toward the periodically water-stressed Thames Basin; if so the tunnel and canal eastward could be used for this. Portals The northern portal near Sapperton village was built between 1784 and 1789 by Josiah Clowes. It was restored in 1996. The southern Coates portal was built by the engineer Robert Whitworth and has doric columns and vermiculated masonry. It was restored in 1980. In fiction In Hornblower and the Atropos by C.S. Forester, Hornblower helps the boatman "leg" through Sapperton Tunnel after the boatman's assistant is incapacitated. Forester spends the first two chapters of the book on the canal-boat journey, Roughly a third of the first chapter is devoted to the tunnel. In the novel Gone by Mo Hayder the tunnel is used extensively as a location in this crime thriller. An episode of Midsomer Murders titled The Green Man (series 7 episode 1) was partly filmed at the tunnel. The tunnel plays a significant part in Slaughter in the Sapperton Tunnel by Edward Marston. ISBN 978-0-7490-2681-3 Coordinates See also List of canal tunnels in the United Kingdom References Bibliography External links Current state of the tunnel and restoration plans Stroud Voices (Canal tunnel selection) - oral history site Canal tunnels in England Canals in Gloucestershire Tunnels completed in 1789 Tunnels in Gloucestershire 1789 establishments in England Disused tunnels Thames and Severn Canal