Background
In this case we’re not talking about the long, famous tunnel between Caldicot and Patchway, but a rather more modest one on the northern bank of the Severn Estuary, just east of Lydney. Built in the 1870’s by the Severn and Wye rail company as part of the link to transport coal from the forest of Dean to the docks at Sharpness, it is 506 yards long and was just before the Severn Railway Bridge, a magnificent structure that has now been almost completely destroyed/demolished. A good report and set of pictures of the old bridge can be found here. To cut a long story short; in 1960 the bridge was struck by two drifting oil barges that caused part of it to collapse, and was never reopened. The tunnel, now redundant, was closed at the same time.
Visiting
This tunnel is quite easy to get to, and is not fenced or gated in any way. Purton is a tiny village just east of Lydney, and the only road in to it from the west is a good place to park, just before you get to the village itself. A farm track, which is a public footpath, leaves this road and cuts southwest through some fields. After a short walk, the raised embankment of the old trackbed will be right in front of you, so follow it west (there is a path alongside it at ground level) and it wont be long until you find an impressive underpass. This, I believe, is below or very close to the site of the Severn Rail Bridge station, no longer there.
Don’t go through the underpass; unless you want a view of the river, and don’t go up on top as it seems to be private land, with some small fenced pens there. We saw plenty of pheasants peeking out the undergrowth at us, so perhaps they live in the pens. Instead, follow the path alongside the embankment still, this will eventually raise up to meet it and from this point the tunnel is only a hundred yards or so further along the trackbed.
Condition today
The facade of the eastern portal of this tunnel is very wide and grand, and has a lovely sweeping curve to it. Inside, the tunnel is very clean and structurally there is no noticeable degradation. There is a large trailer of some kind abandoned in the tunnel, and several of the refuges have sleeping bats in them, so if you visit, be sure not to disturb them. The western portal has a date stone above it; 1878 is carved.
Map
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