# Colwall Railway Tunnel



## Ninja Kitten

Tucked away amongst the beautiful Malvern hills i found this...not my usual thing but so glad we had a look,. incredible place..below is some history of the tunnel..visited with my lil explorers armed with wellys torches, and glow sticks and a non member.


The biggest engineering challenge facing those building the Worcester to Hereford railway line was a natural one - the Malvern Hills.
The tunnel under the hills is 1,433m (1,567 yards) long, and had to be dug almost entirely by hand, through some of the hardest rock in the country.
At first progress was relatively easy, with the tunnel advancing by ten feet a week, but once the hard central core of the Malvern Hills was reached, progress slowed to as little as 15cm (six inches) a day.
Water from the many springs poured down on the workers, and a system of pumps had to be devised to stop the springs on the hills running dry.Two ventilation shafts had to be dug through to the tunnel, which was at a maximum depth of 183m (600 feet). The "mountains" got their own back in 1907, when part of the tunnel collapsed, shortly after a goods train had passed through it, blocking the line. By the 1920s it was clear that the narrow old tunnel couldn't cope with pressures put on it by the big new steam trains, and the decision was taken to bore a new, wider, tunnel through the hills, alongside the old one,With the aid of pneumatic tools, the new tunnel was built between 1924 and 1926, with a contract price of £196,080 ( almost £9m in today's money.)































































































































The old tunnel is still there, and during WWII it was used to store munitions.

The tunnel is now home to a colony of rare bats


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## night crawler

Oh how cute, looks like a horseshoe bat. Nice explore that.


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## UE-OMJ

Really nice set of photos. The bat was cool


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## urban phantom

verry nice thanks for sharing


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## flyboys90

Great report & pics,nice to see the bats protected.


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## kevsy21

I like the look of this place,good work.


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## Faing

first class report and pics


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## Landsker

Superb that, not a fan of bats myself!!


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## TeeJF

Issa nice.... it looks like it's still in use what with the rails on the first pics?


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## Ninja Kitten

yes the line next to it is in use.


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## kellisurbex

great pics  love the bat!


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## Priority 7

Nice work Ninja loving this your shots are awesome (Geeze I sound frickin 12 years old)


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## Catmandoo

Brilliant Becs! Just brilliant!


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## gingrove

Great pictures Thanks for posting


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## UrbanX

Nice find, lots of nice details down there.


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## djrich

Lovely set of pics, thanks!


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## Marley85

crackin pics i like it alot


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## MD

nice 
i like bats


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## krela

Incidentally, just for the record (and I'm not suggesting anyone did anything wrong here, it's just so people know...)

"It is illegal to intentionally or recklessly disturb a bat while it is occupying a structure or place that it uses for shelter or protection. Under the Habitats Regulations it is an offence to deliberately disturb a bat (this applies anywhere, not just at its roost and can include photography). If more than one bat is involved, the fine is £5,000 per bat."

Be very, very careful around bats kk?


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## nelly

Nice stuff Becs, that last shot is batty!!!


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## Urban Ghost

£5k PER BAT?! :shocked:


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## onthebusescrazy

Another Great Find thank you you are the best photographer ever  x


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## krela

Bumping so someone can add some info.


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## Dani1978

Wow really fantastic shots. Love the close up looks like ectoplasm! "Who ya gonna call!" Nice post ;-)


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## LittleOz

That's certainly something different from you. Great shots as always. According to wiki there's a colony of about 120 horseshoe bats in there.


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## Mikeymutt

Great tunnel.i know someone who went down a mine and spent several hours in a cell because it was a bat colony


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## shatners

By Eck that goes on a fair old distance, what's with the half brick wall?


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## Catmandoo

LittleOz said:


> That's certainly something different from you. Great shots as always. According to wiki there's a colony of about 120 horseshoe bats in there.



Wiki needs an update....... 
There are certainly more than that, and growing, this was taken a couple of years ago, and that's just one passing arch. These beauties are everywhere! In excess of 300+ easily.




Bats by DanCatt, on Flickr

I'm very familiar with the regs with bats.... We didn't disturb these little wonders as we were silent, but made a joint decision between me and a fellow explorer to turn around and exit before the corrugated pipe that supports the passage through the collapse. Too much noise would of been generated and would of caused distress to them..... The last thing I was wishing for was to have all of those flying through the pipe whilst being in there. Total respect for these creatures.

I love tunnels, but this bring it on a whole new level with the presence of the dark ones. The hairs on the back of your neck a constantly at a stand whilst a few stray from hibernation are flapping above your head and passing your ears.

Not much to see in the tunnel, but the experience is up there at the top of my favs.


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## Adrian the Rock

*Thanks - fascinating, great photos*

Belated thanks from me too for a great set of shots. I'm currenly researching this tunnel and its ventilation shafts as a personal curiosity thing, as my grandad was stationmaster at Malvern Wells GWR during WW2 and I've recently moved back to Malvern myself after three decades living elsewhere. When I discovered this thread I was captivated!

Here are some links to other useful articles about the tunnel:

http://www.guarlford.org.uk/remember_tunnel.htm - overview story of the two tunnels.
http://www.guarlford.org.uk/remember_tunnel_GWR_transcript.htm - transcript from GWR magazine 1926.
http://www.malvernwaters.co.uk/nationalparks.asp?search=yes&p=7&id=283 - about how/where the tunnel spring water was used

I've also uploaded a scan of an interesting article from the July 1972 issue of _Warwicshire & Worcestershire Life_ to my own website: http://www.roscalen.com/malvern/Malvern%20Tunnel%20-%20Warks+Worcs%20Life%207207.pdf

One thing I'd certainly be interested to know is how far through the tunnel the various photos were taken. I am guessing the one showing the shaft above the tunnel is of the base of the Upper Colwall shaft. I'm particularly intrigued by the 6th, and 11th-15th photos. The number "131.0" on the 14th photo is almost certainly the distance (from Paddington) in miles and chains, which suggests it is just over halfway through from the Colwall end (the Malvern end is at 130m 48ch and the Colwall end at 131m 40.25ch, as shown on the sign in the first two photos).


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## Adrian the Rock

I've now drawn this schematic to summarise the key information I have:


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## Lightstories

Fascinating!

I'm in Malvern too and often wondered if you can get down to see the old tunnel?

I guess that's why we have 'lady foley's tea rooms' in the great malvern station. They must have been some tough navvies in those days to get through that rock.


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