The Disastrous Canal Tunnels Of Leominster
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2023
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Welcome to this weeks adventure in which we attempt to find at least three of the rather dangerous tunnels on the Leominster abandoned Canal.
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As always, we are not historians, I just enjoy learning about routes, transport and such, and sharing my journey of learning with you. These videos are not specifically there for educational purposes, more so for you to learn a little (and maybe a lot more thereafter) and join me on these adventures.
Credits (Public domain if not stated):
Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
Stock Footage: Storyblocks
Music: Storyblocks
Music: Epidemicsound
Chapters:
00:01: Can you see it?
03:18: Pensax
04:48: Southnett
08:51: Newnham
12:11: Putnal - Розваги
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To be honest I only clicked to see if you pronounced Leominster properly. It's "Lemster" forget what it looks like. Not only is the "o" silent but so is the "in".
@@KenFullman maybe find something more productive to do with your time? Idk.
The Newnham tunnel is indeed a cut and cover due to the the continued collapse of the short cutting while it was being dug which is why it doesn’t appear on the original survey as a tunnel. And yes, what you can see is not the actual portal as a few yards has disappeared over time. Once used as storage by a local farmer,tThe tunnel is now a bat sanctuary and is legal protected so please, could anyone visiting be mind full of that fact. Mike, Friends of the Leominster Canal.
Do you know squirrels eat bat's
@@gazwit1603😳
He did mention bat hibernation and not hanging around, when talking about one of the tunnels - but yes, everyone needs to be aware and considerate when exploring places such as this. 🦇
Whitewicks: Bringing a whole new meaning to 'tunnel vision'....
Great job! Looks like a lot of very sketchy engineering went into building the tunnels. It is amazing that they still are not totally collapsed after all these years. I would not even want to walk above them for fear of the ground giving way and ending up buried underground.
I'm not sure how deep some of these are. But yep... hugely dangerous
Congratulations to you both on locating the three tunnels and many thanks for highlighting to others the extreme dangers in their exploration ( physical, human and animal!). The field above the coppice is called Harry's Hell and presumably he was less lucky! The NW Southnet entrance became buried decades ago and the SW Pensax entrance appears to have suffered the same fate under steep hill landslides, as it has never been located despite extensive searches. David Slater (Friends of the Leominster Canal).
I remember when I was little kid, I used to play on tunnel which had purple algae-like organism on its wet floor, with my friends..untill my mum caught us & scolded us absolutely for days. We knew the tunnel from the maisons who worked in it. Another adventure was when I walked on closed old well (older than my mother, but still used by 2 families) due to lots of cats died falling inside, resulting the same reaction by mum. Thank you for interesting exploration and bringing up memories 😂😢
Just one thing: Stourport is on the Severn....
Thank you for todays video. Glad to see you and Steve back hunting again. A real interesting video to gaze at. Hello to Rebecca also. See you on the next! Cheers mates! ❤❤❤😊😊😊
Love these explores! Old Blighty seems to be honeycombed with these tunnels. Amazing.
Glad you enjoyed. We do seem to be gifted with many.
Great and interesting video but Stourport is on the Severn not the Thames.
When I was a kid it was easy to access Orleton tunnel - was never called anything else then....
Oh yes, the tunnels truly deserved an episode on their own. Nice to see Rebecca being alive and kicking. 😇
And the things I've already learned in these videos. A year ago I would have had no idea what a Welli was, I never learned Wellingtons at school, we called them rubber boots. 🤣
Wellys and rubber boots are different things. Rubber boots are more solid and have a more substantial tread.
great video Paul and Rebecca, so interesting , really well done and thank you both 😊😍
Thanks Davie
Thanks for posting this. Another small step towards documenting permanently our industrial heritage.
Thank you. That's definitely a partial goal
@@pwhitewick I’m intrigued to know who the farmer with a shotgun is?
@@sebastianbywater2445 me too....
ua-cam.com/video/T0udXjJsXHs/v-deo.htmlsi=Uj9v7CAdcjKsHIgF
I’m interested in canal tunnels and these I certainly didn’t know about so thank you for uploading this one👌
This is really fascinating stuff. Thanks very much for tracking down these long lost canals and their tunnels.
I've just got back from a gloriously sunny autumn day at Norchard, where the Dean Forest Railway are based. The site includes a great little museum and a nice secondhand book and model shop. I went to donate some surplus books and model trains but ending up acquiring four more books.
