The 5.2 km-long Standedge tunnel is located between Marsden in Yorkshire and Diggle in Lancashire on the 31.8 km-long Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which connected the manufacturing centres of Huddersfield and Ashton-under-Lyne in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. The canal was constructed between 1794 and 1811 and the tunnel formed the most costly and difficult part of the scheme, being driven largely in rock (upper carboniferous millstone grit) below the high Standedge Moor. The tunnelling work took 17 years to complete under extremely arduous conditions using hand tools and black powder. It remained in use until it was closed by an Act of Parliament in 1944, since when it has been administered by British Waterways as a route for water transfer only.
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