The Woodhead ‘Hell Hole’ Tunnels. A brief history

In this video we cycled to the Woodhead railway tunnels along the Longendale trail. A former disused railway line. The Woodhead tunnels were known as hell holes to the railwaymen that worked steam locomotives through them. The Woodhead tunnels were part of a railway line that was one of the initial cross pennine routes. Trans pennine route. The tunnels were blasted out of rock and the Navvies that dug them had a difficult time. Plagued by Cholera and industrial injuries. Later in 1953 a third trans pennine tunnel was dug and this was Woodhead 3. The line was electrified and employed the class 76 locomotives. I tell a story of seeing the British rail class 76 locomotives at Reddish depot in Manchester. As a trainspotter this line holds a special place for me. The Longendale chain of reservoirs can also be seen. A feat of Victorian civil engineering. The longendale trail is now a cycle route. We see photos of old steam locomotives in this railway history vlog.

So there you go have Field Station end of the line the line did carry on obviously down along the Woodhead route and you can see the old gantries also the gantries there were from the original Woodhead route um but the buffer stop marks the end and on the

Other side of the buffer stop the Old Railway line continues on as a cycle route so that’s what we’re doing in this Video So here we are in Hatfield the main street in Hatfield if any of you are familiar with the uh comedy show the league of gentlemen it was filmed here it was set here in Hadfield this is Royston basy uh what to James’s Delight here this is Royston

Basy anyway is it was a while ago that one uh that that it I used to love that program hello my name is Martin welcome back to another video we’re here where are we Hadfield I think we’re yeah we’re out in a we’ve just come to Hadfield

Station as I probably shown you or may have shown you as promised we’re going to do another disused Railway line and this is the longale trail and it’s the route of the old Woodhead route the old Woodhead Railway So the plan is if these two can make

It to get down to the Woodhead tunnels so we’re here at Hadfield the plan is to ride all this way I think it’s six miles did you say 6 6 Mile he moed about 6 Mile you know Six Mile there and back there and back 13 there and back yeah 13

Yeah anyway the plan is to get down to the Woodhead tunnels show you the Woodhead tunnels um I’ll show you some of the scenery and I’ll try and give you a little bit of a potted history of the wood headline or pick out some facts that are interesting and then we’ll have

A look at the tunnels so on the last one the flash broke we’ve got a new flash now why is it a good one well you wouldn’t know cuz you didn’t buy it did you when we come up to um Hadfield are the people going are you local are you

Local this is a local place for local people so it’s tough that you know that you p royst and bisy now so the difference in the uh landscape are is all on the uh monel Trail it was it w you could describe it as Morland it was more countryside weren it really it

Built into a mountain it’s kind a valley W it he knows he’s talking yeah this is more Mand this is more sort of like Mand and rough sort of terrain cuz I did do this line back in 1942 no when I was you know what it’s more than it’s more than

10 years ago I think I cycled this in 2005 something like that have you br Penny yeah have you br any treats you made any treats for us for the Brew yeah I have what have you brong yeah I’m BR you br I have brought cakes that you will

See you’re carrying them oh yeah try not to sit on them I tried not to sit on yeah that was his fault you’re older than me that’s what he came on Lovely bit of a water course down there really lovely to see unbelievably my brother gave me a book a couple of

Days ago and he wouldn’t normally he never normally does anything like that he said St Martin wants them and it was a book called piercing the penines um I’ll put it up for you and it’s a cracking book and it’s got some brilliant pictures in so any information

I give you I’m going to get it from that now in case you don’t know the penines are a set of Hills that run down they call it the backbone of England so it kind of like runs down North to uh the Midlands in England and if you want to

Go from west to east or east to west up in the north of England you’ve got to cross the penines so if you drive in it’s one of those routes the Woodhead routes n pass or the m62 and the railways had to go through tunnels and they provided those uh the penines

Proved to be quite a challenge for the railway engineers at the time we’ve talked about stanage tunnel um and we’ve seen that wooded tunnel was another hell hole to build and a hell hole for the drve the train drivers at the time I’ll tell you more

Further down the line so as always let’s take a look at the map to see where we are there’s Manchester City Center and you’ll see this week we’ve come out to the east of Manchester we got the train to Hadfield and we’re following the old Woodhead Railway line along the side of

These reservoirs here and the Woodhead tunnels are about here roughly where it says a628 so that’s our journey and as you can see as well we’re going to Higher Ground shown by this darker forboding mland here let’s just take a look at Rail map online so there you go there’s Rail map