Another cracking vid there Paul, and it was nice to see Rebecca as we haven't seen her in your films for a while
Stourport on Thames? So I guess Bewdley is something like Henley. Certainly quite a lot of Hooray Henries there, if I remember rightly.
You were in my neck of the woods and I'm ashamed to say I had no idea there was a Leominster Canal.
I was born, and raised, Stourport-on-Severn, which as you probably know was created by the arrival of James Brindley's canal. Of course we learned all about the canal, and how it was built, in school but no mention of the Leominster Canal.
I'm very familiar with the area around Pensax, and so is Jeremy Clarkson because Top Gear used to use the lanes for filming car tests.
As a young electrician I drove around the area a lot, going to install equipment and rewire many of the old cottages in the area.
I'm currently sat in a pub in Bolton wishing I was able to pop up to Pensax to take a look myself.
Thank you for the advice. Yes, Rebecca," enjoy what others have accomplished," as I SERIOUSLY doubt that I'll ever visit any of these sites.
Thanks Paul - and Steve. You enthusiasm for exploring is infectious. Lovely finds and happy accidents - another great video.!
Paul re Leominster Canal Tunnels
1) Pensax Planned length 3,850 yards. Actually built less than 300 yards.
Pensax Tunnel was commenced as you said and a short distance was built before the money ran out. The story of the collapse at Sousant/Southnet is mirrored at Pensax as locally it is said that in fact the men were killed at Pensax and not at Sousant/Southnet
At least two of the shafts were later incorporated into Pensax Colliery (Note the tramway at Pensax Colliery has nothing to do with the canal).
As late as 1970 the likely site of the western portal of the tunnel was a u shaped depression in a rather narrow valley. This is now long gone. However a friend who lives locally confirmed that ground penetrating radar has confirmed that the tunnel was started and the route is now known with a degree of certainty.
Had it been completed it would have been the longest narrow boat canal tunnel built up to that time.
At 3,850 yards in length and 7'6" wide it would have been a veritable rat hole.
The only comparable tunnel locally would have been the 3,795 yards long Lapal Tunnel on the Dudley No 2 canal (Lapal Tunnel collapsed in 1919 due to lack of maintenance during WW I brought on by mining subsidence. Like Pensax Tunnel it has completely vanished now!).
2) Sousant/Southnet 1,254 yards.
It appears that the tunnel was completed but collapsed before it was opened.
As the collieries on the Forest of Wyre Coalfield were generally to the north and east of the tunnel it made little or no sense to restore it. As noted concerning Pensax.
It is said that two workers were killed when the tunnel collapsed.
However friends who live locally have told me many times that the deaths actually occurred at Pensax.
3) Newnham 94 yards.
As noted this tunnel was not on the original plans. However it appears that problems with the cutting prompted Thomas Dadford to advise the contractor Thomas Jenkins/Jinkins to build a short 94yard long structure.
I was told by the local farmer in the early 1970's that the tunnel was drained, made safe and the portal's demolished in the early 1960's during its conversion into a bat roost.
4) Putnal Fields 460 yards.
This tunnel gave Thomas Dadford jnr a great deal of trouble.
It was eventually completed after a very considerable cost and time.
It is believed to have collapsed before 1900.
Interestingly the Leominster Company recommended Thomas Jenkins/Jinkins to the Southampton & Salisbury Company as a contractor who knew how to build canal tunnels!
Success alluded him at Southampton just as it had on the Leominster Canal!
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide the background history ; that Paul asked for and most of us needed too:). Very well explained and set out.
Thank you for your kind reply Julia.
As a complete aside many years ago I wrote an article for 'OLD GLORY' magazine on the similarities between the attempts made by Salisbury and Leominster to build inland waterways to serve the respective settlements.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries unsuccessful river navigations were built.
In Salisbury's case the River Avon which despite successfully reaching Salisbury by 1685 had been abandoned by 1730.
Whilst in the case of Leominster it was the River Lugg that was made navigable from Mordiford on the River Wye up to Leominster.
Just like the River Avon the Lugg failed as a navigation by the 1740's .
The builder of the Dick Brook navigation between Stourport and Worcester Andrew Yarranton who it could be argued was the first British "Canal Engineer" was involved in both the Avon and Lugg schemes.
Then at the end of the 18th century again in both cases there was renewed interest in waterways. However now it was canals rather than river navigations that were proposed.
In Salisbury's case it was the Southampton & Salisbury Canal.
In Leominster's case it was the Kington, Leominster & Stourport Canal.
