died in December 1791, and a newspaper article announced that the tunnel he had been working on was complete. The work included a stop lock in the tunnel where it joined Lord Dudley and Ward's basin, and a new straighter section and junction with the Birmingham Canal at the north end. The new junction opened on 6 March 1792, but the tunnel was not formally announced as being complete until 25 June. Operation The stop lock in the tunnel did not last for long, and was removed in December 1795. There were initially complaints, because the tunnels were used by limestone boats working the quarries, as well as being a through route. Normal passage was often obstructed by boats loading limestone at Charles Starkey's Quarry, by empty boats blocking the tunnel, and by full boats blocking access to the stop lock into the Birmingham Canal. Such complaints ceased after 1799, presumably because more space was made for the limestone boats, and their organisation was better regulated. More serious was the fact that the tunnel was affected by mining subsidence, and the regular closure for repairs damaged trade. The company employed their own Inspector of Mines to keep on top of the situation. Boats could pass in one direction for four hours, and then the direction was reversed, but in 1830, the time allowed was reduced to three hours, with a penalty imposed if the time was exceeded. With threats of competition from the proposed Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Birmingham Junction Canal in May 1836, the company looked at ways in which passage through the tunnel could be improved. They decided to enforce a by-law that required each boat to have a crew of two men to propel it through the tunnel, and a number of boatmen were called to account for non-compliance. The Dudley Canal's superintendent, Thomas Brewin, suggested that cable haulage could resolve the issues, but the cost of the system at £6,000 was deemed to be too expensive. Despite the commercial difficulties, the tunnels were very popular with sightseers, and poetic descriptions of its operation appeared in Luke Booker's Dudley Castle, published in 1825, and W Harris's Rambles about Dudley Castle, published in 1843. Having completed the Dudley Tunnel, the company did not rest, but pressed on with another ambitious extension, linking the southern end of the tunnel to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal passing through the Lapal Tunnel