Hey folks. Hope you enjoyed today's video. If you aren't already following our social media you can do here: Tw: @PaulWhitewick Inst: @PaulWhitewick FB: @EveryDisusedStation

@rachelforrester2333

4 жыл бұрын

Great and relaxing as usual. Thanks guys xx

@meichong8278

4 жыл бұрын

Paul and Rebecca I feel compelled to write a comment having had wellyage , a double entendre, and a doobly doo all mixed in with truly enjoyable content is an absolute joy !!! I thought this was a great idea to devote 1 episode ,an in depth look if you like to the skills and genius of engineers and navvies long past though I'm sure you could have made this 2 hours long and still not done them true justice !!! To think this is probably done on a shoestring budget and only in your spare time amazes me . I myself grew up next to a victim of the Beeching cull and would have loved you to have devoted some time to it's history and sad demise but as you know progress waits for no man ( and his wife ) and no longer is this closed station there ................ after much time and effort it's been RE-OPENED !!!

@SYNTHPARADOX

4 жыл бұрын

Hey Paul. What is the song in the intro?

@aditrols

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that, it brought back memories of a few years ago assisting the canal trust with an inspection using canoes. Was quite the adventure dragging the boats over multiple collapses until eventually we were halted by the mud rather than the collapses themselves.

@mikeyw6782

4 жыл бұрын

Think we might be related?

Really don’t know why people bother with TV anymore when people like you produce quality like this on KZread. Thank you. That was a brilliant watch.

@nathanlucas6465

4 жыл бұрын

I don't bother with TV anymore 😁

@acidsunrise

4 жыл бұрын

Honeysuckle Blossom so did I !! 😆

@acidsunrise

4 жыл бұрын

Nathan Lucas and they dont need a fleet of TV detector vans to terrorise anyone into paying for it either 😁

@nathanlucas6465

4 жыл бұрын

Give it a few years and there'll be KZread detector vans roaming the streets 😆

@carolynrowse2285

4 жыл бұрын

I don't bother with TV any more either.

I love the way at 2:25 he’s speaking all softly into the camera, as if the tunnel is a gazelle that we don’t wish to frighten off 👌

@ChangesOneTim

3 жыл бұрын

Oooh, you has no idea what I'z seen and hurrd out that tunnel since I were a booay in nineteen-fordy-sem

That was very good. Loved the Rover and the shaft footage. i still think it should have been Called A.R.S.E Rover but I cant remember what it all stood for 😀

@neilvincent5524

4 жыл бұрын

Shaft footage reminded me of your Standedge Tunnel 'GoPro on a rope' video

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Hahahaha.... I forget myself now!

@gryphonart9586

4 жыл бұрын

So now we have COC Rover, TIT Rover, and Tank Rover. Am I forgetting any?

@everhope6364

4 жыл бұрын

can see a new business here for you martin, martin zero's rovers-will fit in any shape hole you can find :)

@britishreaction54

4 жыл бұрын

@@everhope6364 Easy Tiger.

"Dave's an engineer and has designed a 'tunnel rover'": promptly produces a skate board with a camera and torch nailed to it lol. Love it :)

@invisiblewizard2538

2 жыл бұрын

Proper engineering - nowt too clever or fancy.

@victoriaeads6126

2 ай бұрын

My American brain briefly produced an image of a flaming kitchen or welding torch in place of the flashlight before converting to British English and calming down 😂😂😂

For someone like me who never had an interest in any form of history, let alone abandoned canals and shafts, i find myself in later years really enjoying what has been a great part of our past. I've said in a later video that the one big reason that i enjoy watching your video's are because of you both! You have a wonderful attitude to what you both do and explain things in layman terms. This, like all the others i have watched was very interesting. Looking forward to catching up on a few more. Thanks guys.

The Tunnel House Inn above the Coates portal is one of my favourite pubs and well worth the long journey down from the north-west of England where I live. Have had many wild nights in there!