Both were projects of "The Canal Mania"!
Neither were finished. The S&SC being abandoned within sight of Salisbury Cathedral in Alderbury.
It had a short trading life opening in 1802 being abandoned by 1808!
The K,L&SC lasted rather longer.
Inspite of never actually linking any of the towns that it was supposed to serve!
To the east the navigable section never ventured beyond the splendid Wharf House near Mamble. Whilst there was a considerable amount of construction work carried out towards Stourport. Including a significant amount of work on the 29 locks down the Severn opposite the river port of Stourport. No commercial traffic ever ventured east of the said Wharf House.
To the west the canal never actually reached Leominster let alone Kington! As the closest point to the former town being a wharf on the north side of what later became the A49 to the east of the town!
In fact the K,L&SC operated in its truncated isolated form for some 65 years between 1794 and 1860.
The reason was simply a four letter word Coal!
At the eastern end of the canal around Bayton and Mamble lay the Forest of Wyre Coalfield. The exposed coal measures stretched from around Bridgnorth in Shropshire to Abberley in Worcestershire.
Whilst not a particularly large Coalfield, it had a long productive life. With mining being carried out from the 13th century up to 1973.
(In fact the last colliery on the Coalfield was just up the road from the eastern portal of Sousant/Southnet tunnel across Frith Common at Hunthouse Colliery (Bayton) The pit was the last colliery in Worcestershire.
There are a number of relics on display in Bewdley Museum from Hunthouse Colliery.
In the summer of 1969 Dad and I were searching (like Paul) for the eastern portal of the tunnel in our search. we came upon Hunthouse Colliery quite unexpectedly. Dad who had just been made redundant by the NCB upon the closure of Chislet Colliery in Kent was very interested in this rather incongruous little pit! Not only did Mr Mole (I jest not! As the colliery was owned by the Mole brothers who hailed from the strangely isolated hilltop village of Clows Top) direct us to the location of the tunnel portal. He then invited us underground for a tour of the colliery! Most interesting it was too! Hunthouse Colliery was privately owned being licensed by the NCB. The last NCB Colliery was in the Severn Valley at Highley and Alverley in Shropshire.
It was closed due increasingly serious safety issues regarding roof failures early in 1969. The only other colliery operated by the NCB following the Nationalisation of the coal industry on 1st January 1947 was Bayton No 10 Colliery which was closed by the NCB in 1954. The redundant miners moving to Hunthouse Colliery which had opened around the time the NCB closed Bayton No 10).
It was the coal that kept the canal open for so long!
That said due to water issues (The canal had three summit levels!) the canal struggled to operate. In its last years it appears that it was only usable for around five months a year. It didn't make much in the way of tolls either.
As the total raised in 1858 amounted to £28!
The Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway Company had rashly offered the directors of the moribund canal the sum of £12,000! They then tried to back track on the deal! This led to a court case which the Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway Company lost!
This £12,000 resulted in the only dividend paid on the shares in the Kington, Leominster & Stourport Canal!
As a result of this the western section of the canal (Leominster Wharf to Wooferton) was closed and drained in 1859.
For a short time the section from Wooferton to Wharf House near Mamble remained open. But it had closed by 1860 and later sections were sold to the Forest of Wyre Railway (Wooferton to Bewdley).
Various isolated sections of canal were built including a section at Kingsland west of Leominster were the canal was going to cross the River Lugg on an aqueduct that had it been completed been similar to the Teme Aqueduct to the east of Wooferton.
Only the foundations were begun after which it was abandoned.
The remains of the partly built aqueduct was visible as late as the early 1970's when the river level was low.
The canal got nowhere near Kington. Eventually a 3' 6" gauge plateway was laid from Brecon on the Brecon & Abergavenny Canal to Burlinjob Lime Works via Hay -on- Wye and Kington.
At 36 miles in length the Hay Railway (Brecon to Eardisley) and the Kington Railway (Eardisley to Burlinjob).combined were the longest horse worked plateway in Great Britain.
It was suggested that the K,L&SC should be closed drained and filled in so that it could be converted into a plateway. Even though a Act of Parliament was passed that authorised this. It is apparent that no work was ever carried out to convert the canal. The only tramroads/plateways being associated with the canal were those that ran from Wharf House to the various collieries around Bayton and Mamble.
One thing that should be noted at this point is the fact that only one person made a significant amount of money from the canal and that was Sir Walter Blount Bt.
As he owned the collieries!
