Abseilers clean the historic Savernake Tunnel
ABSEILERS made their way down the Savernake Tunnel yesterday to clean the historic bridge.
The Canal & River Trust used a specialist rope team to spruce-up the two centuries-old tunnel on the Kennet & Avon Canal.
The structure will celebrate its 205th birthday this year and is one of the historic highlights of the Kennet & Avon Canal.
At 500 yards long, it was built when the local landowner, Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, then Earl of Ailesbury, refused to allow the canal company to mar the view from his nearby home.
Rather than having a flight of locks take the waterway over the hill, the Earl instead insisted that the great canal engineer John Rennie adapt the plans and construct a tunnel.
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