Tunnels: Dudley No. 2 Canal

Gosty Hill tunnel (577 yards)

This one-way brick lined tunnel was opened in 1792.  It gets narrower and lower as you travel through the tunnel.  At one stage a steam tug was installed to pull boats through the tunnel.  The remains of the holding area for the tug can still be seen on the southern side.

The following text is from the Black Country History web site:

"The Dudley No 2 Canal, authorised by an Act of 1793, was built to join the Dudley Canal with the Worcester-Birmingham Canal. It was hastily constructed and opened in 1798. The main line was nearly eleven miles long and contained the Lapal Tunnel which was also completed in 1798. The brickworks at California, South West Birmingham, were situated alongside the canal and made heavy use of it. The canal closed to full navigation (via the Lapal Tunnel) in 1917 and was officially abandoned in 1953. It is now in the process of sympathetic restoration.

The Gosty Hill Tunnel was constructed on the Dudley No. 2 Canal. It is comparatively short at just 557 yards long (it was originally 648 yards long but it was reduced to its present length when it was rebuilt in 1881). Its northern portal is situated near Station Road, Old Hill, with its southern portal between Windmill End junction and Coombes Wood, opening out into Stewarts & Lloyds Tube Works. Between 1913 and 1930, a motor tug pulled boats through the tunnel. The tug had a propeller at each end to eliminate the need for it to turn round. It had its own shed at the northern portal. Now it is mostly pleasure traffic that use the tunnel."

North west portal with tug holding area

Air shaft in modern housing estate above the tunnel

South east portal