Building record 408/1/3 - Catesby Tunnel, Great Central Railway

Work began on the tunnel in February 1895 and finished in May 1897. The tunnel is of blue engineering brick, with five ventilation shafts.

{1} Slides of the north entrance of Catesby Tunnel.

{2} Photo of Catesby Tunnel north end.

{3} Catesby tunnel is 3000 yards long and was originally planned as a cutting to hide the railway line from the views from Catesby House.

{4} Catesby tunnel and viaduct remain as examples of the significant engineering of the line, opened in 1899 and closed in 1966. The tunnel, the longest on the line at one mile 1240yds (2743m), is of blue engineering brick, with five ventilation shafts. The tunnel portals have been sealed since closure and the interior is now inaccessible. The southern portal (SP533570) is reached by a footpath from the Charwelton to Hellidon road. The northern portal (SP524596) is adjacent to the footpath from Upper to Lower Catesby.

{6} The contractor responsible for building this section of the London Extension (Contract No.4, Rugby to Woodford) was T Oliver & Son.Catesby Tunnel was designed as an 'egg shape' tunnel, 27 feet wide and 25 feet 6 inches high. The tunnel is absolutely straight throughout and on a rising gradient of 1:176 to the south. It is lined with Staffordshire Blue brick, and over 30 million were used in its length. Its creation demanded around 290,000 cubic yards of mining.

The tunnel was mostly driven from nine construction shafts, each equipped with wooden headgear which was used to lower materials to the men working beneath. Work to sink the first shaft began on 18th February 1895 and the last length was keyed in on 22nd May 1897. Both the north and south portals have prominent date-stones carved with that date. Progress of construction was greatly accelerated by the use of Ruston steam navvies (cranes). Apparently only short sections at the north and south ends were built using cut-and-cover construction.
Small refuges were provided for workers to shelter in when trains went past; there are also three rest cabins built into the Up-Side (eastern) wall. Ventilation along the length of the tunnel was provided by five shafts. Four of these are 10 feet in diameter but the northernmost is 15 feet wide to provide greater air flow.

<1> CADMAN G.E., 1998, PHOTOGRAPHS, (checked) (Photographs). SNN51633.

<2> Fell J., 1989, Hellidon: Portrait of a Village, p.66 (unchecked) (Extract). SNN106334.

<3> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1996-2013, Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group Newsletter, Issue 119 p.15 (checked) (Newsletter). SNN55360.

<4> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2011, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire (2nd Edition), Site 63 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN107622.

<5> Walker, C., 2015, Catesby Tunnel: Archaeological desk-based assessment, August 2015 (Report). SNN110699.

<6> Soden I, 2018, Archaeological recording on Catesby Tunnel and other Great Central Railway features at Charwelton, Northamptonshire, 2018 (Report). SNN111370.

Record last edited

Jun 13 2024 3:13PM