was very smartly dressed. Impressive I think.
This is the best of your videos I've seen so far. Editing, soundtrack and production are fantastic. So interesting. Thank you!
Fantastic, as you commented. Looking at the tunnel, it’s hard to believe that the first seven boats for Salters Thames services, which were built at Brimscombe, traversed it on their delivery voyages. They were relatively big passenger steamers and at least two still exist.
Thanks a lot for the great video. I really enjoyed it, especially as I have been fascinated by the Thames & Severn Canal since I was child (60+ years ago!) I spent a lot of my childhood holidays staying on the edge of the Golden Valley (in Brownshill) and as a keen railway enthusiast, I also haunted the railway line that the canal runs parallel to. When we got bored, we would wander off and go and explore the canal - this is when I first saw the remains of the tunnel. Two years ago, my wife and I were in the area (from Western Australia) and spent a very enjoyable afternoon walking along the canal. We visited both portals and met someone who clearly knew a bit about the canal and its tunnel. He confirmed that 'legging' was the method of propulsion through the tunnel and also mentioned that some organisation (I can't remember who but presumably the organisation that is attempting to restore the canal) operates occasional trips in a shallow draft boat up the tunnel.
Thank you, glad it brought back some memories. Yes legging it seems along the side was the method. Between 4-6 hours depending on the direction and load!
Unfortunately it was only at the very end of the Canal Age - when Strood Tunnel was constructed in 1820 to provide a short cut between the Thames and the Medway - that the builders had the good sense to continue the tow path all the way through the tunnel! Everywhere else the boatmen had to leg it through!
Oh my, I love your channel. Thank you for your time and efforts to share a mysterious part of our world.
Our pleasure!
The UK is so awesome so much history I wish it was like that here in Canada
We are lucky indeed.
Fishing waders are cheap. Grab a stick/cane, to check the ground in front and go for a walk. The health issue you may have in there is mould. Great video.
Thanks Darren, going again I'm the autumn with waders and a boat!
I'm surprised by how much I'm learning about canals around Britain. Great work indeed 👍
Us too Nigel!!
Fantastic enjoyed it imensley
Thanks Geoff.
A point of interest about Sapperton tunnel. in the late 1950's a party from Coventry Canal Society decided to explore as much of the tunnel as possible. there were four in the party, and they had two boats. a conventional dinghy and a rubber one. The inflatable was appropriately named 'Windbag'. they entered the tunnel without seeking permission on the basis that they felt there was no-one who could give it. They proceeded into the tunnel hauling the boats over any roof falls they encountered. About (they estimate) 2/3 of the way through they were stopped by a roof fall that was too big to get over as it completely blocked the tunnel. They had to turn back, but not before affixing a plaque to the wall commemorating their visit. As far as is known that plaque is still there awaiting discovery.
Brilliant thanks Tony. We have been invited in come the Autumn in an official capacity. Naturally a video will follow.
Someone at 3:34 was making her own jokes up about "talking about shafts". Love the grin. :-)
Just watched your video whilst it pours down!!. Yet again excellent and............ a bit of builders bum!! 09: 32
Haha... I was about to blur it out!...
Your video turned up out the blue, me and my friends in the 70s early eighties used to mess about in sapperton tunnel, all Minchinhampton and Chalford boys but we only ever got about a 5th of the way through there were numerous collapses but one we couldn’t get over. Exuberance of youth probably over took sense back then I think I was 8, but we did meet a leg man who had legged through whilst his father walked the horse to tunnel house for rest and food
Amazing 😀
Thanks William.
Was that trying not to laugh at the shaft comment 🤔. Very professional 😂. Everyone needs a little air ventilation when working with shafts😲😂😂. Shafts, holes, tunnels... this is a mine field 😂
Loved your video so much I visited both portals when I visited the UK last summer! Andy Ley (geocacher) has a video where he goes beyond the collapse: Sapperton Canal Tunnel, Danesway Portal. Will have to come back to visit more of 'your' places!
Wonderful stuff!
Thanks Chris
Probably the best you have ever done ! The caisson underwater was a crazy concept !
Thanks Ford. Very kind.
Great video Paul and Rebecca,love the rover footage,I couldn't help but laugh, sorry to lower the tone, when you said"let's talk shafts" Rebecca's face was a picture 😂,or am I seeing things 👍😀👌
Your awesome!
A very nice pub not too far from the Northern portal..The Daneway!