@andrewbayliss5421

3 жыл бұрын

Used to be the haunt of the royals from Highgrove

@ChangesOneTim

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed, Tunnel House is in beautiful setting. A favourite among Royal Ag College students and local royalty. Last tenants took it over in 2017, but sadly they shut it and quit at very short notice in Sept 2019 - "unable to agree terms with the landlord". Spooky place today with it gated/ fenced off😢 The Daneway Inn at t'other end is alive and well - great food and ale there 👍

I've been a member of the Cotswold Canal Trust for many years and have walked large parts of the Thames and Severn, Stroudwater and Sharpness canals. I have been in the tunnel, in January when the water level is high the CCT used to run boat trips into the tunnel from the Sapperton end. I've had quite a few excellent lunches in the Inn. All days gone by for me as I now live in France but really enjoy your videos.

@cfbm125

4 ай бұрын

*Coates end.

" lets talk about shafts " ...... naughty smile from your mrs

@simontay4851

4 жыл бұрын

Not _that_ shaft.

@ccmogs5757

4 жыл бұрын

& lets not talk about the "Deep hole in the woods " :)

@HauntedXXXPancake

3 жыл бұрын

"Number 2: Bottom" :P

Great video Paul and Rebecca,love the rover footage,I couldn't help but laugh, sorry to lower the tone, when you said"let's talk shafts" Rebecca's face was a picture 😂,or am I seeing things 👍😀👌

Paul and Rebecca, you are my heros. Is there nowhere you have not explored. Sapperton is a ‘big one’ in every sense. So glad I found the Whitwick take on Sapperton.

"Wellidge" might take a while to get into the Oxford. Thank you both and Garry too.

Great video, as always. The holes in the brickwork in the tunnel are most likely “putlog” holes. They are part of the original construction to support the centering that supported the arch roof.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks David. That makes a lot of sense

@AAAyyyGGG

2 жыл бұрын

That's interesting. Having been on a canal boat trip many years ago we actually had to walk our boat through a long tunnel 'old style' - it was great fun at the time but I can't imagine having to do that for a living...

Someone at 3:34 was making her own jokes up about "talking about shafts". Love the grin. :-)

Was that trying not to laugh at the shaft comment 🤔. Very professional 😂. Everyone needs a little air ventilation when working with shafts😲😂😂. Shafts, holes, tunnels... this is a mine field 😂

Great video guys! Top effort. Fully enjoyed. I think it'll be a few years before a survey, but the more people that join the Cotswolds canal trust, the quicker it will happen!!

This is the best of your videos I've seen so far. Editing, soundtrack and production are fantastic. So interesting. Thank you!

Well researched and absolutely fascinating. Thanks

Brilliant idea ☺️👍🤠😉 made me happy.. gotta love a curious mind.🐶

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Always

What a brilliant video! To see down one of the airshafts was amazing. Well thought out, and very well done. Thanks to all involved, it was very enjoyable vid to watch.

Thanks guys, really interesting to see history come alive.

Fabulous and interesting as always. Keep them coming. Very enjoyable vlog. Thank you

Fantastic investigation. Marvellous film with a very factual commentary as usual. Thanks for all you did.

A real Martin zero experience down that shaft. Exciting 👍👍👍

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Absolutely yup.

Amazing piece of industrial heritage. Great video which zooms in on the construction details. This canal deserves to be restored! Its nice to see you all out.

The start of the video was amazing, loved the build up! also loved looking down that shaft as well and since i'm on Patreon, cannot wait to watch the unedited version. Great Video, defiantly a like!

I'm surprised by how much I'm learning about canals around Britain. Great work indeed 👍

@pwhitewick

3 жыл бұрын

Us too Nigel!!

Oh my, I love your channel. Thank you for your time and efforts to share a mysterious part of our world.

@pwhitewick

3 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure!

Thanks a lot for the great video. I really enjoyed it, especially as I have been fascinated by the Thames & Severn Canal since I was child (60+ years ago!) I spent a lot of my childhood holidays staying on the edge of the Golden Valley (in Brownshill) and as a keen railway enthusiast, I also haunted the railway line that the canal runs parallel to. When we got bored, we would wander off and go and explore the canal - this is when I first saw the remains of the tunnel. Two years ago, my wife and I were in the area (from Western Australia) and spent a very enjoyable afternoon walking along the canal. We visited both portals and met someone who clearly knew a bit about the canal and its tunnel. He confirmed that 'legging' was the method of propulsion through the tunnel and also mentioned that some organisation (I can't remember who but presumably the organisation that is attempting to restore the canal) operates occasional trips in a shallow draft boat up the tunnel.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you, glad it brought back some memories. Yes legging it seems along the side was the method. Between 4-6 hours depending on the direction and load!

