Standedge Tunnel: How you can paddle under the Pennines on a canoe this year
Watersports fans are being given the chance to “paddle under the Pennines” with canoe trips through the longest canal tunnel in the UK.
The waterways charity Canal & River Trust says the new “bucket list opportunity” will see guided tours by canoe for the first time through Standedge Tunnel, which runs for three and a half miles between Marsden in West Yorkshire and Diggle in Greater Manchester.
The canal, which took more than 17 years to dig by hand and was completed in 1811, is described as one of the seven wonders of Britain’s waterways. As well as being the longest, it is also the highest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK.
The charity is hoping the cash raised from trips will help to keep the nation’s canal network maintained.
Gordon McMinn, from Canal & River Trust, will be leading trips through the tunnel.
Mr McMinn, volunteer team leader and qualified paddle sports instructor, said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list opportunity for keen canoeists to paddle though this magnificent tunnel and explore its three and a half miles.
“It will give participants a real sense of this remarkable tunnel, one of the seven wonders of the waterways, which is steeped in history. The trips just emphasise that life’s better by – or in this case on – water.”
There will be 18 paddle trips over nine days in June, July and August.
Each trip, which takes approximately two hours, will be one-way only, from either Marsden to Diggle, or Diggle to Marsden.
Participants will use Canal & River Trust’s open canoes and the cost of the trips will be £100 for two people in a tandem canoe or £55 for a solo paddler.
The limited places are bookable on canalrivertrust.org.uk.
Sean McGinley, regional director for Yorkshire and the North East at Canal & River Trust, said: “We’re excited to launch a new chapter in the history of Standedge Tunnel, a real wonder of the waterways.”
He said: “This experience is one of the many ways people can help support our work, contributing to the vital funds needed to help us maintain our 2,000-mile network of canals and assets, while discovering this amazing treasure under the Pennines.”
The Standedge Tunnels are four parallel tunnels through the Pennine hills at the Standedge crossing between Marsden in Kirklees, West Yorkshire and Diggle in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Three are railway tunnels and the other is a canal tunnel. Before boundary changes in 1974, both ends of the tunnels were in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The tunnel is only wide enough for one narrowboat for much of its length and, to save on cost, a towpath was not provided. Canal boats were horse-drawn when it opened and the boats were legged through the tunnel – one or more boatmen lay on the cargo and pushed against the roof or walls of the tunnel with their legs.
Professional leggers were paid one shilling and sixpence for working a boat through the tunnel, which took one hour and 20 minutes for an empty boat and three hours with a full load.
The limited load capacity and the lack of a towpath damaged the competitiveness of the whole canal when compared to the rival Rochdale Canal, which was only a few miles to the north and competed with the Huddersfield Canal for business. The last commercial boat passed through the tunnel in 1921.