Catesby railway tunnel was built by the Great Central Railway (GCR) between 1893 and 1897. It lies on the former mainline between Rugby and Woodford. The GCR built their lines to a larger loading gauge than earlier operators so the tunnel is unusually wide, at 26 feet wide accommodating a double track. The height of the tunnel is around 25 feet and it has a length of around 3,000 yards (2.7km). There is a constant but gentle slope downwards to the north at a gradient of 1:176.
The original plan was to have built the line in a cutting throughout but the locaol landowner (Henry Attenborough) insisted on a tunnel to preserve the landscapew and his views. The tunnel is completely straight and nine shafts were used in the construction, five of these being retained for subsequent ventilation. The contractor was Thomas Oliver of Horsham and the tunnel was bored throughout apart from the northernmost 40 metres where cut-and-cover was used. Steam shovels were used to speed, construction, unlike earlier tunnels which relied entirely on human power. The tunnel is lined throughout in local blue bricks.
The tunnel had an uneventful operational life, closing in September 1966 as part of the Beeching cuts. After the track was lifted, water flooded some of the bed, presumably as the drainage system had been damaged. In 1997 tentative proposals by Chiltern Railways would have re-opened the route through Catesby as far as Rugby or perhaps Leicester but these came to nothing. HS2 also considered the route (a second bore or expanding the existing tunnel would have been needed) but eventually a route some miles to the west was preferred.
In 2014, a proposal was made for the conversion of the tunnel into a high speed test track for cars to be known as the Catesby Aerodynamic Research Facility. Planning approval for this was gained in 2017 and since then the developer TotalSim has constructed support buildings on the former site of Charwelton Station to the south of the tunnel. The project has attracted a £6.2M investment from the government’s local growth fund. By February 2021 a 400 metre road surface had been laid within the tunnel and an opening targeted for later in 2021. Special provision for bat roosts has been made, accessible from each portal.
