A look inside the ‘sealed in time’ Nottingham train tunnel that ran deep below the city until 1967

You need a university degree to know that Nottingham is synonymous with tunnels and caves.

The city’s position upon a bed of sandstone made it ideal for the construction of tunnels and caves over recent centuries.

Contrary to popular belief, the caves beneath Nottingham did not form naturally.

They were instead dug over hundreds of years and served many useful purposes, including as medieval tanneries and air-raid shelters during the Second World War.

There are then, of course, the tunnels dug during the late-19th century as the industrial revolution paved the way for train travel.

The majority of Nottingham’s lost tunnels were built by either the Great Northern Railway, Great Central Railway or Nottingham Suburban Railway.

The sheer cost of demolishing these tunnels after their closure was simply too high, meaning the majority of them were sealed and left to decay.

One such example of this was the Sherwood Rise Tunnel, which served the Great Central Railway until 1969.

The Great Central Railway mainline from London Marylebone to Sheffield via Leicester and Nottingham was the last trunk route to be completed in 1899.

After passing through a deep cutting in the sandstone south of New Basford station, southbound trains entered the Sherwood Rise Tunnel.

After the Nottingham section of the Great Central mainline was closed in 1967, the tunnel became redundant and its entrances subsequently filled in.

The southern end of the tunnel was completely filled in, while the northern end - off Haydn Road - was blocked off with a large metal plate.

The Urbex No Limits Facebook page, which documents urban exploration across the East Midlands, visited the tunnel back in 2021.

Below are several photos which provide a rare glimpse inside Sherwood Rise tunnel.