As noted in my earlier post. The Kington, Leominster & Stourport Canal and the Southampton & Salisbury Canal were also linked by the contractor Thomas Jenkins/Jinkins who was recommended to the Southampton & Salisbury Canal Committee for his skill as a tunnel builder!
Mr Jenkins/Jinkins (he used both spellings) holds a unique distinction in the annals of British Civil Engineering. As he was the only person to have built two major Canal Tunnels.
1) Sousant/Southnet at 1,254 yards in length.
and
2) Southampton at 584 yards in length.
For rwo completely unrelated canal companies that were never opened or used!
The joy you have wanderibgvthrough dark woods and muddy canals just floods out of the video..another great entertaining video
Thank you and BEST of luck with your next venture Rebecca.😊
Wow, I'm surprised that first tunnel hasn't been fenced off to minimise landowner liability. Probably will get done now.
Paul & Rebecca this is just amazing bringing this content to us the historical value especially to those of us who enjoy it and those who can’t get to places like this Brilliant.
A very interesting video - well done you two
Thanks for that video all! Very fascinating and mysterious!
Back in those days, navvies could have been boaters, as the word navvies just meant navigator. A person that either built or used a navigation ie a canal
That woodland search you started with, shades of "Dr Livingstone I presume." Such commitment, thanks for bringing us the tunnels & the rest of the vid. One way of exploring the tunnels might be with a camera on a model boat, although if range is lost it may be a one way trip, unless a retrieval line is attached of course. Come to think of it, Martin Zero whom you know, did some exploring of Manchesters watery tunnels remotely in similar fashion but with a R.O.V.
Love, Love, Love your channel! The English Countryside is a beautiful place! Thank you Paul and Rebecca!
What a lovely comedic expressive face Rebecca has. Another fascinating presentation. Thanks you two xxx
Excellent and very interesting . Nicely done .
Some great finds there, just as well it was only a welly that was lost!!
Lovely to see Rebecca giving you a prod!!
Well done to both of you
Great video Paul , Steve and Rebecca some good history there just hanging on for dear life
That was amazing to see, the near collapsed tunnels and the stories and mysteries around it. Lovely 😍😍
Still need to sign up to Readly 🤣 But a really interesting video but when you mentioned Angry Farmer it reminded me of straight line missions which I've seen and some Farmers can get aggressive. Good job you didn't go to the South Portal
Thank you for another amazing explore. You are brave men filming all these pretty dangerous tunnels for us. That was so interesting .
Good to see Rebecca
I really love your tunnel videos ! More, please!
Really enjoyed that thanks. Gotta love the tunnels. You can’t get too many trees, I love them. Please take care
That is some really dodgy infrastructure! Hadn't heard of the canal and didn't know these existed. Fascinating finds. Thanks.
an amazing composition of a video. thank you
Thank you 😊
Quite fascinating to see what you found - must go back and have a look myself someday. Maybe the Friends could confirm this - was the inclined plane down to the Severn ever commenced? As I understand it, Pensax tunnel's collapse ended construction, having never seen a written reference to the inclined boat lift.
There is another tunnel you don't mention, in a field between Mamble village and Footrid - grid ref 682709 approx. I think this is something to do with the old Mamble collieries - it's clearly visible to the left of the footpath looking towards Footrid, and disappears underneath the cottages beside the farm track; it reemerges inside a bamboo plantation in the garden to the west of them. Part of it is in the open air, and the tunnel - of a very small bore, is clearly visible. From its size I suspected its a drainage tunnel from the pits, but having seen your film, I wonder if it's the canal!
Just as an aside, when is British 21st century gun law going to catch up with threatening and aggressive farmers, who can intimidate us with lethal weapons in ways that are illegal in towns?
Love the tunnel videos best of all, and these were some pretty dramatic ones! Sad how little of the structures is left after all this time.
Excellent.Very interesting to watch.
Really enjoyed this video paul & rebecca, 👏👏👏
@ 13.25, bog standard pine forest. a mono-culture.
Tunnels! Love it and can’t wait for the next one.
Us too!
Still continue to be impressed with the production values you guys put out. Great content!
"Stourport-on-THAMES"!?
Shome mishtake shurely?
Oooooops
Gor, I dunno - you finally come up to my neck o' the woods, and drop a clanger like that! ;)
@@pwhitewick Stourport-on-Severn?
Did you mean to say Stourport on Thames? Surely it is the Severn?
