Description:N.S.R. engineering narrowboat moored alongside the towpath between the Brindley legging tunnel and the Thomas Telford additional parallel tunnel with towpath. A working narrowboat, J. & G. Meakin's 'Westwood', is entering the legging tunnel.
The Brindley (on the right) and Telford (on the left) canal tunnels can be seen here. The Brindley canal tunnel was designed by James Brindley and was opened in 1777. The tunnel took many years to complete and sadly Brindley had died before it was finished. The tunnel was known as the legging tunnel as it had no towpath and so the only way to propel canal boats through was by boatmen, otherwise known as bargees, lying on their backs and pushing against the walls and roof with their feet. The journey would have taken about three hours, and meanwhile the horses would have be led down Boathorse Road to rejoin the canal boats at Chatterley.
The very busy Brindley Tunnel could only carry a canal boat in one direction at a time and so a second tunnel was built by Thomas Telford. The Telford Tunnel runs parallel to the Brindley Tunnel and both were used together, one for each direction. The Telford Tunnel has a towpath, which can be seen on this photograph, and was opened in 1827. The Brindley Canal, as can be seen here, was closed in 1914, due to mining subsidence.
The two canal tunnels, and a railway tunnel, became known as the Harecastle Tunnels as they pass through Harecastle Hill.