Online and what I’ve done this time I’ve left the uh the old railway lines in um we got the train to Hadfield and you’ll see the Woodhead route that blue route there used to run along there alongside of the reservoirs and about there is the Woodhead tunnel you see how it goes very

Straight there that’s the Woodhead tunnel quite a distance and it came out this way and it headed over towards Sheffield one of the main routes across the penines now a big criticism is the why they closed the Woodhead route uh back in 1981 the railway line closed and if you look at

Um what I’m going to do is going to take off the historic Railways now and you’ll see how blue line will disappear and that you’ve got one St there at Hadfield and you’ll see it used to run over here to towards penstone and it’s quite or

Looking at the map it’s quite a short distance compared to the the other uh cross pen iron routes and so myself and I met a lot of other people are a bit stumped as to why they Clos the Woodhead route anyway there you go that’s the uh that’s the topography that’s the map

That’s what we’re doing let’s just crack on with it okay so as you probably guessed this week’s video is just a lighthearted cycle out to the Woodhead tunnels uh nothing too serious this week and I’m going to throw in some potted history about the line and the tunnels

If I can for you unfortunately we can’t go in the tunnels but anyway it opened in 1845 and it’s 412 mil long now it was electrified in uh 1953 and the locomotives went went along the Route were these locomotives here class 76s I had a brush with them but I’ll

Tell you about that in a a bit um it was quite a unique line in that it was uh not like the rest of the network in Britain it was ,500 volts DC so it meant that these locomotives could only really work the wood headline um so when the wood

Headline closed the locomotives were scrapped as well um I always think they look quite unique some like a very old electric locomotive and but anyway so if you been talking about class 76s that’s what I’m on about for the 76 drivers going through the wooded tunnel must

Have been a far cry from the old steam engine drivers that have to go through there I’ve got a quote to read you in a bit about the uh the uh steam engines see were we found like a little um innex we found what would have been a

Drainage this would have been a water course and it’s gone um underneath the railway uh so it’s it’s now flooded there um you can see where the railway line would have run here and this I don’t doubt would have gone underneath it let’s have a quick look down here see

So I think there would have been some kind of a maybe the track bolted in there definitely walking on the track bed obviously in the day it wouldn’t have been flooded like this cuz it would have been more controlled but let me just take to look at this cuz it’s

Really uh it’s really nice this so definitely a little Water Co coming there that’s nice is it so if we got the side there we’ll have a quick look and see what uh what’s going on oh yeah it’s just like a little Dell yeah it’s just a Watercourse little

Dell very nice so in it very pretty and you can see where it ran down there to the track well below me sideways we’re out here on the long Andale Trail in the middle of the malls and we’re running to Gareth and Georgina that watch the videos and I’m cycling past them they

Going Martin Martin I’m like Anyway nice to meet you guys nice to meet you thanks for watching and we’re heading to the tunnels you’re all going back now yeah right yes see you soon see you soon see you bye so when we got the cus Koda ebike I Enis these lots of Happy

Days out with James cycling look at that belly um so I bought myself a little uh hybrid bike a little trk uh so it’s uh little disc brakes on it and everything love something in a minute nice set of gears and I’ve put a little bag on with

Tools on it and everything but yeah so I got myself that little hybrid track bike you got the thing on what to stop it okay okay so remember me mentioning the reservoirs well this is the long Andale chain of reservoirs that um I think it harnessed the river EO to uh

Supply the water and obviously as I’ve mentioned it was the anfield reservoir torside roads wood and the Woodhead reservoirs an act of parliament was passed in 1847 that gave Manchester Corporation Waterworks permission to build these reservoirs and obviously this is an entire story within itself

Because it was have been a major feat of engineering but it guaranteed a supply of 1.21 million gallons of water a week a great place to build reservoirs cuz there’s plenty of rainfall up here however today we were lucky that is the wooded route one of the roads over uh the

Penines uh our route goes there behind James little row of houses there they look like they’re uh nobody lives in there anymore to be honest with you um well these would have been lineid right the side of the line these houses right so I’m going to voice over

This bit cuz we got loads of wind noise what I’m showing you here is uh the infrastructure around this area that you have to look for so if you look over there just underneath that lovely little church that little building there beneath the church is a valve house and