The walk down the canal from the Bell Inn to the daneway pub has to be one of the nicest in the country , beautiful valley no road or traffic. From the other end you have the Tunnel Inn which is a great pub, where you can walk to what is the source of the Thames (dried up! When I went).
Good find
There is a book 'The Thames & Severn Canal - History & Guide' by David Venner. The tunnel was operated with a one way system using a timetable. Boats had to be 'legged' and there may have been professional leggers! The wooden posts inside may have been to give the leggers something to push against? Tunnel sticks were not allowed, but probably used anyway. It would take 5 hours eastbound (against the flow) and 3 hours westbound!!!
Fantastic, thank you Nicholas.
Ooh, I love Rebecca's purpley skirt!!
I love the quiet conspiritus voice during the filming so as not to alert lurking council authorities keeping guard for breakers of health and safety rules. You can just catch a glimpse of a polished cap badge peeping out from behind beech tree at 4.21. If you’re going to flout health and safety rules like this, I’m subscribing. Far more interesting than the BBC et al. Gripping stuff. Suggestion for next time....do the rock slide by Bristol suspension bridge. I used to slide down that as a boy. Great fun.
Hahahaha.... We flout on random occasions
Nicely explored. Pretty basic health and safety measures for "anti shaft falling down"??!!! Gary, top engineer, nearly beaten by the dreaded twisted nylon rope!!! 👍👍
"Wellidge" might take a while to get into the Oxford. Thank you both and Garry too.
Nice dron footage
A very enjoyable trip. That would be a great filmed with a 360 camera for a VR experience, it's amazing when done in water wells.
Great stuff .
Thanks!
That was fabulous. Very interesting. The rover was a great success. I agree, I think the shaft is blocked part way with fallen branches and general forest detritus, and does go down further. The ker plunk analogy is an apposite one. I have to say those shafts are absolute death traps.
That's why they are all fenced off!
Amazing vlog! So exciting. Loved the shaft finds out in the woods. The canal tunnel was really beautiful on the first entrance with the columns and niches for a statue. So much work and craftsmanship in something so utilitarian. Just lights the imagination. Thank you for taking me along😊
Thanks Dawn. Was a great little adventure.
Waffle? Never. What a cracking cracking video from our intrepid explorers. Risking life and limb to bring us the virtual days out that we love. Thanks folks. Bob
Facinating Exploration of a fogotton mode of transport...well worth the effort...well done!!!!
Thanks Richard a fun couple of Days.
Regarding how boats were propelled through the tunnel, I read the manuscript of a diary that had an account of how some people on a canoeing holiday went through the tunnel, and it states that pumps caused the flow through the tunnel to be reversed at intervals and that boats went with the flow.
You need to have two of those rovers they would make a cracking pair whilst on the job, just thinking aloud 😁
Fascinating video! I wonder, if they ever actioned the plan to redistribute water from the Severn to the Thames, they'd use Sapperton or just build a new water tunnel that they knew wouldn't collapse.
Hi guys. Great video! It was equally lovely to see a couple really enjoying the explore without either of you trying to sound more important than the other. You two obviously have a fun, loving relationship. I live in Queensland Australia now but being Sussex born and raised I really miss the stunning English countryside (especially the fact that you don't have to worry about all the biting insects, Huntsman spiders (AKA 'big b*stards) or snakes like we have to over here. Keep up the video's, I've subscribed.
Thanks Susan very kind. Thanks for subscribing too.
Another splendid video. Very interesting, and it's amazing that in the 1700s they were building tunnels that long. You included some cracking stills photography also. Keep it up.
Thanks for noticing Nigel.
Sapperton Tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal, driven for 3,817 yards through the Jurassic Limestone of the Cotswold Escarpment so straight and level that it was possible to see all the way through from one end to the other, was undoubtedly the supreme achievement of 18th Century English civil engineering. Its builders had access to only the most primitive of surveying instruments and the only explosive available to them was gunpowder. The Roman town of Cirencester, situated high on the parched Cotswold uplands, was turned into an inland port by the arrival of the canal in 1789, whereupon the price of coal from the mines in the Forest of Dean promptly fell by two-thirds!
