Map 16, and text on pages 28 and 30. Sellers Tunnel.
While the canal was derelict most of its route between Longroyd Bridge 25 and Queen Street was filled in. The site was used industrially and several buildings were built on the line of the canal. As a result the restored canal was built at a lower level in a tunnel, and locks 3E and 2E were moved. Now the surface site is being redeveloped, the tunnel roof is being removed, the locks resited, and the water level raised.
This will make the route more attractive to boaters, and re-open the towpath as a through route. These major works on still on-going. When they are complete we will, of course, update the guide-book, but in the meantime we took the following photographs on 27 December - but it is a site closed to the public so we couldn't get as near as we would have liked. And being a Bank Holiday there was no one to discuss things with, which the civil-engineering half of Richlow likes to do.
The roof of Sellers Tunnel removed, just beyond the excavators.
From above what was the "new" lock 3E looking east. The gates have been removed from the lock, but the tail bridge is still in place. Beyond, the roof of the tunnel has been removed, and a new waling can be seen on the pile tops which previously formed the tunnel walls.
An emergency access point in Sellers Tunnel - which is actually at the site of the original lock 3E, just upstream (west) of Chapel Hill Bridge.
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