can you imagine having just built the longest tunnel in the world
you then open your front door one evening and you're shot five times yep and your
wife is also shot once that's just crazy yep that and a little bit more in today's video
also today's video is currently brought to you by the good people at nordvpn
more on that also at the end of the
video
in 1886 the seven tunnel opened under the seven now it's four miles long two miles of
which is underwater and until the channel tunnel came along it was probably one of
the longest underwater tunnels in the world at the time it took a staggering 13 years to build
from the time that its first sod was cut until somebody sat on the train and went for it as
a passenger now many of you watching the video today would have probably been on that route and
it would be for me to say that this was amazing feat of engineering it was the first time it was
ever attempted but that wasn't the case and of course it was an amazing feat of engineering but
imagine trying that 80 years prior to that time that's exactly what happened in the early 1800s
now the coal reserves of south wales and the forest of dean were being fully exploited in the
early 1800s and subsequently one of the earliest tram roads was built it connected cinderford to
bullock hill down on the coast of the seven and subsequently the bullo pill tram road was
born and it would take its traffic down to bullock hill and i'm on the seven and the coal would then
be taken by seven tros wherever the demand met now one of the unique features of the bullo pill tram
road was a significant hill about a mile inland and a man called roger tipping was tasked with
building a tunnel under that hill he built what was called the hay tunnel and it just turned out
that it was the longest tunnel in the world at the time following on from the success of
this tunnel and the subsequent tram road it was decided that a seven crossing would be desirable
and subsequently roger tipping and his team of miners were once again chosen to build another
tunnel this time with some slight differences before a shovel or pickaxe had been lifted
there was already plans in place for the tolls for walkers for mules horses all sorts of livestock
alike there was even a watering hole at each end where ready to take on the newfound business that
this tunnel would bring what could possibly go wrong work began in haste and by mid-1811
it was reported that things were progressing rapidly and there was every chance of success
now by early 1812 the red line at arlington have placed an advert in the gloucester
journal suggesting that they'd already reached halfway across the river seven that's around
about 500 yards clearly they're excited about the business that this tunnel was going to bring them
unfortunately all that was about to come to an end friday the 13th november 1812.
so miners at the front face of the tunnel reported what they thought was a small breach
it didn't however turn out to be that small at all and eventually they had run out of the
tunnel to the western end barely escaping with their lives now such was the inadequateness of
the pumps at the time they couldn't take the water out they had breached and unfortunately
to this day it was left abandoned it wouldn't be attempted again for another half a century
hold on a second surely there's more to this story you said earlier about shootings yes exactly now
back in 2006 a man called keith walker did a load of research on this original tunnel project
he went to record offices did in-depth research over the period of months he wrote articles
and he found some really quirky things what keith found next in his research was undoubtedly the
most unexpected part of the project yet so on january the 30th 1815 two and a half two
two and a half years after the failure of the tunnel roger tipping was shot at his doorstep
keith walker found out that mr roger tipping after the failure of the seven tunnel he was known as
just a minor of newham he wasn't famous in any way shape or form despite the fact that he built
the longest tunnel in the world five years previous show that you only ever remember the
last thing you do absolutely right now one of the other things that roger tipping discovered
was the amount of money at the time they invested was 20 000 pounds now we assume that's not a great
deal of money but 205 years ago 20 thousand pounds was probably a vast amount of money now imagine
all the investment of the people and the potential success that they'd have got had this been a
complete and utter wonderful tunnel they completed and brought them all their all their wealth and
success from their investment well it would probably do the exact opposite upon its failure
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rebecca it hasn't escaped my attention your hand keeps going in your pocket
and then in your mouth and i am not um reveling in the delights of whatever is in your your
pocket i finished tomorrow really you're just m m's what's the left of what kids left me rude