so this is without doubt the best example we've seen
wooden slats across there where they tried to cover it up just insanely
dangerous
like this this is definitely gonna work
really actually nervous which is stupid because if we lose the GoPro, then we lose it.
I'm not worried.
good morning everybody and welcome to another video you join us today staring
at the face of Sapperton tunnel built in 1789 or opened in 1789, 3500
yards long approximately and at the time was the longest tunnel of its
construction type for a canal in the world and now only still out distanced
by two other tunnels in the UK so you join us now where we try and have a look
at some of the architecture and some of the shafts
and we have a look at the audacity it took to build a tunnel of this nature
taking consideration the length the geology the the landscape around you the
workmanship just completely crazy things we've got planned up for this video
epicness so join us on today's adventure
okay we're walking up beside the canal trying to get to the portal
or I don't know how well how far we're gonna get because we only have a certain
amount of welliage. Ok thats as far as I'm gonna get
because I'm at peak Welly level right now I'm still 50 yards away from the
portal so what gonna do is we're gonna try and
get up on the embankment and across.
Ok lets see if we can see over the edge.
and right so we are walking up a hill we're walking along the length of the
tunnel, the Sapperton tunnel 2.4 miles long and we're now in search of some of
the old shafts now we have to be a little bit careful and here because they
should all be fenced off we're told but there's one or two which are yet
undiscovered and apparently they're covered over with wood and soil and
topsoil on top so let's talk about shafts along here it's 2.4 mile tunnel
they built 26 shafts certainly 25 possibly 26 one was abandoned likely
because of the flooding and all around us you can tell you're back on the
alignment to the canal and the tunnel because you can see spoil heaps clearly back
there now why do they have 26 shots along this canal because it's 2.4 miles
long so obviously the assumption would be you
do need some air ventilation but that wasn't really the answer the answer was
they wanted to create 54 working faces so 54 working faces where they would
then dig through around about 1 - 1.2m high so it would be men
crawling on their knees pretty much picaxes and explosives to try and crawl
their way through this 2.4 mile tunnel, we're gonna step into the hedge here
Rebecca saw a fence up on this I'm on the hill there so what we're talking
about when I talk about shafts is really important remember we're used to railway
shelves railroad tunnels where there was a big clear obvious brick built a lined
shaft and now these are much more primitive we assume because all the pictures we've
seen online are literally just holes in the ground so quite dangerous
clearly there was a shaft there but it doesn't look it doesn't look super
intact it looks like it's almost been filled in
so maybe that was the one that was abandoned because of flooding who knows
you can't really see much down there let's move on.
We continued our journey north west along the line of the canal we came across
another three or four shafts which appeared to be an exactly same condition
as the first one we found so going back to the map care of Nick bird and the
Cotswolds canal net we assumed it would found shafts approximately number 20 to
17 none of these shafts were really what we'd hoped to find and including this
one where the canal then headed underneath the railway all of them seem
to be either filled in or collapse in some way we're absolutely no visibility
more than ten feet down so we continued Northwest until we got to what we
assumed was shaft number 13 and number 12
right let's have a look up there because that is clearly spoil heap
so this is the first shaft we've seen with stone work around the outside like
a nice circular shape around the shaft and yeah this was
boarded they actually board you can see a couple of boards over there so this is
the example of what we have been told where they originally to cover these up
presumably perhaps after 1920s they just literally put them
shafts over the wood over the top of the shafts and cover them up that's
obviously been uncovered for safety reasons and fenced off which makes
complete sense what we're now looking for the next shaft in this little wooded
area.