The mat of wood in the hole is interesting. I first thought of dropping a lump of phosphorus down which would burn, dry out the wood and hopefully burn away the blockage. Second thoughts it might just make a single hole and fall through. Second idea is a wire rope with a wire cage holding the phosphorus. It can quickly be lowered down with about 3ft/1m of slack. If it burnt itself through then it would be held in or below the blockage burning away nicely. It would smoke A LOT but just don't breath it in. Just in case you have issues getting or transporting phosphorus just get some cheap lipo/lithium ion batteries. 3D print holders and have large terminals that can be shorted out. Pull out the insulated clip (cloths peg for example) that releases both terminals to short as you drop the batteries down the shaft. Some should burn quite energetically and sufficient numbers may do the trick. Assemble at the top of the hole to make transport innocent looking and safe. There is a plan C but probably best left untold.
But I'd be intrigued to hear it!
Fantastic investigation. Marvellous film with a very factual commentary as usual. Thanks for all you did.
Another great video. Fond memories of being in that area following the canal during our 1995 camper van year in UK. Spent some time in the nearby pub, I recall :) Best wishes, Des & Jan
Thanks both.
Epic video!
Thanks Sebastian
Thank you you two, I enjoy my walks with you, and I believe your daughter ? Sometime I thought it would be good if you had a dog, all those walks, but then I realized: holes in the ground, shafts, adits, mucky water, so may be not!
Really enjoyed the vblog back in the shire a beautiful day. Looking forward to the Somerset coal canal. 👍👍
Told you I would be here!! 😁👍
Flower of Gloster by Temple Thurston describes journey over Thames and Severn Canal.
Thank you, I will take a look.
Hi Whitewicks,I never realised how many shafts there were and not very well fenced.Interesting stuff,I’ve always had a fascination for this sort of thing. Secret Tunnel Story.Hope this is ok. As a kid we used to visit my grandparents in Buckinghamshire and our route passed through Saunderton a small village between High Wycombe and Princes-Risborough.There was a station and nearby a Ministry Buffer Depot which held emergency food supplies in WW2 and beyond.I am hazy on when,but in the ‘60s or ‘70s I saw a massive trench cut up the hill opposite the station leading up to the RAF camp at Walters Ash at the top.There seemed to be a tunnel in the trench and it always puzzled me in later years as to whether I had imagined it. Fast forward to today and I now live in the area.During the lockdown I have cycled a lot around here and I was in Saunderton the other day and got talking to another old boy even older than me.He was local and a mine of Historical information,so I asked him about the ‘tunnel’.He immediately confirmed it and said there was a secret narrow gauge railway in it! The tunnel rings were cast locally and the machinery was built by Molins a local precision engineering firm.The idea is that in time of national emergency VIP’s could come from London on the Chiltern line to Saunderton,then enter the Ministry building,now an industrial estate called Ministry Wharf get on the underground railway and be hauled up to the RAF deep bunker,now Bomber Command at the top of the hill. I am only repeating the story so can anyone out ther confirm or deny it. Hope this is of interest.
It's nice to see what this tunnel looks like. In the book Hornblower and the Atropos he travels on this canal and helps walk the boat through. C. S. Forrester gives a good description of how it was done.
Wonderful, just read a little of it: "An underground spring here broke through the roof of the tunnel and tumbled roaring into the canal. The water fell down on them in deafening cataracts. It thundered upon the roofs of the cabins, quite drowning the cries of the women within. The weight of its impact pressed the tarpaulin upon him. Then the torrent eased, fell away to trickles, and then they were past it"
I was just thinking of that!
The poor sods that heaved their guts building the canals and tunnels, heroes all of them .
Absolutely Roger
They ate 8,000 calories a day and were really strong and fit. They didn't mess about, they just f**king got on with it.
Hi Paul & Rebbica. Nice video, thanks for going so we don't have to. What would be nice from my point of view would be some more context; a map of the UK showing where you were and another of the canal itself plus some history of it. Who built it, was it a success, what did it carry, from where to where and when did it close? I expect the blasted new fangled iron horse railway things killed it off.
You now have a fantastic opportunity to do some interesting research for yourself now Sir. Your good questions will all be answered out there somewhere, they even give clues where to start. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "six good men and true", Who, What, Where, Why, When and How are ready to lead the way.
Wellyage! LOL. Oops. I woke my son. They should add that to the dictionary. With the meaning: discernable distance traversable across waterlogged terrain until wellingtons outstay their usefulness and the wearer must resort to waders. :D The tunnel itself is in better condition that I expected. Beatiful stonework and the brick ceilings are an amazing feat of craftsmanship. It's part of my favourite canal, so I am very glad you went back.
