Haddon Tunnel

Construction

During the 1860s, the Midland Railway was expanding its Buxton branch line through the Peak District; the route selected crossed the lands of Haddon Hall, which was then owned by Charles Manners, 6th Duke of Rutland.^[4] As a means of minimising both the impact of the railway upon the estate and political opposition to the route's construction, the company decided that it would use tunnels as to hide the line as much as possible. Initial plans for what would become Haddon Tunnel, which were signed by Midland's first Chief Engineer William Henry Barlow, contractor George Thomson, and his brother Peter, depict this section of the route as having been intended to have been two separate tunnels, the southern one being 120 yards long and the northern roughly 900 yards long, which were to be separated by a short cutting.^[4]

On 10 September 1860, ground was broken on its construction, initial work being focused upon a shaft being sunk close to the intended main tunnel’s midpoint, from which a heading was driven. During April 1861, work commenced at two separate points within the heading to excavate the tunnel to size; by this stage, progress was being made in lengths of 12 feet, each of which required around 30 pit props of varying dimensions. The structure was built in three sections; from the south portal, these were a cut-and-cover-built portion of roughly 490 yards, followed by a 350-yard tunnel, and finished off by another covered segment of 220 yards. For the cut-and-cover sections, once the ground had been opened to the requisite depth, side walls and arching were inserted within the dug out before being backfilled. However, as a consequence of both the shallowness of the fill and the gradient of the slope, the ground was unable to sufficiently counteract the thrust of the arch, which necessitated the introduction of buttresses to provide sufficient support for the west wall.^[4]

Early on, there were changes to the plans that led to a substantially different structure being built; this was in spite of convention dictating that engineering contracts requiring the work carried out to be performance in accordance with what was designed, but such differences are not uncommon when building tunnels due to unforeseeable obstacles and other factors that were frequently encountered. Unlike the plan, there would be no cutting built while the pair of tunnels became a single one, albeit one that featured an open box section 11 yards long that provided both daylight and some ventilation; a series of five ventilation shafts were also present. On 12 December 1861, civil engineer John S Allen presented a paper on the tunnel’s construction to the Civil & Mechanical Engineers’ Society, which attributes the composition of the ground, being largely shale, limestone, and clay, that latter of which having caused several land slides, as having played a major role in these alterations.^[4]

There was a single major accident during the tunnel's construction; on 2 July 1861, a partially-built 36-foot length of arch in the northern section of covered way collapsed while waiting to be keyed with additional stonework. According to witnesses, the arch, which had been supported by eight ribs, each fitted with props at both ends and another in their middle, and steadied by three rakers steadied the structure in a manner which had used in the construction of four other lengths, had giving way without warning, burying several workers that were underneath or adjacent to it. While rescue efforts had commenced immediately and the victims extracted within the space of two hours, a total of five workers had been killed, four of these outright and another that died from his serious wound during the following day.^[4] Having reviewed witness accounts, Barlow suspected that the most reasonable cause for the collapse was the suspected loss of a single prop, which may have led to the arch's weight twisting on the central raker before giving way. The railway paid £100 (equivalent to £8,781 in 2016)^[5] compensation to each of their families.

Operational use

During January 1862, Haddon Tunnel had been officially completed; the structure had been buried seamlessly beneath the estate within the space of 16 months. On 1 August 1862, the first public train passed through the tunnel, albeit running to a temporary terminus located at Hassop, roughly three miles away. During May 1863, the route was connected through to Buxton, effectively completing work on the route.^[4]

By the start of the twentieth century, it was became apparent to the railway that the structure was suffering some issues. Inspections of the No.3 ventilation shaft had detected a movement of around 1 and a half inches at one side of the brick arch, while other ventilation-related difficulties were also experienced, such as the accumulation of smoke in the tunnel due to increased traffic levels. During July 1900, the Chief Engineer’s office at Derby planned out corrective measures for these issues, which involved the removal of both the troublesome shaft and 33 feet of arch around it to construct an open box, which would have the effect of providing much greater ventilation. Later that year, remedial work commenced on the tunnel, taking place across an eleven-month period during which passenger trains reportedly incurred no delays. Some difficulty was experienced in the crown's removal, but was otherwise straightforward despite the intrusive nature of the work, while the final cost of the scheme was £2,904 against the estimate of £2,000.^[4]

During 1964, at the height of the Beeching cuts that saw large swaths of Britain's railways closed down, a study was published on the topic of duplicated trans-Pennine routes and the introduction of electric traction for Manchester-Euston services on the West Coast Main Line, which launched in April 1966. As a result of these operational changes, from October 1966 onwards, freight traffic that previously used the route was instead diverted via the Hope Valley line. By this point, there was some anticipation that it would soon be announced that the passenger express services were to be withdrawn. On 29 June 1968, 1H18, running from St Pancras to Manchester Piccadilly, became the last train to traverse Haddon Tunnel.^[4]

Closure and future

During the years following Haddon Tunnel's closure, the route was dismantled. The remaining structure, which has been disused since its closure, and the adjacent trackbed have since been reincorporated into the Haddon Estate. According to author Graeme Bickerdike, despite the tunnel having been bricked up and the withdrawal of substantive maintenance for over 40 years, it has survived this period largely unscathed, and that a prospective reopening of the tunnel is likely to be a realistic proposition. A protracted campaign championed by heritage railway Peak Rail and several other figures within the community culminated in a feasibility study into its reinstatement being performed by Derbyshire County Council during 2004; however, the Haddon Estate has stated its opposition to such plans.^[6]

Peak Rail maintains its plans to extend their heritage rail services via both Rowsley railway station and a proposed Haddon Halt towards Bakewell. However, fulfilling this ambition would require substantially more work than just restoration of the old tunnel, most significantly reinstatement of the long-demolished bridge over the A6 road at Rowsley.

In the shorter term, it is likely that the tunnel could be opened to pedestrians and cyclists as part of a plan to extend the Monsal Trail.^[7]