This, and you should be a weekly feature on TV. Your films are very slick, and you are an absolute natural presenter. Thanks for all your hard work in bringing this brilliance to us. Cheers Ollie Daron
Just keep on making more of these videos. They're a great record and of interest to those of us who respect heritage and would like to see it preserved. Very nicely presented.
just watched this today, at the time of making, you were at 10k subscribers, I see you are now at 15.8k! So very well deserved, your films are amazing, they combine fellowship, fun, education and a reminder of all the folks that have gone before us and contributed their 'blood, sweat and tears', well done Ollie, and thank you. J & S
I'm also from Oldham. Born in Glodwick and lived on Turner Street. I used to play on Manner Flats and the old railway embankment near John Street. The old Lees station platforms we're still there back then, and the cinder track bed. In Canada now but have found memories of Oldham. Love your channel and these videos.
I'm feeling left out - there wasn't any disused railway infrastructure like that where I was growing up. There was a building site at the end of the road for a couple of years but I digress! All that orange mud reminds me a bit of Harecastle South.
Really interesting - thanks for doing this. I grew up in Grotton myself - I'm just old enough to remember the last few weeks of trains on the line. Actually I suspect the trains I saw were mainly engineering trains taking up the tracks. Shame really. Still the old line with all its derelict structures became a great playground for us kids! We all told each other the station house was a haunted house - it did have a very gothic look before it got renovated. It does seem a pity that the tunnel can't be reused as a cycle track or something, but I think it's probably too wet and too far gone to be renovated now. For the person who asked below, I'm fairly sure that the B&W picture at 05:27 is Brookside Avenue under construction. Thanks again for posting. Now to check out the rest of your vids.
Just to let you know I've binge-watched all your videos, like others have said your a natural presenter, and with a brill sense of Humour I grew up in Eccles and messed about on the ship canal, and the Bridgwater , love the content, on a side note I've been off work for 9 weeks with a bit of a breakdown going on and you really have helped to get me back on my feet, besides if I didn't watch your content it would have been Homes under the hammer .... Thanks again and keep up the good work
Thanks for the video. Love the channel. Always a great mix of well-researched factual information and your personal reactions, reflections and memories. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting indeed, currently sat in my lounge in Grotton looking across at The White Hart at Lydgate and always wondered where the tunnel ends are. Keep up the great videos.
Ollie a video idea could be to do the meaning and history of Manchester slang words like ginnel or yonner. A bit like you did in the Manchester place name video! :)
Hi I love your videos and find them really interesting.. Do you worry about meeting gangs/tramps etc when you are exploring some of the places you go are pretty remote.
Another excellent episode, very interesting.😁👍 If I might make a suggestion: would it be possible to put captions on the old b+w photos? Nothing complicated, just the location would help. It seems a shame, going to the trouble of researching/finding these gems, then leaving us to guess the locations.😁 Just a thought. Cheers for now, Dougie.
I do hope you let people know where you are going...if you come a cropper in one of these ...?.anyway, another great vid and loved the dedication at the end
Great Video as always Ollie. Just a personal question .You are a natural presenter is that your real day to day job? or you can't say?. I was born in Madrid and I got married in Oldham 55 years ago All the best and saludos from Spain.
Tunnels have a certain beauty about them but I find them really creepy when I'm in the middle of one, especially when water is dripping or running from the roof! 😄 So I admire your bravery going through one that long lol. On a completely different note, you look a lot like a guy I used to work with about 5 years ago who asked me out and I turned him down cos he was a bit too old for me at the time 🙁. Just wondered if you were related to him - he was called Paul (can't remember his surname!) who worked in Hunts Cross, Liverpool?
Thanks. Yeah I try not to think about it much when I'm in a tunnel. I just keep walking. Haha Sorry I'm not the guy who asked you out, but if he looks like me then I'm offended you turned him down!!!
@@BeeHereNowuk Aww, don't be offended - I thought he was an alright looking guy! 😉 He was just a fair few years older than me and we were too similar personality wise, really. When I first saw one of your videos (think it was the Edge Hill cutting one as being from Liverpool, I had an interest in it), I genuinely wondered if you were him for a couple of minutes until I clocked the different accent lol. I like exploring the great outdoors myself - however, as a woman, I don't feel as safe being in more isolated places alone. I try not to let it deter me though. How do you get past places that are gated and fenced off too? As a suggestion, if you haven't done it already, you might like the old Liverpool loop line or as we call it, 'the Ralla!' It runs from Halewood to Aintree (or vice-versa 😁) and has what appears to be the original stone wall cuttings, track dividers or whatever they're called and a couple of cool lattice style bridges. Plus, one of the old stations is still in situ. Think it's about 8 miles - I walked it in two stages due to sore feet 😄 but you'd easily do it in one. An even nicer disused railway path is on the Wirral between West Kirby and Hooton, passing several beaches. The platforms of the old Thurstaton station are still on full show and it passes through the old Hadlow Road station which is now a 1950s style heritage station - so charming!
What I found weird for an unused tunnel. Is there is some authority that has taken the time and effort to employ people to carry down tape, cone’s and barriers to set up and block of one side of the tunnel that is supposedly disused.
Ive said a few times this route would have been very useful today to add extra capacity to the Huddersfield line if the Oldham loop was kept open also. I also think a station at Lees / reopening it today would have been a good aid for the surrounding areas.
