Foulridge Tunnel on the Leeds & Canal is also known as the Mile Tunnel. A great engineering feat of the 18th Century it is now the longest canal tunnel in the country that you can canoe or kayak through. Although known as a mile it is actually fractionally short of that at .93 miles (1,630 yards or 1.49 km).
After the first 3 days walking to this point along the canal heading west from Leeds, I was getting deeper into Lancashire after passing by the canal walk across the border from Yorkshire. Being a man that was born and bred by the Pennines I had been wondering how the Leeds & Liverpool canal actually got through the hills. For example like the narrow canal towards Huddersfield and the Standedge Tunnel.
When the canal was originally started to be built, in 1770, there was in fact no tunnel to be built. The original plan was to have a great loch system to cover this mile stretch at a higher level along the canal.
The Revolutionary War in America put a pause on the canal building and in 1789 the route was relooked at. This is when the idea of a tunnel at Foulridge came to fruition. Construction began in 1792 and took almost five years to complete.
There is also a great local story about the tunnel that many people have heard of. It is purported that in 1912 a cow fell in the canal at the other end of the tunnel from Foulridge village. It then swam through the tunnel where it was helped out and revived with rum or brandy by the locals.
Of course on our canal walk we could not pass through the tunnel and so Malc and I had to take a route over the top. A similar route to how the horses that towed the canal boats along the canals had to take.
The boats would have had to be legged through the tunnel itself in its heyday. (Legging involved two people lying on planks at the bow of the boat, using their legs against the tunnel wall to walk it through). A very dangerous thing to do, and when legger drowned and died in 1886 a steam tug was brought in.
As we walked up and out of Foulridge we could look back down at the village and imagine the canal getting deeper and deeper below us.
On the route up you can look over onto the fields and see some brick and stone chimney like structures coming out of the ground.
These not only show exactly where below the canal is, but they also serve an important purpose. These are the ventilation shafts to clear the air deep in the tunnel. You can only imagine what it was like in the age of steam or coal etc.
Then, at the top there is the great expanses of water, Upper and Lower Foulridge Reservoir. Often named Lake Burwain too. It is up on here that the water supply was organised properly for the full canal.
A big reservoir was required up at the summit to feed water down the canal as it was used by the locks etc.
If you imagine the water supply way down at Bingley Five Rise getting lower and lower, someone needs to turn the tap on and off at the top! There is a lot of work always ongoing by the Canal and River Trust to keep the water levels maintained.
Walking down the other side towards the tunnel exit the path resembled more a path the tow horses would have taken. A lovely little walk full of nature and streams. In fact, the nature was quite tame and a young magpie kept attacking Malc from behind!
At the tunnel entrance on the western side you are surrounded by greenery and nature beside the water. The only building is the old leggers hut where workers who wanted to make money arduously legging the boats through waited for boats.
We were back on the towpath and back on our way along the canal. Next stop, Burnley, see you there.
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