From Copiapo to Clifton....

This post isn't related to photography, by the way. The remarkable rescue of thirty three miners in Copiapo, Chile, made me think about similar events closer to home. Although not particularly mining related, the story of the 'Black Harry' tunnel collapse did not have a fairytale ending.

Underground route of the Clifton Hall Tunnel.

On July 21st, 1845, the London & North West Railway (LNWR) was awarded Royal Ascent to construct a connection between the Liverpool & Manchester Railway at Patricroft, Eccles, onto the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, at Molyneux Junction, near Clifton. The construction required a 1298 yard tunnel to run from Dorchester Road, near Swinton Park Golf Club, running North East to Bolton Road in Pendlebury. (See Above)

In 1850, construction of the tunnel was complete, and the new railway opened. Within months, passenger services were withdrawn. This was due to the success of the Liverpool & Bury Railway; this route was awarded Royal Ascent just ten days after LNWR obtained permission to build their tunnelled connection. The Liverpool & Bury Railway had the advantage of serving the important industrial towns of Bolton and Wigan.

Freight traffic from nearby collieries was the sum of business for the newly opened tunnel, named officially as The Clifton Hall Tunnel but affectionately named 'Black Harry' by locals; a tribute to the foreman who oversaw its construction and his thick, black moustache.

The tunnel closed during WWII, and was used by Magnesium Elektron Limited to store tankers of liquid chlorine for the manufacture of batteries. It reopened in October 1947 to limited freight services; however this tenure was to come to a permanent end less than a decade later.

South Portal of Clifton Hall Tunnel. Salford Local History Library.

On 13th April 1953, Gang man E.C Nash was carrying out an inspection and noticed a pile of rubble a third of the way into the tunnel. As he shone his lamp above, he noticed that the brick lining was beginning to fall away. Nash ordered the stoppage of traffic immediately, and three senior inspectors, District Works Inspector Mr J.W. Glass, Chief Works Inspector Mr Ashall, and Assistant District Engineer Mr E.F. Boivie were notified and arrived the same day. After observing the defect themselves, the senior inspectors ordered the closure of the tunnel until remedial work had been carried out.

On the following day, Senior District Engineer Mr A. Lloyd-Owen and his assistant Mr Boivie performed an inspection of the tunnel roof atop a wagon, and discovered two locations within the tunnel where the brick lining had begun to fall away. Investigating further, the pair uncovered a rotting timber with further brickwork behind it, and resolved that the tunnel should be strengthened with steel ribs.

Delays were encountered in the manufacture of the ribs, and after further movement of the tunnel on Tuesday April 21st, Mr Boivie ordered the insertion of timber props in the tunnel as a temporary measure. However, when the Assistant District Engineer discovered that the steel ribs would arrive from Gorton Works within days, he abandoned the plan and arranged for work to install the ribs to begin on Sunday April 26th.

North Portal of Clifton Hall Tunnel. Salford Local History Library.

The reinforcing ribs arrived on the Sunday as planned. The intention was to place them into position from two wagons, but engineers faced problems readying the vehicles and work did not start until late afternoon. As the first rib was transported into the tunnel, it began to scrape on the brickwork lining: the draughtsman had not taken into account the profile, or subsidence of the tunnel. The support was too large and after installing it 12ft away from its intended position, engineers decided to finish work for the day.

On Monday April 27th, work was halted and the draughtsman returned to the tunnel to revise the original dimensions so that the other ribs could be altered at Gorton Works. However, the opportunity to perform remedial works on the tunnel was about to pass.

Police Inspector Kenneth McClennan was preparing for work at his home at 23 Temple Drive, Swinton. The quiet cul-de-sac was built in 1909 and in what proved to be a fatal decision, above a construction shaft for the Black Harry tunnel. At 5:35am on Tuesday April 28th, McClennan heard a loud rumble, and as he looked through his window to investigate, discovered the two houses opposite, 22 and 24, folding inwards and disappearing into the ground. He raised the alarm right away, and within 5 minutes, the first ambulances arrived, followed by the fire brigade, police and local residents. Another resident of Temple Drive, Mr T. Jones, was the Whitefield Station Master and upon discovering the shocking scene, alerted the railway authorities. Within the hour, Senior District Engineer Owen was inside the failed tunnel, arranging for the fall to be sealed.

Shocked neighbours assisted the authorities in the rescue efforts, one local factory offered to stop work and send as many men as were needed. As volunteers strived, neighbours carried trays of tea and cigarettes to them, eager to help. At number 26, householder Agnes Williams, 77, and her maid Francis Watson, were lucky to escape with their lives. Williams’s house was torn in two by the subterranean collapse; her maid was amongst the rubble, left clinging for her life. Williams was in her bedroom, and had had a remarkable escape.





Temple Drive after the collapse, with Agnes Williams's house on the left of picture. Salford Local History Library.

Enid Taylor, of number 12 Temple Drive, recounted to the Manchester Evening News:

"I saw Miss Watson lying near the pavement buried up to her waist and clinging on to what looked like a stone parapet. Two other men arrived and between us we tore away the rubble and pulled her out. She was quite calm and did not seem badly hurt. Then we saw Miss Williams standing against the wall of her half-wrecked bedroom. Her bed had gone through. She was standing by the overturned wardrobe. How she missed falling I do not know. We could not reach her but rescuers soon brought her down."

Numbers 20 and 28 Temple Drive were evacuated amid fears of further collapse. Rescuers were withdrawn for their safety, but when engineers had assessed and shored up the tunnel, they were allowed to return. They discovered the perished bodies of Fred Potter, aged 87, and his wife Clara, aged 73, who had lived together at Number 22. Sara Salt, 69, and her two daughters Jean Salt, 28 and Emily Owen, 45, had lived next door at 24 and also lost their lives in the tragedy.

In the aftermath, Brigadier C.A. Langley compiled the incident report for the Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation. He concluded that the collapse was caused by rotten timbers in the infrastructure of the construction shafts. The weight of the sand and clay above was being born solely by the stone arch ring, and this proved critical. Recommendations to strengthen this section of the tunnel had been made in the annual inspections of previous years, however they were deferred. Funds were allocated in the 1953 budget for the work to be carried out in that year.

Despite work being carried out to ensure the safety of the tunnel, low levels of traffic meant that the decision to close it was not a difficult one. The last train had passed through Black Harry, and in 1959, it was filled in from the south end.

A small compound of tin garages is all that remains as testament to the lives lost on Temple Drive in 1953. Parts of the original track still lie, near Lumns Lane.

Technical drawings of Clifton Hall Tunnel Collapse. Image taken from Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation Accident Report, 1954.

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