East End - Husbands Bosworth Tunnel - Leicester Arm - Grand Union Canal, Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, UK
Posted by: 
Dragontree
N 52° 27.432 W 001° 03.577
30U E 631840 N 5813661
Along this scenic stretch of the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal we can see the Husbands Bosworth Tunnel.
Waymark Code: WMETV4
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/07/2012
Views: 5
At the tunnel entrances are varying plaques and information signs giving conflicting lengths. The sign here at the east end declares the tunnel is 1071m long, the plaque that it is 1170 yards long.
To construct the tunnel eight shafts were necessary although no ventilation shafts can be seen today. Instead the actual line of the tunnel can be carefully picked out via the spoil heaps which lie hidden in the trees. It cuts through the land where the River Avon is to the south and Sour Valley is to the north. The tunnel is built underneath the redundant Market Harborough to Rugby railway line.
Husbands Bosworth Tunnel is brick lined with no tow path inside. It was opened in 1813 and local bricks were manufactured near the east end of the tunnel near the Honeypot Farm bridge. All of the brickwork was completed on 29th April 1813 and this stretch of canal opened on 25th May 1813 when the deep cutting was finished.
An interesting story from 1880 by George Smith from Coalville is related on the following website and is quoted below. He journeys on the Midland Counties Carrying Company's boat Ouse: visit link
'From his book Canal Adventures by Moonlight, "in going through this tunnel we came in contact with half-a-dozen laden coal boats, connected with which there would be some twelve or fourteen men, whose language and manner in some respects were nearly equal to those of the cannibals". After leaving the tunnel "The canal, as we sailed away, in many places now presented a more lovely and picturesque sight, and deserves a much better title than the 'Grand Union Ditch' (as the con-temptuous captain of the Ouse referred to it). Here it seemed to be a union of all that was lovely and enchanting, and not, as in other places, a union of poverty, misery and wretchedness." '
Work on the canal came to an end in 1797 at Debdale Gumley due to financial constraints. Trade was therefore transferred to horse and cart from the boats on the canal to make the six mile journey to Market Harborough. It wasn't until 1809 that enough money was raised to complete the canal.
The route beyond Market Harborough was originally planned via the Brampton Valley (where today lies a disused railway line, converted to a popular walking trail). This was abandoned in favour of the route we see today via Foxton and its famous locks; subsequently one of the longest stretches of level canal in the world was constructed. It is here at the tunnel, that the stretch of canal between Stanford and Welford Mill is seen.
Husbands Bosworth Tunnel and the canal creates a peaceful and sheltered habitat where much wildlife can be seen. Horses were walked over the top of the tunnel and this path is still used.