TIDENHAM Tunnel has been named among Britain’s fascinating “lost” railway landmarks in a new national feature exploring abandoned lines given a new lease of life.

The former railway tunnel, near Chepstow and Tintern, featured in a Daily Mail Travel look at historic stations, tracks and structures across the country which have survived long after trains stopped running.

Today it is a popular walking and cycling route linking Tintern with Chepstow, but anyone fancying negotiating its 1,188 yards has missed the chance until next April, as it officially closed for winter last Wednesday (September 30) to allow protected bat colonies to hibernate undisturbed.

Tidenham Tunnel was once the longest tunnel on the Wye Valley Railway between Chepstow and Monmouth and the 21st longest on the Great Western Railway network.

Construction began in the 1870s, with the tunnel bored largely through carboniferous limestone before the railway opened to traffic on November 1, 1876.

The railway provided an important connection through the lower Wye Valley, linking communities and industries on either side of the Wye Wales-England border.

Passenger services through the tunnel eventually ended in 1959, while the Wye Valley Railway closed to goods traffic in January 1964.

However, that was not the end of Tidenham Tunnel's railway life. Part of the former line remained in use as a private siding serving local quarries, with the final train passing through the tunnel to Tintern Quarry in December 1981.

Decades later, the structure was given a dramatically different purpose as part of the Wye Valley Greenway.

The old trackbed was transformed into a walking and cycling route, with the tunnel becoming one of its most distinctive features.

The national feature placed Tidenham alongside former railway landmarks including London's abandoned Aldwych Tube station, the old Manchester Central station and stretches of railway in Cornwall and Somerset which have also been transformed into walking and cycling routes.