Mapperley Tunnel, Nottingham - January 2010

[thompski]

Visited with someone not on this forum, with the assistance of wi-fi networks around the city.

A new year begins, and continuing the theme of late 2009, underground is the dish of the day and hopefully year. Sadly the weather is shite, and my means of transport usually includes smelly strangers and crap music blaring out of mobile phones for entertainment.

Today we went to the wrong side of Junction 25 of the M1 and paid a visit to the 'jewel in the crown' of the East Midlands - Nottingham, in particular another of its disused train tunnels.

Mapperley Tunnel was in use by 1875 as part of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension of the Great Northern Railway. Subsidence temporarily closed the tunnel in 1925. This affected the tunnel again during the 1950s, and was fully closed in 1960.

It was 1132 yards long, however it's been filled in for part of this length, and the second air shaft from the open end has an interesting rubbish pile emerging from it.