Tunnels

Goodness gracious - Angie in trousers.  It's a bit too hot for
my denim skirt and still too cool for a summer one,
hence this break with tradition.

I'm not sure why tunnels are fascinating.  I live in a very beautiful part of the country and none of its splendour can be appreciated from within a tunnel, yet I'm invariably drawn to explore them.

Once upon a time a railway ran along the hillside above Lydbrook, in the Forest of Dean. Never startlingly busy, it lost its its passenger trains as long ago as 1929 but survived for freight until the mid 50's and was finally ripped up in 1959. Today, most of the track bed has become a very pleasant woodland walk and cycle track. A short section is now on private property... but more of that later.

I explored the area over two days last week, making my way to the end of the valley, with this lovely view over the River Wye.

Backtracking (sorry for the pun!) I decided to see how close I could get to the private bit and emerged in front of a friendly-looking lady who was tending her garden.  
"I'm sorry," said I. "I know I've wandered off the right of way."
"That's quite all right," she replied.  "This is a shared driveway for several properties but you're welcome to use it."

I thanked her warmly, knowing that there was a short tunnel on this stretch of the line... and a couple of hundred yards further on, there it was — Coles Rock Tunnel. 

The walk between Coles Rock and the head of the valley is really beautiful at this time of the year, whilst the course of a tramway, that pre-dated the railway, can clearly be seen in several places, giving me even more old byways to explore.

At the head of the valley the old railway passed through a deep cutting to the north entrance to Miery Stock Tunnel. I'm indebted to my trusty reference book Rails Through the Forest for the information that, about 20 years after the track had been lifted, the Forestry Commission determined that the steep-sided cutting constituted a public hazard, so they filled it with 30,000 tons of colliery waste.

Later, the cycle track and walkway was created on the old track bed. Because the tunnel was no longer accessible, the track was diverted to this rather dangerous crossing of the busy A4136, Then, in 2005, local residents won a lottery grant to have the cutting cleared and by 2008 all seemed ready for the tunnel to be reopened... but there things stopped. Seven years later, Miery Stock's tunnel mouths are still bricked up. 

 

Here's the southern portal of Miery Stock Tunnel, waiting patiently for someone to clear away the undergrowth and give it the kiss of life.

I'm actually quite surprised that some enterprising individual (or group) hasn't surreptitiously demolished the walls that seal the tunnel and 'unofficially' re-opened it.  For that is what's happened at Lydbrook tunnel, just a few miles down the line, which Lucy Melford and I explored a few weeks ago.

A few of my friends, armed with torches, have walked right through the tunnel.  Perhaps I may follow in their footsteps one day, but there's so much more to see by walking around the hill.  Which brings me back to where this little post began.