Twerton Tunnels near Bath

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Historic England refers to these two tunnels as Twerton Wood Tunnel and Twerton Tunnel, though I always thought they were officially called Twerton Long Tunnel and Twerton Short Tunnel respectively. Are Historic England incorrect?

[The Stationmaster]

Cooke lists them as Twerton Short Tunnel and Twerton Long Tunnel.  

 

They were not mentioned in the Sectional Appendix in respect of the need to light tail lamps.  The 1921 and 1936 issues of the General Appendix only includes the long tunnel - under the name 'Twerton'.   However the 1960 Regional Appendix shows both of them, albeit in the wrong order, as Twerton (Long) and Twerton (Short).

 

It is possible that the short tunnel was not originally regarded as a tunnel but it is only 3 yards shorter than Mitre Tunnel on the Victoria branch and that was listed as a tunnel in the 1936 GA (although it was on a sharp curve which might have made a difference?).  But getting back to your question and unless there were any departmental differences in naming (which I doubt in this case)  the official names of the tunnels were, in correct order,  Twerton (Short) and Twerton (Long) in 1960.   In the 1984 Sectional Appendix they are shown, in the correct order,  as Twerton Short Tunnel and Twerton Long Tunnel.   For some reason the short tunnel  gained one yard in length between 1960 and 1984 but it is not unusual s to see tunnel lengths varying by a yard or so over the years in official documents.

 

So Historic England aren't as good at history as they might think and you are welcome to use my research from the original GWR and BR (WR) documentation referenced in this post should you wish to correct them.

[101]

I signed the road for many years and only ever knew them as Twerton long and short tunnels

[101]

It's not very old - but this is from a signalling notice (yellow peril)

[JZjr]

To us crew, they are Twerton Long and Short, couldn't say how long they been called that though.  To many locals, they are the Carr's Wood Tunnels.

 

Cheers

Edited May 30, 2021 by JZjr
Clarification