Chipping Sodbury Tunnel East Portal (SWB10106)

South of Old Down Road and north of B4040,, Badminton, Gloucestershire

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Tunnel portal in a classical style with a horseshoe arch, at the end of a long, deep, steep-sided cutting. Erected c.1897-1903. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1409492
Date first listed:: 19-Jul-2012
List Entry Name:: Chipping Sodbury Tunnel East Portal (SWB10106)
Statutory Address:: South of Old Down Road and north of B4040,, Badminton, Gloucestershire

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1409492
Date first listed:: 19-Jul-2012
List Entry Name:: Chipping Sodbury Tunnel East Portal (SWB10106)
Location Description:
Statutory Address 1:: South of Old Down Road and north of B4040,, Badminton, Gloucestershire

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: South of Old Down Road and north of B4040,, Badminton, Gloucestershire

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: South Gloucestershire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Badminton
National Grid Reference:: ST7928081221

Summary

Tunnel portal in a classical style with a horseshoe arch, at the end of a long, deep, steep-sided cutting. Erected c.1897-1903.

Reasons for Designation

The East Portal of Chipping Sodbury Tunnel is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: the survival of a group of two tunnel portals and their six, related tunnel vents and their shared aesthetic; * Design, engineering and material interest: the quality and strength of the design, its sympathy to the surrounding landscape and the fact that the visible parts of the tunnel symbolise the considerable engineering achievement of a tunnel of 2.5 miles in length; * Group Value: there is clear interest in the inter-related grouping of the tunnel mouths and the six ventilation towers, and their relationship to the wider context of their historic architectural and landscape setting.

History

The Great Western Railway (GWR) line from London to Bristol was built in 1835-41. It was always envisaged that it would connect with a line to South Wales, providing a link to Fishguard and Ireland. However the route to Wales was at first an awkward one, either (from 1852) circuitously via Gloucester or by train and ferry from New Passage, north of Bristol. The construction of the Severn Tunnel in 1876-83 transformed the rail connection to Wales for both passenger and freight (especially coal) traffic. However to reach the tunnel trains still had to go via Bath and Bristol, making the distance from London to Cardiff 155 miles. The decision was taken in 1896 to shorten that route by creating a direct 30 mile link from Wootton Bassett to Patchway. This reduced the distance to Wales by 10 miles and avoided the congestion and slow running in and around Bristol. The line was built 1897- 1903, and was one of the most important of a number of improvements to long distance routes made by the GWR at that time.

The bridges and other structures along this line were built to more standardised designs than characterised the engineering of earlier parts of the GWR network, especially in the use of brick segmental arched bridges, of single- or triple-span. The tunnel portals, and even more the tunnel vent shafts, were more distinctive, perhaps in recognition of their role in the landscape. It is not known who was directly responsible for their design, but Sir J.C. Inglis (1851-1911), later General Manager of the GWR, was the principal engineer of the new route.

The Cotswold Edge escarpment was the largest topographical impediment to a direct, fast route. It was overcome by boring the Chipping Sodbury Tunnel. At 2.5 miles, it is the longest tunnel on the line, and passes under the Badminton Estate. It was one of the last major mainline railway tunnels to be built in the UK until the Channel Tunnel Rail Link opened in 2003.

Details

MATERIALS: engineering brick with stone dressings.

DESCRIPTION: circular horseshoe tunnel mouth with brick architrave surround, and roll moulding and gigantic keystone in stone. Piers flanking the arch and projecting above the panelled parapet, and outside these very small wing walls meeting the rubble-lined cutting sides. Stone bands and coping with quarry-faced moulding.

The portal is deep in a lined cutting in pastoral countryside 1 mile south-west of Badminton House.

Sources

Books and journals
Cross-Rudkin, P, Chrimes, M, EDS, Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers Volume 2: 1830–1890, (2008)
MacDermot, E T, A History of the Great Western Railway, (1927, revised ed. 1964)
Vaughan, A, A Pictorial Record of Great Western Architecture, (1977)
Other
Alan Baxter & Associates, The History and Significance of the Great Western Main Line , 2012,

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.