@KempSimon

4 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately it was only at the very end of the Canal Age - when Strood Tunnel was constructed in 1820 to provide a short cut between the Thames and the Medway - that the builders had the good sense to continue the tow path all the way through the tunnel! Everywhere else the boatmen had to leg it through!

Really enjoyed the vblog back in the shire a beautiful day. Looking forward to the Somerset coal canal. 👍👍

Lovely day for it.

After your quiz question in Feb2021... had to look up the video!

"I'm scared!" Who could resist a proposition like that? 😁 Endlessly fascinating exploration!

Spectacular images, in the tunnel, the shaft and surroundings. I enjoyed it a lot. 🤩

Been watching your videos for a few months now and find them really interesting, so pleased to stumble across this one as living between Stroud and Sapperton I've run along past the tunnel entrance and shafts many times but never equipped to take a look inside - Thanks!

This is better than anything on tv x

Another great video, please keep them coming :)

Lovely part of the world, you guys do get to see some great places with great history.

Another great well edited and informative video i'm loving these railway and canal tunnel adventures you always find the history about these places which is most interesting. Stay safe and see you in the next.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks David, most enjoyable to make.

loved this went here often nice to see you in my neck of the woods really hope you went to the railway tunnel a stone throw from there its an amazing place

I love the quiet conspiritus voice during the filming so as not to alert lurking council authorities keeping guard for breakers of health and safety rules. You can just catch a glimpse of a polished cap badge peeping out from behind beech tree at 4.21. If you’re going to flout health and safety rules like this, I’m subscribing. Far more interesting than the BBC et al. Gripping stuff. Suggestion for next time....do the rock slide by Bristol suspension bridge. I used to slide down that as a boy. Great fun.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Hahahaha.... We flout on random occasions

One of your best keep em comming 👍😀

The UK is so awesome so much history I wish it was like that here in Canada

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

We are lucky indeed.

Love your videos can't believe how many miles you must cover👍

Amazing vlog! So exciting. Loved the shaft finds out in the woods. The canal tunnel was really beautiful on the first entrance with the columns and niches for a statue. So much work and craftsmanship in something so utilitarian. Just lights the imagination. Thank you for taking me along😊

@pwhitewick

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Dawn. Was a great little adventure.

Thank you very much really enjoyed that. Gosh that hole was so deep, glad you did t take any risks. Loved the tunnel, just love tunnels.thanks for taking me along. P,ease stay safe

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Linda.

Fantastic video, very enjoyable Guys. Thank you for sharing and keep safe.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks John.

This is a remarkable video thank you from New Zealand

Awesome - loved it!

Great to think this all coming back into use, providing a canal link from Severn to Thames.

Another great video. Fond memories of being in that area following the canal during our 1995 camper van year in UK. Spent some time in the nearby pub, I recall :) Best wishes, Des & Jan

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks both.

quite exciting.. thank you

Excellent footage, well done!

Love the editing on this, so exciting! :D

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Ah thanks for noticing Chris. Much appreciated

What a _beast_ of A tunnel 😲 Goodness!!

I love this couple. I could watch them all day long......

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Ahhh thanks Max.

a big thumbs up to that

Wonderful stuff!

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chris

That was fabulous. Very interesting. The rover was a great success. I agree, I think the shaft is blocked part way with fallen branches and general forest detritus, and does go down further. The ker plunk analogy is an apposite one. I have to say those shafts are absolute death traps.

@KempSimon

4 жыл бұрын

That's why they are all fenced off!

Great vid guys esp at 3.33 when Rebecca cant hold back her smile and tries to keep a serious face as you talk about shafts, as for the T.I.T rover made me smile, well done very entertaining and interesting.

Very good video. Love this tunnel. Hope to explore it more soon. Thanks for sharing! 😊

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Definitely take a look at the shafts too.

@abandonedanddisuseduk8210

4 жыл бұрын

@@pwhitewick will do! Im a patreon as well so ill be checking out the unedited decent!

