Listed status for Bourne’s Tunnel
Tuesday 16th March 2010 By St Helens Star
ONE of the earliest tunnels of the railway age – Bourne’s Tunnel at Rainhill – has been given grade II listed status to become St Helens’ 147th listed structure.
Built in the late 1820s, Bourne’s Tunnel is a massive 104ft long and goes under the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Line, which was the earliest locomotive passenger line in the world.
Bourne’s Tunnel has been given grade II listed status for both architectural and historical reasons, due to its angled design and attention to detail.
The designer of the tunnel is not known for sure, but is suspected to be George Stephenson’s apprentice, Thomas L Gooch, with the help of Liverpool dock engineer, Jesse Hartley. Gooch is believed to have designed many of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Line’s bridges at that time.
Bourne’s Tunnel forms part of a significant group of railway structures on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Line. They include the Grade II listed Skew Bridge at Rainhill (1828-9), Ropers Bridge at Knowsley (c. 1829), four other railway bridges at Huyton with Roby (c. 1829) and Rainhill Station (1860-68) The tunnel was built to accommodate a colliery tramway, which linked the colliery in Sutton with a weighing machine and coal stockpile on the Liverpool-Warrington turnpike road.
The Sutton collieries were later connected to the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway – which became operational from 1833 – rendering the tramway and turnpike road increasingly obsolete.
In 1844, the Liverpool brothers, John, James and Peter Bourne, who originally leased the land with partner, Sutton coal proprietor Robert Robinson, surrendered their lease and the tramway was dismantled.
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