We were so excited with what we found at the shafts and with a little inspiration
from Martin zero we decided to come back again another day with the help of a
good friend. So we did come back we came back a little bit more prepared the
reason why we were more prepared is because of this man here and his son
Ryan this is Gary if you're a fan of ours you'll have seen Gary and one of
our videos before just one, a long time ago if you know which one it is put a
comment below anyway Gary is an engineer you could put Gary in a shed with the
a-team, Gary would kick the a-team out and do a job four times a better. Anyway
we are prepared onwards to the shaft
so Gary and its own Ryan have built us a Rover now we're going to call it
Transport Into Tunnel Rover because I think that's fitting what we're trying
to do now is something that we should have done at home in hindsight it's untangled a rope so we
are tryign to knot it here
tying knot in the middle so one bit of rope breaks in theory the knot in the
middle will hold either side that's the theory like a nervous happy I'm scared
why well I know we somebody said don't mind if we lose but i don't want to. Gary
as chief engineer how you feeling I mean I don't want to say this is your
responsibility all goes wrong but you know your chief engineer so yeah I don't
want to lose my trolley transport into tunnel Rove is ready Rebecca's going to
make a point
we are completely safe at all times yeah we're not crossing fence right in
any way shape or form yeah
big success we've reviewed the footage on on the camera looks amazing you'll
have obviously seen it by now maybe maybe not who knows fantastic
big thanks to Gary and Ron for the help because we would never never get out of
reasons we will discuss later but for the meantime on with the rest of the
video now which we filmed two weeks ago
so we're just heading down to the where we think the north western portal is of
Sapperton tunnel
okay so we made it downside and here we are approaching the portal
yeah you can see a collapse Rebecca you I reckon it's about 200 yards okay
unlike the Coates portal we couldn't get to because what we're too deep but we can
hear and we're gonna try and find a little bit about the tunnel itself in
terms of how they propel themselves through it up here you got holes every
meter every one and a half meters which I presume they've got all the way
throughout the whole tunnel you can certainly see them as far as we can see
now they may have used those to propel themselves along but they also did some
legging as well I believe right what's also really interesting is
the state of the ceiling here so and what I mean by the state is if I just
smooth the torch to here but area there and again you're not sure you can make
it on the camera is bulged there is a big bowl there where the scene here
isn't anywhere near as ours as well it should be and yet there we go proof that
his 200 I was in as big collapse I'm already getting up to the top of my ways
and I've only got 20 yards okay so we'll make our way out
Legging and the fact they used to i'm usually next to go across the roof I'm
not sure they always did that because again as with crimson Hill on the
chard Canal they've got holes in the wall all day long and I would imagine
they used to push themselves along again both they post at the same time though
presumably keep her straight and but again the roof instead of just been a
curved round he's actually bulging your middle so there's a collapse within 200
yards 250 yards and I don't the last collapse this is gonna happen yeah should
they use this to open this as part of the Canal you want to do their
cost. You'd think they'd need to go take some
work and I'm sure they would there we know that I'm not teaching them
so suck eggs they would know this is the major cost to make this safe again
because obviously there's some sections you look at the old maps they've got a map
of where it's collapsed don't think like a half and while there's collapses
the airs probably not safe bit on those collapses because when you get a dip
over there you have to climb over the a beyond isn't always completely safe
because those fell through air okay what that's a big success
Thanks for watching the video peeps, you'll have noticed that in the shaft section
at the end of the shaft section we put analysis to follow at the end of the
video here is the end of the video reason why we did that we didn't want to
break up the video itself and just have us waffling in the middle we thought it
would flow better yeah so two things and that free things actually discuss
regarding the shaft and number one perimeter safety and respect to property
yeah so if you've been watching our channel for a while now you realize it
we don't sort of climb fences we don't break into places and rather get invited
to places make proper documentaries if we can that's a go we knew we could do
what we did then by luring the thingie into the hole safely and without
damaging or even touching the fence because there's a big enough gap should
you ever go near it don't touch the fence because obviously
it's um a bit rickety and a bit dangerous but we knew we would do that
quite safely without endangering ourselves and obviously there for people
that may have to rescue us should we have endanger ourselves so here we're
nearly needing basic you know we were a safe and if we'd have lost our own
equipment well that's our tough luck isn't it so yeah yeah Mike ride yeah
true but so yeah we knew we were in a very safe place where we were and we
knew we could do that safely. Number two. The bottom right right the
bottom so when we did lower to the bottom there's a few glimpses of what
was down there we saw when the trolley was run around to the left they would
like again beyond the sticks and that made us think actually maybe that isn't
the bottom oh I think that shaft is more like 40 to 50 meters deep and I think we
only got 30 35 40 max meters deep yeah so we're wondering if maybe some of the
bigger twigs and branches have fallen down got caught somewhere on the line
and it just kind of created a yeah almost a new top to it yeah caught each
other crisscross each other and the leaves on the top but everything else
fallen down it's been there a long time yeah so maybe that's creative what looks
like a bottom and yeah maybe it goes down another 10 meters thereafter
who knows we're not gonna find out unfortunately because we're doing the
equipment to do that but maybe it's even collapse underneath as well we don't
know that section might be collapsed but it's still good fun yeah
and that leads us on nicely to our last point which is we have a patreon the
reason I'm saying that now in this video is go down long enough to put on your
face we are going to release a 22 minute unedited video of the rover going in and
coming back out again completely unedited so if you want to see that in
full you'll need to scroll to our patreon which is everydisusedstation
on the patron I will put a link in the doobly-doo
below so yeah that would help us out as well which is very kind of if you
do if you don't obviously that's no worries at all, you've seen some good bits of
anyway that's us thanks for watching we'll see you next time lots more videos
coming up of things like the Camerton branch line with the Titfield Thunderbolt the
Somerset coal canal which is a really interesting one as well.
see you next time thanks watching