Then you’ll see that tunnel there just where my fingers pointing this is all part of the infrastructure and the pipe Network that linked the reservoirs together and obviously fed the water down into Manchester uh the reservoir is just down below um in that Valley there and then if you look onwards there you

Can see the part of the chain of reservoirs there in the distance you the interesting thing that Roy pointed out you see all these lines here these power lines so they run onwards all the way to the Woodhead tunnels and then they all converge and they actually go through Woodhead tunnel

As far as I’m aware they don’t go over the top so I’ll show you that in a bit I’ll show you the power lines that go through cuz National Grid um common de wooded three um and run the power lines through you remember when James said that we were like pensioners well the

Minute he gets off the ebike you may if you squint just see Porky Pig on his bike and that’s how far he falls behind when he’s not on the ebike and when he’s on the bike is telling us how slow we are and that’s my bike is on my bike’s

Pretty uh comfortable and fast ring your bell let us know you com in there he is just get me a bike all messy James try not to block the road hey try not to block the whole Road okay right so you remember when I said all

The power lines we think all the power lines converge obviously we’re not experts on this but they converge and they go through Woodhead tunnel I don’t think we’re F now off wood tunnels which is just down there but we’re going to go I’m going to show you that there which

Is quite interesting uh it’s kind of like a a junction a power Junction let’s go and have a look there you go so it looks like the last of the pylons there and then it all just converges it looks like it possibly goes underground there um and then it runs onto the tunnels

That’s what I mean we’re not far from the tunnels here so our Drone footage here shows you how the over overhead power lines suddenly the py on stop and all the lines go underground um and then they run towards the wooded tunnel and run through the

Hillside in the tunnel uh which is quite a good idea really but unfortunately it means that the tunnel the later tunnel can no longer be reopened as a railway line uh which is a shame this is what happens when you try and climb with rebot classics rebot classics

On going over a little bank to get you a shot and I don’t think should ouch ouch ouch I’m going to get done when I get in in filthy you got Plastics me back for all your climbing needs try to do a bit gracefully look at that right dog’s

Dinner that H oh God that James supposed to do it gracefully well what can I say outdoor footwear outdoor footwear we classic class Classics too right blackberries dog P yeah So just your context there’s wooded station there’s the platforms just behind them there and then over here we’ve got this uh water course look at that it’s a nice bit of uh Mand drainage there isn’t it uh a nice I think that’s taking water off the top cuz we’re in now

Valley and then James is wondering what that is there so yeah that could be the old version of what we’ve just been looking at there that’s the new one I think I’m go try and see the old one now not to S don’t wear shs it’s like it’s a little Arch it’s cool

This need to get a torch cuz that is cool don’t know what it is I think look cool anyway don’t know what this was used for are they filled it in looks like they filled it in now I love the arch way how they built

That it’s well nice so the dates on the tunnels wooded number one the foul one was 1845 the second one was complet in 1852 and 100 years later wooded number three 1953 so quite a history of tunneling here now when they built Woodhead number one they anticipated that we would have

To build Woodhead number two it’s almost inconceivable that they didn’t build two tunnels but I suppose money was tight and it was the usual thing like with the standage tunnels they had to try and raise money get share holders and everything but Woodhead number one they

Built add they built adits to the right hand side anticipating that they would need to go through and tunnel uh Woodhead number two they’ already dropped shafts down from above on the mland above down into Woodhead number one uh and they didn’t need to drop any more shafts to do number

Two the toil the deaths the labor that went into this was incredible I’ve got some stuff to read you about um there was a doctor that worked here a surgeon and he worked with the Navies that were here and there were some tales that it’s from this book so it’s fantastic but uh

One of the things he says there was a lot of injuries lot of injuries make building these tunnels and it’s just we stand there now and it’s peaceful you know you it’s in unfeasible what what happened here anyway this isn’t to diss the Navies

That dug it but um a lot of the injuries this doctor said was because they were drunk they were on on the job drunk because why wouldn’t you if you’re working out here in these these harsh conditions in the mland here and then you had to go in there and use dynamite

And blast and shift Rock couple of pints numb the pain but it also dulled the senses so he support a lot a lot of the accidents not all of the accidents but some of the accidents down to the fact that they were drunk the tunnels are 3

Mil long and when Woodhead 1 opened it was the not only the first trans penine tunnel railway tunnel across the penines it was also one of the longest railway tunnels in the world traffic became extremely heavy through the through the one tunnel and then the two tunnels and