Isn’t it strange how easily we abandon works of art like this. The lives lost in the construction of these long forgotten gems shouldn’t be forgotten. They were recently working on the Lancaster Canal that had been closed down, I don’t know why.
Sometimes it's just unsafe after years of abandonment, and cost required to make it usable (even as tourist destination) and, most importantly, SAFE! is not worth it :)
Think it was abandoned because the M6 motorway cuts through it in various places as it bends and curves around with the motorway ploughing straight through a number of these curves
Thank you very much really enjoyed that. Gosh that hole was so deep, glad you did t take any risks. Loved the tunnel, just love tunnels.thanks for taking me along. P,ease stay safe
Thanks Linda.
Thanks guys, really interesting to see history come alive.
Awesome Thanks
Loved the camera down the shaft!! Pity it was blocked so you couldn't get down to the bottom but still great views of the stone lined shaft. Also great to hear future videos will include the Somersetshire coal canal and Camerton train station. That's my neck of the woods so will look forward to that. Thanks again for a great video.
Super interesting stuff.... and just terrific drone shots too! 👍👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Great to think this all coming back into use, providing a canal link from Severn to Thames.
most enjoyable video. If I walked through the woods in short sleeves and bare legs the midges would have eaten me alive. Trust you two survived OK.
There's plenty of old canal routes up and down the country, which in my opinion ought to be put back into use .
Fabulous and interesting as always. Keep them coming. Very enjoyable vlog. Thank you
Great new video, mild peril, mini Whitewicks and Engineering. 🤪😄👏
Can’t believe that the local authorities can leave such dangerous shafts exposed and open with such a flimsy fence sand no warning signs
Been to the collapse in the middle from both ends, its a fab tunnel.
Tell us more Norris. Can you go end to end or is the collapse to exstensive
No the collapse spans about 100m IIRC. we've been thinking about trying to ab into that section via one of the shafts or do a bit of digging at the less scary end.
Great video! love playing in Sapperton. If you loose your camera give me a shout😀. Have abed in & explored some of those shafts also fully explored the tunnel. Found a very expensive looking drone (dji aspire) on top of one the Hook Norton viaduct pillars a couple of years ago so be careful it does happen. Certainly wish i had your camera skills. Great work👍 Ps didn't realise u guys were fellow cachers. You didn't fancy "Buried Alive" then🤣
Haha... brilliant. It seems we frequent the same haunts.
Great!! I've always wondered about the tunnel as I have passed it often for work in the area. Now I know more than I ever would have by exploring it myself, thank you! Would it be worth flying your drone along the section of the tunnel which you managed to walk into? Or maybe get Gary to build a boat-mounted camera craft for you!
Another great well edited and informative video i'm loving these railway and canal tunnel adventures you always find the history about these places which is most interesting. Stay safe and see you in the next.
Thanks David, most enjoyable to make.
With shafts , with things that fall down or are thrown down .....can create what is called a plug . So yes the shaft down might actually be clear to a point but as you can imagine so many years as you said leaves , branches and debris over that amount of time would create a big pile of debris at the bottom of that shaft . The bulges in the roof of the brick arched tunnel !!! very disconcerting !!! . Would love to go for a walk in a wet suit and maybe a breathing apparatus and a gas monitor just to see how far you could actually get . Sadly i don't have a gas monitor or wet suit but im trained in B/A and have them at work but ......i doubt they would let me take a set for such an exploration !!! . Maybe the last day i retire ill liberate one for my last Hooray lol :-)
My thoughts too on the shaft. People have suggested they have gone all the way through but there is now a 100 yard collapse. Agreed also on the Gas meter.
Fascinating video as always! I can't believe the tunnel builders did not put up even the minimal protection around those shafts. At the very least they would serve as ventilators and would need to be kept free of debris and dead bodies. The soil heaps aren't very big, maybe because the limestone could be sold, or used as ballast, as well as the clay, known as "Fuller's Earth", which has many uses even today. To dig a 3,490 meter long tunnel today would be a major engineering job, but in the days of hand labor it was simply an incredible feat! That tunnel portal looks like the entrance to the town hall in Shrewsbury. In fact Cardinal Woolsey palace had a similar entrance. Must have been the style then?
Ah thank you. Of course, never considered that they could sell the Limestone from half the tunnel.