Clifton Hall Tunnel, also called the Black Harry Tunnel, was a railway tunnel passing beneath much of Swinton and Pendlebury, in Greater Manchester, England which partly collapsed on 28 April 1953 killing five occupants of houses in Temple Drive, Swinton which had been built above the tunnel many years earlier. The tunnel was on the Patricroft and Clifton branch of the London and North Western Railway line linking Patricroft with Molyneux Junction. The line provided a strategically important link to Radcliffe via the Clifton Viaduct, which has since been granted Listed status and therefore still stands across the Irwell Valley next to the M60 motorway. The tunnel collapsed at a point directly beneath an old brick-lined construction shaft, the contents of which fell into the space below. The surrounding soil, which was a loose mixture of sand and clay, poured into the hole and formed a large cavity underneath the foundations of two houses on Temple Drive. The houses, suddenly collapsed into the ground killing five occupants and the end wall of another fell outwards though the occupants of this house were rescued. The structure's portals are both buried and unable to be seen, however the route of the railway can still be made out by cuttings and embankments, especially when viewed on an aerial map. The northern portal is situated close to Clifton Junction, where the line ran under the Manchester-Preston Line, the station providing an interchange. After passing over the Thirteen Arches viaduct and through the station, the line entered the tunnel, which took a straight route under the Manchester-Southport line just to the east of Pendlebury Railway Station. The tunnel continued very close to St Augustine's Church, Pendlebury, under Temple Drive and the extreme south east corner of Victoria Park until it reached its southern portal at Light Bourne Green. Some years after the collapse and the closure, the structure was filled in with colliery waste from one of the nearby collieries.
