Decline in Use
In 1889 subsidence caused the tunnel to be closed for a period of four years with the tunnel reopening after repairs in 1893. This closure resulted in the permanent loss of some of the canal's customers to competing railway companies. A partial collapse of the Butterley Tunnel in 1900 due to mining related subsidence split the Cromford Canal into two. The tunnel has not yet been repaired. Rudolph de Salis undertook a government funded survey of the tunnel in 1904 but his report was not favourable. Rudolph de Salis was a director of Fellows Morton and Clayton, a prominent canal freight company. A third tunnel collapse in 1907 and a government report by Sir William Matthews KCMG in June 1907 ended hopes of repairing the tunnel at this time and the tunnel was pronounced beyond economical repair in 1909. Commercial traffic on the canal ceased in 1944.
Read more about this topic: Butterley Tunnel
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