They decided that they they couldn’t Electrify the two narrow tunnels so Woodhead number three was built passenger Services uh continued until 1970 and then they ceased and then freight services continued along this line until 1981 right so we’ll go and take a look at the tunnels we’ll go and walk up to

Him um double fenced so there’s no getting in and I think one of the fences is electrified let’s go and take a look what are you laughing at what what is it mud so approaching Woodhead number three look at that and we might be limited in what we can see

Here but I’ll try and get what I can for you I’ll put some light in there you go second uh fence over there uh and then at the top up there you see it’s electrified just see that see the electrified fence uh so if you can hold

That there James one of you thank you and we’ll just see if we can do a little bit of a zoom we’ll try it up there like that um we’ll just zoom in we’re not getting much but uh there you go you can’t say I didn’t try to

Show you you go bit up a bit now our torch isn’t powerful enough to light it but uh M there you go so it would be great to go in there and take a look he was but I don’t think we’re ever going to get in there to take a look to

Be honest with you cuz double fenced uh high security and everything but it would be good if one other team perhaps over 10 years ago may have been in there and took some photos like I say well over a decade ago anyone mons to say

About it so we’re going to show you a couple of pictures from inside but taken like I say a long long time Ago Let’s crack on come on where’s this Brew come on oh yes we get it get out come on jump up so it’s quite it’s a 2 L we got it off Amazon believe it or not and and and obviously I like to BU local

Can you undo that but uh I could get a 2 L one anywhere else the range had a good some good did they bet they weren’t two lers with they trying to undo it want to help you there you go that’s all you have to do you’re a good lad aren’t you

Need a we got a cup there have we got any tea bags look at this watch right we’ve got a little valve on it ready oh yeah there you go look at that cakes are a bit squashed there James responsible for that on didn’t on anything that’s it see look at

That ooh cker James how many tea bags you have in your bro I have one but um mine has about seven okay seven tea bags one Brew the cakes have gone wrong trillionaire BN where’s my half I think James that very interesting you can see this

Used to be fantastic this used to be like almost like a castle as I’ve probably shown you love this here look at that there look at that um and then you can see how they’ve Tred to stabilize all the rock up there can you see the uh the bolts and The Rock

And everything um so really really look at the layers that the rocks in as well you see the layers that it’s in so can you imagine tunneling through that lot which is what they did and then that that very much uh brings it home to you

Imagine day one they came up and they were faced with that um but it’s in layers I don’t know what this sort of this this rock is but it is very much in layers if you look at it like that so there you go um so these are the old uh

Tunnels Woodhead number one there Woodhead number two uh like I say some fantastic shots of Steam Trains coming out of here I think I want to go in them more than I want to go through that one there what you reckon they’d be more interesed there are like I say there are

Addicts between the two because when they built this one the anticip that would need to build that one I’ll probably told you some of that anyway as I said to you I’m reading from this book called pacing the penines by David Joy I want to read you a piece let’s happs

That we read it here generations of engine men relied on handkerchiefs to avoid Suffocation and often came close to collapse especially with fight freight trains toiling up the one in 2011 gradient towards Sheffield the blast from the chimney rebounding against the walls choking fumes and swirling ashes were everywhere

And in the all pervading Blackness it seemed as if the proverbial lights at the end of the tunnel would never be reached not without good reason did they condemn the Dreadful three miles as the Woodhead hell holes it must have been horrendous can you imagine I mean we

Romanticize it now but can you imagine going through there in a steam engine cuz they were open weren’t they not even the even the ones that were covered over the top the sides were open and the smoke and wet handkerchiefs just to get through and uh it’s not a short distance

So we’ve had our brew and I’ve been stood reading these passages to you from the book on the site of the old Woodhead station but what it is now these remaining platforms are a shadow of what it was cuz you can see here it was built like a castle uh almost in almost

Reflected the style of the entrance to the tunnels but again a very remote place up here and imagine quite a lonely place to build a Station now earlier on I read you a quote that said about the injuries the surgeon that was working with the navis he talked about the injuries and he said part of it was to do with them being drunk and in no way when I said that do

I mean to disrespect the work of the Navies or the hard work or the conditions they had to endure they lived in makeshift sort of like Camp encampments across the hills on the Moors in harsh conditions at one point the the these camps that and these houses that they lived in were ravaged

By chera and so not only did they face death on every day at work they faced death back where they lived um sold inferior beer for for an inflated price and rotten food again for an inflated price by the the contractors that employed them so the conditions were

