Mierystock Tunnel Jan 09

[crickleymal]

I'm not entirely sure whether this is the correct forum for this as I didn't actually manage to get into the tunnel. So if a mod. wants to move it then fine.

Mierystock is about a mile NW of the village of Brierley in the Forest of Dean. I was riding my motorbike back from a friends on Saturday when I noticed a bit of safety fencing and a deep cutting. So with the kids in tow I went back the next day.

There's a good carpark at the old Speculation colliery site where you can get straight onto the old track bed.

Old plate layer's hut?

A little further along the track we found this curious feature fenced off by the Forestry Commission. It was too wet and muddy to investigate today and there are traces of coal workings in the cutting further on so one has to be a bit careful.

The southern entrance.

As you can see there's a fairly active stream flowing into the tunnel and I would guess that wellies would be the minimum requirement. Unfortunately this gate is padlocked and it's not a Forestry key either

It's an odd shape. I've seen round, arched and square tunnels but not one that's so egg shaped. And the shape carries on into the tunnel as you can see from this picture just before the battery failed.

I managed to coax enough life out of the battery to get a shot of the Northern portal. It doesn't reall show how deep the cutting is nor how much water is coming out.

 

[Neosea]

Nice find, thanks

 

[Foxylady]

Great looking bridge and portal and good to see the other bits of remains. That cutting certainly looks very steep to me!
Nicely spotted, Crickleymal.

 

[smiffy]

Miereystock Tunnel is on the old Severn and Wye connecting line from Serridge Junction (on the Severn & Wye 'main' line) down to Lydbrook Junction (on the Wye Valley line...the Monmouth to Ross on Wye section)........
.........Further down the line it used to go over the Lydbrook Viaduct which was built by the same company as built the famous Crumlin Viaduct and to a sort of similar design.......Both are now of course demolished but the stone abutments remain high on the hillside down in Lydbrook village.......
..... Immediatley above the tunnel were the screens and spoil tips for the Arthur and Edward (known locally as 'Waterloo') Colliery...........the screens weren't situated by the colliery yard as there was not enough room so the coal and waste tubs came up from the pit through the woods about 1/2 a mile in total on a small gauge railway known locally as 'the creeper' ......
.....The line never saw a great deal of traffic as the Wye Valley line was operated by the Great Western and of course the Severn & Wye was their main adversary in this area...........even after 'grouping' took place and the GWR acquired the S&W assets old rivalries still prevented the 2 companies co-operating as they perhaps should have done....The result was that by the late 1940s very little traffic of any sorts went this way out of the Forest. Closure finally took place in the late 1950s but the track and its fittings stayed in place until the middle 1960s when the viaduct was demolished......
...The tunnel has recently had a new lease of life though..........
..........when I was about 16 or so the Lydbrook end was backfilled for 'safety' reasons.(Pah! We'd been through it dozens of times on our old motorbikes and it didn't ever hurt us !!).........but in the last few years some gallant old local gents got together and managed to get a Lottery Grant to help them uncover it again....
.It's proposed that once the cutting sides have stabalised..... the cycle path is going to go through it instead of crosssing over the very busy road like it does now...........
Hope this fill a few gaps in for you !

 

[crickleymal]

.It's proposed that once the cutting sides have stabalised..... the cycle path is going to go through it instead of crosssing over the very busy road like it does now...........
Hope this fill a few gaps in for you !

That would be great. I wondered about the cutting, it did seem quite new when I looked at it and now you've explained why.

 

[borntobemild]

It does look wet!

First time I went along the cylel path i brought my lights as i thought it was open. Be nice when it is. Will save a steep up and downhill.

Nice to see them doing something constructive.