Super interesting stuff.... and just terrific drone shots too! 👍👍👍

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Great video guys! I want to get out there and explore this area myself.

Another awesome video . Content great, superb incidental music and great editing. What more could you wish for...

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Ah thanks Andy

Great new video, mild peril, mini Whitewicks and Engineering. 🤪😄👏

Waffle? Never. What a cracking cracking video from our intrepid explorers. Risking life and limb to bring us the virtual days out that we love. Thanks folks. Bob

Good find

Facinating Exploration of a fogotton mode of transport...well worth the effort...well done!!!!

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Richard a fun couple of Days.

Fantastic, well done

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Bruce.

The walk down the canal from the Bell Inn to the daneway pub has to be one of the nicest in the country , beautiful valley no road or traffic. From the other end you have the Tunnel Inn which is a great pub, where you can walk to what is the source of the Thames (dried up! When I went).

Interesting stuff. Lots of work to bring back to use.

@KempSimon

4 жыл бұрын

The Achiles' Heel of the Thames and Severn Canal was always its water supply. The surveyors who planned its route across the bleak and parched watershed of the Cotswold Escarpment did so during what proved to have been the wettest winter in fifty years and the estimates of how much water could be abstracted from the River Churn near Cirencester proved to be wildly over-optimistic. Although the canal bed was lined with clay (and, later, with concrete) it still leaked like a sieve and the water level at the summit often fell so low that fully-laden narrowboats couldn't get through during a dry Summer.

Regarding how boats were propelled through the tunnel, I read the manuscript of a diary that had an account of how some people on a canoeing holiday went through the tunnel, and it states that pumps caused the flow through the tunnel to be reversed at intervals and that boats went with the flow.

Loved the camera down the shaft!! Pity it was blocked so you couldn't get down to the bottom but still great views of the stone lined shaft. Also great to hear future videos will include the Somersetshire coal canal and Camerton train station. That's my neck of the woods so will look forward to that. Thanks again for a great video.

Fantastic video, lots of ingenuity and adventure :)

@ThelmaThais1

4 жыл бұрын

ingenuity? what ingenuity has to do with exploration?

@Randomstuffs261

4 жыл бұрын

@@ThelmaThais1 They put a go-pro camera on a plank with wheels

Great vid liked that adventure 👍

Fantastic footage down the shaft (tantalizing to wonder what lay beyond that "false bottom") and inside the tunnel portal at the Daneway end. I've visited the Coates portal on numerous occasions (with the odd pint at the pub, back in the day), but never made it to the other end, and wasn't really aware of the number of shafts. Another great video!

@thorsteinj

4 жыл бұрын

The roof is supposedly lined with three courses of brick except perhaps those places where the tunnel goes through solid rock. But even then it might be blocked off just to avoid having debris falling in and blocking the tunnel.

Lovely film. Who doesn't love a fascinating woodland hole? Plus one for antique Kerplunk! Amazing how you can do this while being so smartly dressed.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

I am farrrr from smartly dressed.... 🤪

@MostlyCastles

4 жыл бұрын

Considering the activity you were undertaking Rebecca especially was very smartly dressed. Impressive I think.

Great video more please 😀👍🏻

The mat of wood in the hole is interesting. I first thought of dropping a lump of phosphorus down which would burn, dry out the wood and hopefully burn away the blockage. Second thoughts it might just make a single hole and fall through. Second idea is a wire rope with a wire cage holding the phosphorus. It can quickly be lowered down with about 3ft/1m of slack. If it burnt itself through then it would be held in or below the blockage burning away nicely. It would smoke A LOT but just don't breath it in. Just in case you have issues getting or transporting phosphorus just get some cheap lipo/lithium ion batteries. 3D print holders and have large terminals that can be shorted out. Pull out the insulated clip (cloths peg for example) that releases both terminals to short as you drop the batteries down the shaft. Some should burn quite energetically and sufficient numbers may do the trick. Assemble at the top of the hole to make transport innocent looking and safe. There is a plan C but probably best left untold.

@dahliagreen5919

4 жыл бұрын

But I'd be intrigued to hear it!

Great video you pair 😎 Very interesting content and well made too 👏🏻 🙂🍻🥂👍🏻

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

Great stuff .