Horrendous so you can’t blame them for having a drink and they were a Rowdy Bunch when they got drinking but you know hey ho such was the work that they did I’m going to read you a quote now again from the book pacing the penines by David joy and it again this will

Illustrate the working conditions and why the the Woodhead tunnels of all the tunnels that crossed the penines were known as the hell holes not only during construction but for the railway men that had to work them so just bear with me on this 12 gangs of navis were at

Work two of them from each end of the tunnel the others had to descend the shafts that had taken upwards of 2 years to sink with four of the five being over 500 ft deep once at the bottom they worked in near darkness in opposite directions blasting their way through

The treacherous mix of gritstone Shale slat and Clay the surgeon Henry pomfrit was kept busy going up the tunnel two or three times a week in all weathers most of his time was spent operating on broken Limbs and Men caught in Rock Falls other injuries were caused by

Carelessness in using gunpowder one man had lost both his eyes and another his arm broken as well as receiving severe burns to his face the injured were left to recover in any place that was deemed almost shelter or almost comfortable this could be boiler houses or at the foot of the

Shafts there you are right there’s something I need to tell you about the wood route put me back down a minute I had a near miss with this route so the wooded route closed in a uh 1981 let’s set this bag off a moment with Marty 1981 was the year I started train

Spotting my mate got me into train spotting didn’t have a clue what I were doing I used to stand at the our local line and uh try and get dmus we M goes don’t get dmus sorry about the train talk get locomotives anyway he decided one day my mate was

Already train spotter he would take me and the other mate out cuz we just started he said I’ll take you around the depos of Manchester I have never forgot that day to this day ever it was July 1981 now of course those of you that know this route closed in July

1981 we went around the depot new eath long site and he took us to reddish Depot we came out of reddish North Station crossed the main road and we walked and there was the ffield loop which is a rail a cycle route now with there it was still a railway line and in

The distance there was a red brick building and it was reddish Depot and of course a lot of the 76s were based there we went down and all the 76s were there the those were the electric locomotives that work this route they were all there stacked up waiting to go for scrap and

The mate goes get these get these they going for scrap of course I’m there right in the numbers down WR the numbers down didn’t know what I was looking at didn’t know what they were some of them didn’t even have Bogies on they were on the floor and there’s pictures of them

On on the on the floor with old Bogies and just 76 is lined up and I saw quite a few of them but unfortunately I saw him at ready stepo just before they all went for scrap so I had a near miss with this line if I have started a year

Earlier or if had have started a couple of months earlier spotting I would have seen this line actually as a railway line but so it’s always it’s always at a place in my heart this it’s like the near Miss it’s a bit like Joy Division I

Was a bit too young to see Joy Division as well miss by a couple years but never mind never mind that’s my story for you uh just a quick word on the photos most of the old black and white ones are very difficult to trace the copyright and who

Took them but some of the more modern ones the color ones of the Depo around ready sto if I’ve used your photo I do apologize but I got these off the internet uh like I say I apologize that I’ve used it um please message me and I

Will credit you in this video for using your photograph but again it was a wonderful photo you’ve took and it’s part of the story so I wanted to include your photograph apologies in advance look at that got a little Shield bug on me bag going into my bag there for the

Cake like fascinating them you know I remember seeing the first time I saw one of them I couldn’t believe what I was looking at but it’s a little Shield bug that amazing little creature right so there you go thanks for watching it’s only a potted history of the wooded line

I know know some people would want something really in depth but it frightens me to be honest with you there’s that much to it so I’ll give you a bit of a potted history and we’ve had a bit of cycle down and we’re keeping fit you’ve turned over your new leaf on

Your E Bike the the difference hly he’s incredible when he’s on the ebike he’s going come on you two come on and then as soon as he on the normal bike he’s just trailing right behind back anyway hope you enjoyed the video W tunnels thanks for watching take care and we’ll

See you in the next video bye for now I don’t know why I did that little laugh right so who was on that ebike last James and he could keep up goody yeah’s be honest no I was keeping it on eco mode because you got about 30% left

And run it out because you just you can just pedal back normal you won’t will you well you’ll give it me when there’s no energy left yeah try to you spit there you spitting a bit well Martin’s p p I’ve got a small bony bottle no you’ve

Got a massive fat assh thingy you’ve got a massive fat ass and you got the the ass paddles on and that you got about five different paddings the face th chips I no let’s get Cracking