The Tunnel

The Tunnel is a road tunnel dated 1823, designed by William Constable, a turnpike surveyor. The entrances are constructed of gault brick in Flemish bond, while the tunnel itself is made of red brick in stretcher bond. The south entrance features a tall round archway with two stages of blind, five-bay, round-arched arcading above the lower stage, and a datestone in the center. It has flanking buttresses with ashlar offsets at each stage and an embattled parapet with pitched ashlar coping. The north entrance is similar but has a shorter archway due to its position at the higher end of the sloping tunnel; it has only one stage of arcading above and lacks a parapet, featuring red-brick coping instead. Inside the tunnel, there is a blind segmental-arched arcade on each side with doorways leading to former chambers, most of which are blocked, and a barrel vault above.