The Lost Canal Tunnel in the Woods. Sapperton. 

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

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

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 👌

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 😀

"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 :)

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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 👍😀👌

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!!

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

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.

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 😂

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

This is better than anything on tv x

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

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

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

Lovely day for it.

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!

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.

Well researched and absolutely fascinating. Thanks

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.

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.

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

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😊

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

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

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

This is a remarkable video thank you from New Zealand

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

One of your best keep em comming 👍😀

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

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

Another great video, please keep them coming :)

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

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

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

a big thumbs up to that

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.

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

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.

What a _beast_ of A tunnel 😲 Goodness!!

We would like to see down some more of these deep dark holes, thank you. Not just here but you often come across places like this and we always wonder whats down there, lol.

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

Excellent footage, well done!

Love the editing on this, so exciting! :D

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.

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...

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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

Another great watch, as said before, better than any TV. I was fully expecting to see deer skeletons at the bottom of that shaft but no ??? First Coc Rover, now Tit Rover, whatever next ?

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.

Loved your video so much I visited both portals when I visited the UK last summer! Andy Ley (geocacher) has a video where he goes beyond the collapse: Sapperton Canal Tunnel, Danesway Portal. Will have to come back to visit more of 'your' places!

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

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

Wonderful stuff!

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).

This is Pauls favourite Video.

Fantastic, well done

Fantastic video, lots of ingenuity and adventure :)

Good find

Gem of a channel.👍

Fishing waders are cheap. Grab a stick/cane, to check the ground in front and go for a walk. The health issue you may have in there is mould. Great video.

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.

Great as always, now your into canal tunnels, you must do Standedge on the Huddersfield narrow canal, when things get back to normal, they do trips in, the whole lengh, we did it last year and enjoyed every minute.

Thank you you two, I enjoy my walks with you, and I believe your daughter ? Sometime I thought it would be good if you had a dog, all those walks, but then I realized: holes in the ground, shafts, adits, mucky water, so may be not!

Another great ramble with you both. I remember finding one end of Sapperton with my Dad *many* years ago. In your TITR video, it looks like a bit of very old tram line rail standing up vertical top right of frame when you get to the block. Look again and see if you agree. Something from the construction to help move spoil away from each shaft? And re you point about the people who built this, think of digging that shaft as it it getting pretty damn tight towards the bottom!

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

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.

Hi Paul & Rebbica. Nice video, thanks for going so we don't have to. What would be nice from my point of view would be some more context; a map of the UK showing where you were and another of the canal itself plus some history of it. Who built it, was it a success, what did it carry, from where to where and when did it close? I expect the blasted new fangled iron horse railway things killed it off.

quite exciting.. thank you

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

lol I used to live down the road from the canal hahaha 😂 We always got letters through the door saying DONATE TO SAVE THE CANAL TUNNEL!

Told you I would be here!! 😁👍