|
|
|
The tunnel that nearly wasn't!
|
|
When it was first surveyed,
the Basingstoke Canal was to have no tunnel. It was to have passed
around the north side of Greywell Hill.
| |
|
|
| |
However, the Rt Hon Earl
Tylney put forward objections to the Parliamentary Bill that the
proposed line of the canal would cut off some of his lands from Tylney
Hall. So the line of the canal was altered to pass through the hill.
|
|
|
A start on the construction
of the canal was made in October 1788 at Woodham in Surrey,
but at the same time, because of the immense task, a start was made
on the tunnel. It was to be 1,230 yards (1125m) long, and was to become one
of the longest canal tunnels to be constructed in the south of
England, and the 12th longest in Great Britain. | |
|
|
|
A few weeks after
work had started, a Rev Shaw visited the site and described how he
"saw above 100 men at work preparing a wide passage for the
approach to the mouth, but they had not entered the hill".
Working with just picks, spades, wheelbarrows and by the light of
candles, the conditions must have been terrible. |
|
|
