Silverdale Tunnel - Staffordshire

I’d tried this place a couple of times over the years, but each visit ended the same way, just missing the opening and finding the gates freshly locked. So, with a free evening on my hands and waiting for a friend to finish work before heading off for something slightly more adventurous over the Derbyshire border, I decided to go for a wander and see if anything had changed.

To my delight, the eastern portal was missing one of its large metal doors, allowing easy access.

This was my first outing with a new wide angle zoom lens. Unfortunately, it struggled with focus far more than my other lenses, and has since been relegated to topside missions only.

The eastern portal has accumulated a bit of discarded rubbish near the entrance, but inside, lovely flowstone-covered walls more than make up for it. The air shaft even lets you recreate the opening scene from Mr Bean.

History

“Silverdale Tunnel, located in Staffordshire, is a disused railway tunnel that once formed part of the Stoke-on-Trent to Market Drayton line, originally opened in 1870. Measuring approximately 684 yards in length, the tunnel was built to double-track standards but later operated with a single track, which still remains inside the tunnel today. Constructed primarily of red brick with blue engineering brick portals and buttresses, the tunnel features a single ventilation shaft about 450 yards from the east portal, with its surface structure still visible in a nearby field off Pepper Street. Inside, the tunnel is mostly straight and shallow, with mineral deposits, a central drain, and maintenance refuges along the walls. Passenger services ceased in 1964, though freight continued until the closure of Silverdale Colliery in 1998. Track removal between the station and tunnel’s east portal occurred in 2009, while parts of the former line have since been repurposed into public footpaths and cycle routes.”