page_title: Bramhope Tunnel
section_title: Human cost
hierarchical_section_title: Bramhope Tunnel / Human cost
caption_attribution_description: English: Bramhope Tunnel Monument in All Saints' parish churchyard, Kirkgate, Otley, West Yorkshire, England. It commemorates the men who died between 1845 and 1849 whilst building the Bramhope Tunnel on the Leeds and Thirsk Railway. It is a replica of the north portal of the tunnel.
context_page_description: Bramhope Tunnel is on the Harrogate Line between Horsforth station and the Arthington Viaduct in West Yorkshire, England. Services through the railway tunnel are operated mainly by Northern. The tunnel was constructed during 1845–1849 by the Leeds and Thirsk Railway. It is notable for its 2.138-mile length and its Grade II listed, crenellated north portal. The deaths of 24 men who were killed during its construction are commemorated in Otley churchyard by a monument that is a replica of the tunnel's north portal.
  Thomas Grainger was the engineer for the line and James Bray the contractor. Two sighting towers were erected and 20 shafts sunk along the tunnel's line. Men excavated rock from the shaft faces until the shafts were connected and the tunnel was completed in 1848. Thousands of navvies lived locally in temporary bothies with their families, and worked in dangerous and wet conditions to facilitate the grand opening in 1849.
context_section_description: Records of death and injury were kept from 1847 to 1849, and grants were made to the Leeds Infirmary and a special sprung handcart was provided to transport the injured to hospital.
  Five men died in 1846, twelve died in 1847 and seven more had died by 1849. The 24 men who died are commemorated in Otley churchyard by a Grade II listed monument in the shape of the north portal. It was erected by the contractor. 
  The sadness of the harsh conditions of those days is captured by the simple epitaph on the gravestone of James Myers who is buried in the Methodist Cemetery at Yeadon behind the Town Hall. James was a married man just 22 years old who 'died by an accident in the Bramhope Tunnel on the 14th day of April, 1848'. Next to him lies the body of his 3 years old daughter who died two weeks later of some unspecified illness.
caption: Bramhope Tunnel memorial, All Saints' Church churchyard, Otley
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