Indeed. Got a tad muddled there
You really need some kind of radio controlled boat equipped with a 360° camera and FPV capability. We need to see the inside of those tunnels!
Such a thing is very useful in general. For purposes of visiting tiny islands on lakes local to me, I built such a ship. As it also needed to travel in waves as high as 7-8" to even reach said islands, it turned out quite large and heavy though, so I need a four wheeled cart to get it there. Kind of diminishes its practical value for someone like Paul.
Another excellent one so thanks for all the research, planning and actually getting it done. This really is a fascinating canal. Glad that uou svoided an encounter with the farmer with his shotgun!
The Whitewicks might well now be far more commercially viable than any of the canal flops in the region of Herefordshire. ;-)
Very interesting. What a shame about that first tunnel, and a tragedy, by all accounts.
You have great tunnel vision!
You can see the Southern portal of Putnell tunnel from trains on the railway line;' you have to be quick though because they don't stop!
The town is Lemster BTW.
Stourport-On-Severn please
Sketchiest tunnels ever! Excellent exploring here :)
Great exploration. I just added the 4 tunnels to Wikipedia entry "List of canal tunnels in the United Kingdom" stating in the Edit Note your YT video and Rail Map Online as the sources.
Looks exciting 🤔🚂🚂🚂
Very interesting, better because its my home turf.
Fascinating. I live in Kington and had heard about the canal but ddn't know where it was...or wasn't..
you should make public maps of these tunnels so future professionals can find them
Love "doobly dòo" 😂
3:40 - Pensax from "pen" meaning "head" and "sais" = Saxon (i.e. Englishman), so it was a prominent point on the border. Sax would be rock in Latin but it wasn't one of the words that the Welsh took from the Romans.
Luv ur mystery and discovery shows … thanks guys 👍💫🌹⚔️🏴🇦🇺🍻
annother great video guys 👍 When you coming back to Wales ? Great stuff to find around Creigiau near Cardiff 😁
6:57 I’m going to be totally honest, when you first showed the map, that area on the right hand side (bottom right of the image/field is where I thought the tunnel portal might/would be. But what do I know?
I’m just a coal miners daughter 🤣
Yup.... a little prep here would have saved us... like 2 hours!
I find Crime Stories yawnsome generally, but I was very fond of Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy books. Not a great fan of the Sunday night TV fodder they became, but the books are, feistier. One "Spend Game" finds our hero digging his way down an old well to access a rail tunnel. The designers of the tunnel didn't know about the well, botched the engineering around it and the tunnel collapsed on its inaugural train journey. The story seems a little spurious, but when you read about the Leominster canal, it doesn't seem so.
The name Pensax is a combination of the Celtic words "pen" (hilltop) and "sais" (Englishman or Saxon) it shows Celtic speaking people still lived here after Saxons had settled the area, there's other Celtic place names close by.
Another tunnel is at Canal Cottage with a surviving length of canal
Stourport on Thames 🤣🤣🤣
Good to document these, because they look in terrible shape and won't last forever.
I'm surprised that no one was ordered to backfill those tunnels as it would create a sink hole on the ground above them if you had a Catastrophic Collapse.
Probably too dangerous to shovel fill into them.
Which leads to my dumb question: if these tunnels are so dangerous, why aren't the entrances sealed off? At least cover the entrances with cyclone fencing. (Yeah, a determined individual could get past that, but doing that shows they are intentionally risking their life thus releasing everyone else from responsibility for their injuries or death.)
@@llywrch7116A Belt Conveyor Can make fast work of it without having anyone enter inside the tunnel. Seal them up afterward !
Great piece of exploration! Is it just the unstable geology/passage of time, or was the design/construction of the tunnels just not up to the job?
Both.
Pensax is fascinating. Look forward to the video! I did meet some people once who assured me that the local authorities have to regularly pump out the remains of the tunnel working so said that this was proof something more existed but of course ai dont have anything other than what they said.
Very interesting but sadly highly unlikely. Only just over 100 yds of the tunnel were dug and this was in the depth of Pensax Wood with essentially no access. No remnants of this have ever been found. Far merely I suspect to be associated with the extensive surrounding mining. David Slater
Stourport on Severn, not Stourport on Thames, I think. I know Stourport on Severn, it is a canal hub, and was built on the back of the canal system, hence the 'port'
I really enjoy your videos, Paul and Rebecca.
My only comment would be that I think they could be even better if Rebecca did a bit more of the presentation....not just little comments here and there....
Alas... she does the exact amount that she wants. Life is good.
