's Norton, is 2,695 yards long, perfectly straight, 17-1/2-ft. wide,
and 18-ft. high. In the centre a basin is excavated sufficiently wide
for barges to pass without inconvenience; and in this underground
chamber in August, 1795, the Royal Arch Masons held a regular chapter of
their order, rather an arch way of celebrating the completion of the
undertaking. The other tunnels on this canal are 110, 120, 406, and 524
yards in length. On the old Birmingham Canal there are two, one being
2,200 yards long and the other 1,010 yards. On the London and Birmingham
Railway (now London and North Western) the Watford tunnel is 1,830 yards
long, the Kisley tunnel 2,423 yards, and Primrose Hill 1,250 yards. On
the Great Western line the longest is the Box tunnel, 3,123 yards in
length. The deepest tunnel in England pierces the hills between Great
Malvern and Herefordshire, being 600ft. from the rails to the surface;
it is 1,560 yards in length. The longest tunnels in the country run
under the range of hills between Marsden in Yorkshire and Diggle in
Lancashire, two being for railway and one canal use. One of the former
is 5,434 yards, and the other (Stanedge, on the L. & N.W.) 5,435 yards
long, while the canal tunnel is 5,451 yards.

~Turnpike Gates.~--At one time there were gates or bars on nearly every
road out of the town. Even at the bottom of Worcester Street there was a
bar across the road in 1818. There was once a gate at the junction of
Hang'sman Lane (our Great Hampton Row) and Constitution Hill, which,
baing shifted further on, to about the spot where Green and Cadbury's
Works now are, remained till 1839. The gate in Deritend was removed in
August, 1828; the one at Five Ways July 5, 1841; those at Small Heath,
at Sparkbrook, in the Moseley Road, and in the Hagley Road were all
"free'd" in 1851, and the sites of the toll houses sold in 1853. In the
"good old coaching days" the turnpike tolls paid on a coach running
daily from here to London amounted to L1,428 per year.

~Union Passage~, at first but a field path out of the yard of the Crown
Tavern to the Cherry Orchard, afterwards a narrow entry as far as
Crooked Lane, with a house only at each end, was opened up and widened
in 1823 by Mr. Jones, who built the Pantechnetheca. Near the Ball Street
end was the Old Bear Yard, the premises of a dealer in dogs, rabbits,
pigeons, and other pets, who kept a big brown bear, which was taken out
whenever the Black Country boys wanted