This is short tunnel which connected Barren Clough quarry to the Bugsworth (Buxworth) basin where Peak Forest Canal meets the Peak Forest Tramway.
The quarry produced a good quality gritstone used for building and surfacing which was exported across the UK.
It operated between 1850 and ca 1928, and was backfilled in the 1980s with spoil from the A6, which runs close by.
The tunnel had a single track tramway running through to wheel the stone out easily.
More details on the tunnel and quarry can be found here http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/quarries-gritstone/quarries-gritstone.htm
I was walking in the area and had noticed a tunnel marked on an old OS map, so went for a look without really expecting to find anything.
The entrance portal turned out to be at the end of an overgrown cutting - it was quite misty in there and some of the following are phone pics.
An airshaft, not needed in a tunnel this short, supposedly sunk first so that excavation could proceed from the inside-out as well as outside-in.
An alcove/refuge. The metal things at the bottom were used to connect the rails to stone blocks set on either side side of the cobbled track.
Sleepers were not yet in common use in the area, although there is something that may be one (not shown) near the entrance.
Tunnel junk.
The end.
Apparently there’s a cross carved on the wall somewhere to commemorate a worker who got run over by wagons full of rock.
I didn’t notice one, but then I wasn’t looking since I hadn’t done any research at that stage.
For anyone in the area, there’s apparently another old tunnel next to the Methodist Church (now flats) in Buxworth, running back to another former quarry.
The quarry produced a good quality gritstone used for building and surfacing which was exported across the UK.
It operated between 1850 and ca 1928, and was backfilled in the 1980s with spoil from the A6, which runs close by.
The tunnel had a single track tramway running through to wheel the stone out easily.
More details on the tunnel and quarry can be found here http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/quarries-gritstone/quarries-gritstone.htm
I was walking in the area and had noticed a tunnel marked on an old OS map, so went for a look without really expecting to find anything.
The entrance portal turned out to be at the end of an overgrown cutting - it was quite misty in there and some of the following are phone pics.
An airshaft, not needed in a tunnel this short, supposedly sunk first so that excavation could proceed from the inside-out as well as outside-in.
An alcove/refuge. The metal things at the bottom were used to connect the rails to stone blocks set on either side side of the cobbled track.
Sleepers were not yet in common use in the area, although there is something that may be one (not shown) near the entrance.
Tunnel junk.
The end.
Apparently there’s a cross carved on the wall somewhere to commemorate a worker who got run over by wagons full of rock.
I didn’t notice one, but then I wasn’t looking since I hadn’t done any research at that stage.
For anyone in the area, there’s apparently another old tunnel next to the Methodist Church (now flats) in Buxworth, running back to another former quarry.
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