Outram’s tunnel could be the oldest in the world
The Derbyshire Archeological Society have been awarded 20k or so to uncover the secrets of the Butterley Gangroad (possibly the world's oldest railway tunnel)which runs between Fritchley and Crich. John Midgley and Trevor
The secrets of one of the oldest railway tunnels in the world, between Crich and Bullbridge, are set to be revealed as part of a two-year project.
The Derbyshire Archeological Society has been given £17,900 by the national Heritage Lottery Fund to dig at points along the one-and-a-half-mile route known as the Butterley Gangroad to gather information from inside the structure, which was built in 1793.
Project leader Trevor Griffin believes the line, engineered by Ripley’s Butterley Company founder Benjamin Outram, will help reveal the history of a fascinating local relic.
He said: “It’s got a claim to being the oldest railway tunnel in the world, but it could have been reconstructed at some stage. There’s a lot of these railways in the Ripley area and a lot in the countryside that no-one has done anything with – hopefully this will inspire others to do similar projects.”
Railway carraiges were originally pulled by horses and carried limestone from quarries in Crich to the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge.
The materials were then taken by boat to the Butterley Works in Ripley via the tunnel, where it was used to make iron. Mr Griffin, a retired railway engineer from The Fleet, Belper, said work was due to begin on the project this month and would run until 2014 with several schools set to be invited to the area on educational trips.
Firm Wessex Archeology has been hired to dig at points along the route, which is currently blocked by soil at both ends after it closed in the 1930s.
The team will drop in caving cameras and laser scanning equipment to hollow parts of the tunnel in order to create accurate images of the inside of the structure. A full archeological survey of the land will also be carried out during the project.
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Monday 20 May 2013
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