South East Portal – Rose Hill Tunnel - Peak Forest Canal - Romiley, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 24.456 W 002° 04.245
30U E 561772 N 5918016
Rose Hill Tunnel no longer has a roof and has been turned into a cutting.
Waymark Code: WMMWCB
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/14/2014
Views: 1
The Peak Forest Canal
It is a narrow canal constructed between 1794 and 1805 and is fourteen miles long. It connects Buxworth with Dukinfield where it joins the Ashton Canal. The main purpose of the canal was to transport limestone from quarries above Buxworth. There are sixteen locks near the town of Marple that raise the canal a height of 210 feet in a distance of 1 mile.
The advent of the railways and later modern roads led to the decline of the canal and it fell into disuse between 1920 and 1960. An upsurge in leisure boat use led to the canal being restored and reopened in 1974.
The Tunnel
The tunnel is the shortest one of three tunnels on the Peak Forest Canal. It is too narrow to allow boats to pass but it did have a tow path through it.
The ground around the tunnel is not very stable a number of repairs to the canal at this point have been necessary. A landslip in 1833 was the first evidence of this and wooden supports were installed.
Sometime between 1849 and 1888 a much worse problem occurred and a large part of the tunnel rood collapsed. This collaps was so severe that the roof was removed totally and turned into a narrow cutting.
After further problems work was carried out in 1997 to reduce the gradient of the hill behind the cutting wall and install a new concrete wall. There is no evidence of this work because the concrete was faced with stones.
The north west end of the cutting has a stone arch accommodation bridge. This was built at the same time of the tunnel, but was not part of the tunnel itself. It was built as an accommodation bridge for the farmer that owned the land.
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