@pwhitewick

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

I'm starting to think everything has gone backwards in this world all the beautiful things they hide and remove from us... this is brilliant boots on the ground.

Nicely explored. Pretty basic health and safety measures for "anti shaft falling down"??!!! Gary, top engineer, nearly beaten by the dreaded twisted nylon rope!!! 👍👍

It was incredibly wonderful, worth the wait. I love it so much. I was wondering if there is more of this, and by the end of the video you just answered it! I'd be happy to see all unedited footage, more from the tunnel's sides too.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Daniel. Much appreciated.

@KempSimon

4 жыл бұрын

To drive a canal tunnel through 3,817 yards of Cotswold limestone, and make it so straight that you could see right through from one end to the other, was a considerable achievement for the civil engineers of the 1780's who had only the most primitive of surveying instruments and no explosive more powerful than gunpowder. The summit level of the canal was aligned with an accuracy of one-and-a-half inches in eleven miles!

Epic video!

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Sebastian

Fantastic Guys. They really had the terrain against them when this was built. Great Oolite is endemic right along the canal and caused no ends of problems with water proofing and as for tunneling through Fullers Earth, not a lot of fun and again very unstable. There is a section near Cirencester that has, I believe, been removed along with an aqueduct. However this was a really interesting piece. Thanks again, well done...

Another splendid video. Very interesting, and it's amazing that in the 1700s they were building tunnels that long. You included some cracking stills photography also. Keep it up.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for noticing Nigel.

@KempSimon

4 жыл бұрын

Sapperton Tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal, driven for 3,817 yards through the Jurassic Limestone of the Cotswold Escarpment so straight and level that it was possible to see all the way through from one end to the other, was undoubtedly the supreme achievement of 18th Century English civil engineering. Its builders had access to only the most primitive of surveying instruments and the only explosive available to them was gunpowder. The Roman town of Cirencester, situated high on the parched Cotswold uplands, was turned into an inland port by the arrival of the canal in 1789, whereupon the price of coal from the mines in the Forest of Dean promptly fell by two-thirds!

Fascinating video! I wonder, if they ever actioned the plan to redistribute water from the Severn to the Thames, they'd use Sapperton or just build a new water tunnel that they knew wouldn't collapse.

Probably the best you have ever done ! The caisson underwater was a crazy concept !

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ford. Very kind.

Told you I would be here!! 😁👍

Wellyage! LOL. Oops. I woke my son. They should add that to the dictionary. With the meaning: discernable distance traversable across waterlogged terrain until wellingtons outstay their usefulness and the wearer must resort to waders. :D The tunnel itself is in better condition that I expected. Beatiful stonework and the brick ceilings are an amazing feat of craftsmanship. It's part of my favourite canal, so I am very glad you went back.

Amazing 😀

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks William.

A very enjoyable trip. That would be a great filmed with a 360 camera for a VR experience, it's amazing when done in water wells.

Ruddy marvellous!!

Nice video; I live about 10 miles from Sapperton, will give it another walk soon!

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

We wish we had time to go further towards Stroud!

Really interesting video. That shaft scarred me though 😲

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Judith, to stand directly above it gives you a sense of vertigo and a mnassive appreciation for those that constructed it.

Your video turned up out the blue, me and my friends in the 70s early eighties used to mess about in sapperton tunnel, all Minchinhampton and Chalford boys but we only ever got about a 5th of the way through there were numerous collapses but one we couldn’t get over. Exuberance of youth probably over took sense back then I think I was 8, but we did meet a leg man who had legged through whilst his father walked the horse to tunnel house for rest and food

Fantastic enjoyed it imensley

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Geoff.

Hi guys. Great video! It was equally lovely to see a couple really enjoying the explore without either of you trying to sound more important than the other. You two obviously have a fun, loving relationship. I live in Queensland Australia now but being Sussex born and raised I really miss the stunning English countryside (especially the fact that you don't have to worry about all the biting insects, Huntsman spiders (AKA 'big b*stards) or snakes like we have to over here. Keep up the video's, I've subscribed.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Susan very kind. Thanks for subscribing too.

Thank you for another great video. Seen you with Geoff on a video recently. So I came looking for your channel.

@pwhitewick

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks James, welcome to the channel.