Tar Tunnel
The Tar Tunnel is located on the bank of the River Severn in Coalbrookdale near the village of Coalport and now forms part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
Miners struck a gushing spring of natural bitumen, a black treacle like substance, when digging the tunnel in 1787, probably in connection with the nearby coal workings. It was a great curiosity in the eighteenth century and bitumen still oozes from the wall today. Its chief commercial use was to treat ropes and caulk ships, but small amounts were processed and bottled as a remedy for rheumatism.
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