Built in 1793, ‘Little Tunnel Bridge’ is one of the few remnants of the final 5 miles of the Basingstoke Canal between Greywell and Basingstoke.
The Canal itself opened in 1794 and once spanned 37 miles from the River Wey at Weybridge to Basingstoke. Like others it led a troubled existence owing to increasing competition from the railways and a general lack of maintenance in its later years - Commercial travel finished in 1910.
Conservation work between 1977 and 1991 saw the navigation open again for tourism but only as far as the famed Greywell Tunnel, which by this point had suffered several collapses and become home to a protected species of bats - severing off the final five miles to Basingstoke which has but lost to building projects and farming.
Little Tunnel, or Little tunnel Bridge, is about 150ft in length and once carried the canal and towpath through a chalk cliff/hill under the Andwell bridal way. It’s about a bout half a mile west of Up Nately and sadly only about 200m from where the canal water finally gives up!, It looks like a farmer’s been using it as a barn recently, and the surrounding basin and tunnel itself are ploughed/dry (One reason for the canal’s quick disappearance past Greywell was a continuos battle with water levels through and past the larger Greywell tunnel).
Canal bed west toward Basingstoke
Western portal
Western Portal and Lock/Stop remains
Plaque remnants
Looking east
Tow path
Looking west
Eastern Portal
The Canal itself opened in 1794 and once spanned 37 miles from the River Wey at Weybridge to Basingstoke. Like others it led a troubled existence owing to increasing competition from the railways and a general lack of maintenance in its later years - Commercial travel finished in 1910.
Conservation work between 1977 and 1991 saw the navigation open again for tourism but only as far as the famed Greywell Tunnel, which by this point had suffered several collapses and become home to a protected species of bats - severing off the final five miles to Basingstoke which has but lost to building projects and farming.
Little Tunnel, or Little tunnel Bridge, is about 150ft in length and once carried the canal and towpath through a chalk cliff/hill under the Andwell bridal way. It’s about a bout half a mile west of Up Nately and sadly only about 200m from where the canal water finally gives up!, It looks like a farmer’s been using it as a barn recently, and the surrounding basin and tunnel itself are ploughed/dry (One reason for the canal’s quick disappearance past Greywell was a continuos battle with water levels through and past the larger Greywell tunnel).
Canal bed west toward Basingstoke
Western portal
Western Portal and Lock/Stop remains
Plaque remnants
Looking east
Tow path
Looking west
Eastern Portal