Greywell Tunnel End Of The Basingstoke Cannal by Fred255
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
This was a bit sad for me, after months of walking and photographing the Basingstoke Cannal. To see it disappear into this tunnel knowing it will not come out the other end brought a tear to my eye.
The Greywell Tunnel is a monument to the ability of 18th century engineers and builders, using basic tools, to construct a navigation channel for 1230 yards (1125m), 131ft (40m) below Greywell Hill. It is the 12th longest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom and the 2nd longest in southern England.
The eastern portal of the tunnel was given a facelift by Hampshire County Council in 1975 to mark European Architectural Heritage Year.
In 1932 a section of the tunnel roof collapsed, caused by water pressure in a pond above, and a tree fell through, which was left standing upright in the bore. The tunnel remained passable until the early 1950s when two canoeists finally passed through.
Thank you for looking, as always any comments or suggestions welcome 8~)
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Thank you for the comments on my last upload
Comments (10)
It does seem to have a distinct lean to the right; love the texture of the bricks/stones. Sad that this is the end...
very pretty !
Aye!, another victim of life in this country, so nuch disapearing now, our heritage is finaly catching up with us to the point of demise, great gritty shot.
A good one!
Remnant of living history. I too hate to see this. I'll bet the 18th century engineers and workers had mining experience. But then, old mines eventually fall in on themselves too.
Interesting to see how engineers worked before railroads. So it was big enough for the boats and not just an aquaduct.
Very nice feel to the shot - and thanks for the history lesson!
Very sad - and very shortsighted. Reopening some of the major canals would be a good answer to removing many of the large lorries on our over-congested roads. Canals were the main arteries that carried the resources that were the lifeblood of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Yes - canal traffic was slow but a constant flow of boats towing long lines of barges carrying heavy and bulky cargoes such as coal, iron, pottery, stone/gravel and similar plied up and down and dropped off their loads to the waiting factories and warehouses every day. Basingstoke Canal was one of those arteries and the Greywall Tunnel was a major landmark along its route. For those of you who don't know, another short history lesson. Canal boats were pulled by horses along a towpath which ran the whole length of the canals on both sides. However, when the boats came to a tunnel, the horses were unhitched and men would "walk" the boat through it by lying on the flat roof of the boat and pushing against the roof of the tunnel with their feet. The horses would then be hitched up again on the other side and the boats would continue as before. Oh - I nearly forgot - great picture :)!
A great picture, I love the textures. Hugs. Spider. xx
Super shot and history. It was, truly, miraculous what the old canal engineers achieved all that time ago.