We must have crossed paths a few times if you were around the bricky and tunnel in the 90s. Moved out of Grotton at the end of the 90s at 15 but have some of the best memories growing up there and working in Neil's shop on the main road when the pub was a pub and not a coop. And when the kids from Holts would come and nick your bike with impunity 😆
Try looking for the old Micklehurst loop line that ran from Stalybridge to Diggle via Staley & Millbrook - Micklehurst - Friezland - Uppermill. That could make a nice video as there were lots of old bits of infrastructure still around thirty years ago, including the station house/ platform in Uppermill itself. Love the work, keep them coming as you go places I can no longer reach due to disabilities. I go past the mill at Delph three or four times a week at least, the little sod who burned it down "for fun" should have been flogged.
Very nostalgic. Now living as far from Lydgate as you can get - New Zealand. My wife (nee Woodhead) lived at the White Hart , Lydgate for 15 years until we were married in 1966. Next to the pub was one of the ventilation shafts. I lived at Nicker Brow, Dobcross, and hundreds of times watched the Delph Donkey as it left the mainline to go to and from Delph. My wife, as a child , was on the last journey of the train and coincidentally so was my father who as a councillor on Saddleworth Council was part of the official party! The Queen Mother's Royal Train once spent the night stopped on the line at Dobcross. Many thanks.
Ask some TV companies if they can use your videos as I think you have great presenting skills and the research you put into these videos are fantastic. 👍
I used to go through this tunnel as a kid in the 80’s. You used to be able to get in from the Grasscroft end but had to climb down the steep embankment. We used to go through with flaming oil soaked rags on sticks - which probably wasn’t a great idea. I remember well the orange mud. Great to watch as not much has changed.
Excellent Video and History. My Grand Father worked at Glodwick Rd and Clegg St Stations.The Family moved to the NEW Abbeyhills Estate in about 1937.My Father and his Twin Brother born 1922, They came out of the Army and Navy in 1945.My Father worked at Measurements(actually began work there in 1937 up till in closed in 1987 ) and took the Train to Measurements every Day.My Uncle, became a Fireman on the Old Donkey based at Lees Sheds.He used to "Toot the Whistle" each time He passed Measurements.I attended Saddleworth School(Uppermill) untill 1968 and I think there was a Boy and his Sister called Lofthouse who lived in the Station House at Grotton!!!!!
Brilliant video Ollie. I also grew up in Grotton and use to explore around this tunnel as a kid... and we spent our summers in the brickworks quarry biking! Great to see this gem of a forgotten railway line and tunnel give the tribute it deserves.
My wife had relatives in Delph when she was younger and used to talk about going on the Delph donkey. Note the mention of Sam Bamford, the site of his weavers cottage/house is across the road from us in Middleton, remember it before it was demolished.
Also. My grandma used to live on breeze hill and you could see the church and row of houses at Lydgate. The vent for the tunnel was behind the church. She said you could see smoke from trains coming up and it looked like it was coming out of the church spire, making the church and row of houses look like a train. As a kid we always called the church and houses the Lydgate Train.
Having always been a saddleworth lad i always find its a good day going along the old railways and tunnels with a camera for a day and finding some great photos!
My grandparents live around the corner, and my grandad always took me to the opening and we always wondered if there was anything left inside the tunnel.... i would love to walk the tunnel
How to add more subscribers. This is from my very limited knowledge, just gained by watching other RU-vidrs. Tie up with another likeminded RU-vidr in a joint video. Their subscribers see what you do and vice versa. Hold a live question and answer session. Arrange an interview with the owners of the site of the first passenger service to see why they leave it to decay. What I mostly want to see is our steam heritage being celebrated and also talked about to the next generation of engineers. Lastly ask your subscribers to suggest themes for future videos. I very much agree with liker9 below.
My son lives just above this next to white heart. Great tunnel, I was told be a local that Lydgate tunnel was in West Yorkshire when it was built and closed. This old timer told me about when he went to bed in one county and woke up in another. He was still upset about it !
Come access this well looking for a route for the donkey line but find that it's longer than you think into Oldham Can you cycle this from Delph to uppermill then then onto Oldham Dose anyone know Great video btw I'm a new subscriber
Thanks very much. Yes you can cycle delph to uppermill but then you have to get on the road to get over the hill and into grotton, where the path picks up again all the way to Oldham
Enjoyed this one mate I loved the Ghostbusters bit lol I went into a similar tunnel recently here in Wales it was awesome you’d have loved it. The Mill you shown us at the end was fascinating too.
All the resources and specialist people the bbc have and they can’t even create anything half as tremendous as you have. Give yourself a good pat on the back . Brilliant:)
Ahh home sweet home.. Bee Here Now, Grotton/springhead where my stomping grounds growing up (now live NE Scotland). yes we was in the same year at school.. i last walked through the tunnel about 3 days before they installed the fence so yh 25+ years ago... the right side of the portal (grotton side) not looking to good! Gg on the subs! your vids are very educational and fun to watch!
23:49 walked here loads of times and didnt know it was the delph donkey line. This bridge and buttresses are at the very back of Newbank Garden centre car park. There is a nice walk up on the railway, or below to Uppermill centre along the canal and cross the river on the stepping stones.
