Hose (Long Clawson/Scalford) Tunnel
° Opened: 1879
° Closed: 1964
° 834 Yards Long.
The History :
Great Northern and Midland railways secured Parliamentary approval for a new railway line from Newark to Melton Mowbray in 1872.
The following year, a further section was authorised, extending the route South Wards to meet the Rugby - Luffenham line.
The result was GN and L&NW came together to construct a 34 mile North South Joint Line between Welham and Bottesford.
The line finally became operational on 15th December 1879.
Two tunnels had to be completed to make the new link, At 834 yards in length, the longer of the two tunnels was located just south of Long Clawson Station, officially named Hose tunnel.
Benton & Woodiwiss, Regular servants of the Great Northern Railway, were appointed as construction conctractors.
The heading, measuring 10 feet high and 9 feet wide, was driven from two shafts, the more northerly being the deepest at 106 feet. The other measured 86 feet.
Both were sealed and backfilled once construction work was completed.
Two other shafts were sunk just clear of the proposed entrances to expediate work on the approach cuttings, although it appears that the north portal was eventually erected about 40 yards north of the shaft at that end.
The tunnel is lined throughout in red brick although short sections of masonry sidewall are apparent - presumably later repairs. Two of these face each other near the tunnel's centre, across an open catchpit. Another, inserted in the east wall close to the northern entrance, is badly spalled. Deep refuges are provided at both sides.
The north portal is hugely impressive, It exhibits seven rings of brick and a headwall in blue brindles.
The wing walls, buttresses, parapet, string course and copings are all stone, with the former aligned parallel with the trackbed.
At the Southern end, masonry was used for the string course and copings, The rest is engineering brick. Here, the wing walls are set at right angles to the railway.
A mechanical gong was fixed to the Up sidewall, 34 yards from the northern entrance.
This was used for signalling trains during shunting operations at Long Clawson.
A telephone to the signal box there, with wires running through the tunnel was located in front of the watchman's hut on the Down side, 120 yards beyond the southern portal.
Regular passenger services along the route were never well patronised and ceased on 7th December 1953.
Goods traffic was more successful though, continuing to encounter Hose Tunnel until the section through it was closed on 7th September 1964.
Tragically on the evening of Saturday 14th October 1876 three men lost their lives while working on the tunnel’s construction.
They were at one of the construction shafts at the northern end of the tunnel working at the Bottesford face of the heading blasting through the hard clay at a rate of approximately one yard per day.
Blasting operations usually took place twice during each of the two daily shifts.
At 9.30pm, by the light of three candles, Samuel Longman attempted to charge a hole with gunpowder.
He managed to strike his container against some projecting earth which scattered the gunpowder on the floor.
It was ignited by one of the candles causing the 8lbs of gunpowder to explode.
He and his two coworkers sadly died.
Tragedy struck again on 26th June 1878 when a young brakes man was killed when he was run over by a wagon, 200 yards into the tunnel.
The Explore :
This was a fairly straight forward explore, park on the nearby road, walk across the field, which gets slightly boggy, I actually lost both shoes, but managed to grab them back, lesson learnt in keeping shoes well tied!
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Anyway after the boggyness the tunnel was a walk straight in, both portals were fully open and the tunnel in Brill dry condition throughout, to my knowledge both portals have just been fully bricked up in this last month.
Enjoy the pictures
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Below we are looking out of the Southern Portal:
Very dry and little colour:
A refuge
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Looking South:
A black and white shot, unsure what I was trying to achieve with the angle tho
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The famous Long Clawson ghost:
The yellow brightening up the tunnel:
Part of the drainage system for the tunnel also known as Catchpits:
This is looking north from roughly half way through:
At this end loads of chicken coops are stacked up from the farmer, either dumped or stored:
The Northern Portal:
The Southern Portal:
Thanks for looking
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