Tar Tunnel

Miners struck a gushing spring of natural bitumen, a black treacle-like substance, when digging a canal tunnel for the Coalport Canal in 1787, or else digging a level in search of coal. After digging around 3000 ft into the hill the canal project was abandoned in favour of bitumen extraction. A wagonway was constructed in the tunnel to remove coal from the mines in before or during 1796. The tunnel was a great curiosity in the eighteenth century and bitumen still oozes gently from the brick walls today. Bitumen's chief commercial use at the time was to treat and weatherproof ropes and caulk wooden ships, but small amounts were processed and bottled as 'Betton's British Oil', a panacea…