On Sunday last, a group of us joined the Winchester City Town Tour of the visible remnants of the old Chesil Railway. 

The highlight of that tour is an excursion into the railway tunnel under St Giles Hill, and it never fails to impress.

The tunnel is now well over 100 years old, and we’re always warned that we may be dripped on while we perambulate. Maybe. But one thing we don’t have to worry about is the whole show collapsing on us. 

The tunnel is still immensely solid and, I should guess, will still be so in another 100 years.

Not for the Victorians any “RAAC”, or time-expired crumbling concrete. Far from it. They built to last, and, as is readily apparent both from the tunnel and the great railway viaduct at Hockley, they certainly succeeded.

Michael Hollis,
Octavia Hill,
Stanmore,
Winchester 

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