We as kids dare each other nostop to get deep as we can in tunnels like these but in much worse condition compare to these ones. We are luck to stay unharmed becouse we also dare each other to get into pipes for rain water.
I enjoy history channels like this. I'm Finnish and i read anything about European ancestry that I can get my hands on. My great x great father was from somewhere western parts of Europe near British isles.
8:15 - can you fly a drone in to the tunnel? Or is it just too risky?
This canal did not have a happy history. It goes through very hilly terrain, and they tried to keep costs down. A lot of heavy engineering was needed, tunnels, , and embankments. One of these collapsed allowing the canal to spill across the fields. Thrn the railway turned up. It wasn't a financial success either, but it contributed to the end of the canal.
I wonder if you could fly a small drone down those tunnels for safe inspection
Possible yep. Thw standard dji's though won't do that.
Interesting, good video. The fact that a farmer mentioned carries a shotgun, shouldn't be seen as a 'bad' - he isn't going to shoot any person(s), he probably has too many rats, rabbits etc. or he's lambing early & is concerned about corvids taking out the eyes, tongues & navels of the lambs, which they frequently do. 👍
You should dropa Google map pin on where they are for the next peri urban explorer
me, meanwhile, in a US desert: "oooooooo pretty English trees!"
Stourport on Severn
Please get a cheap RC boat, slap a torch and go-pro to it and get exploring. 👍👍
Did you spot the collapse of the old tunnel overhead? Do you think it collapsed because of the railway?
Ooh, glad you do the dirty work while I sit on my butt and watch. Nothing nicer than a G and T and watching Paul filming your latest adventure. I see you had the same plan Rebecca, don't blame you. Lovely story.
Great video, as ever.
I was wondering if it would be possible to fly a camera drone into these tunnels that are not safe to go into? I've never used a drone, so it might be completely impossible....i don't know!!!
It would be great until something went wrong and you would have to go in the tunnel to retrieve it, which you would as those drones are not cheap. Maybe get a cheap camera drone for forty quid and use that although cheap means lower resolution video and more chance of the thing malfunctioning so maybe not lol.
Radio controlled boat with a gopro on might be fun though.
I like the boat/go pro idea 💡
@@meetoo594 A cheap RC boat fitted with a LED light and a reasonable drone/plane FPV camera would do the trick. Only extra needed would be a fishing rod and some solid line to haul it all back when the inevitable occurred.😜😁
@@theoztreecrasher2647 Yup, exactly the setup i was thinking. Maybe fit rubber tracks to the side to traverse non flooded parts.
@@meetoo594 Actually I think that I have seen somewhere a toy skid steer type wheeled vehicle with large floatation wheels/tyres that provide the motive power both on land and in the water. That would be ideal and no propellers to snag on trash. 😉 😊
Just up the road from me.
Did you try and find the North Western Portal of the Southnett Tunnel?
Under a house I think
I'm beginning to think this canal was sketchy to begin with and was doomed to failure from conception onwards. It was not uncommon during "canal mania" to collect funds from investors and then disappear into the night. The same thing was continued with "railroad mania" in the early 1800s and not just in Britain but in America as well. New railroads were proposed, stock shares were sold, and then when no work was started it was found the constructors had left town and disappeared. That one tunnel portal you looked at needs to be blocked up before some kids venture inside and gets killed. The whole idea of a canal tunnel with no tow path was never going to work and is one reason why some canals failed to make money.
Lots of in use canal tunnels have no towpath. Boats were "legged" through by two boatman, while a third took the horse over the top.
Video starts at 3:12
Ahem ..stourport on Thames...!!!😮 😆
bloody stinging nettles.
This is a bit off-subject, but on your vids when you walk away from your camera (walking perhaps 30-40 yrds down a path) I always think, "....oh no, after getting the shot, they will have to walk all that way back just to retrieve their camera & tripod." Would it be possible to get "the shot" by using your drone & it's camera (hovering perfectly still in place), then recalling the drone to you after getting the shot? Therefore avoiding having to retrace your steps to retrieve the camera & tripod; or is this how you do it? Your vid wasn't about production issues, but this is something I've always wondered about.
Alas yes. We try and gove a variety of those types of shot to divert attention from my mug constantly talking. 🙃. The drone works to help with this but the batteries for the drone last around 20 mins. Plus maybe 10 mins to set up. Over a days filming at various locations it's just not practical. Worth a punt though
You need a robot boat to explore the dangerous tunnels.