The Tunnel That Never Was
Motorist: Where’s the Tunnel?
Police Officer: I don’t know, I’ve never heard of one.
Motorist: Oh, there must be one. It’s in the paper!
Police Officer: We cannot help; there is no tunnel!
Shortly after the end of the First World War a developer called John Elliott arrived in Dovercourt, Harwich. He had purchased Mill House and its then extensive grounds. He was a civil engineer by profession, who had spent time working in India and Australia and in his own words had ‘an active business life in London’. Elliott was energetic, enthusiastic, overflowing with ideas and on a mission. In his view both Dovercourt and neighbouring Harwich were areas full of opportunity.
At the time Dovercourt was largely undeveloped. Elliott advanced plans to build a new estate but there were many challenges. Dovercourt lacked much of the infrastructure needed to sustain a modern estate. Water supplies were inadequate as was the sewerage system. Street lighting was poor or non-existent. As for Harwich itself, the end of the war had resulted in the withdrawal of most of the Royal Navy ships which in turn created a sense of general depression accompanied by a rise in unemployment and poverty.
In 1924 John Elliot put himself forward as an independent candidate in Dovercourt Ward for Harwich Borough Council. The elections were scheduled to be held in November. In a scathing election address Elliot claimed there were serious stumbling blocks to improving the town which were listed as 1. Vested Interests, 2. Petty Jealousies and 3. Lack of Business Imagination and Enterprise. He added he was ‘shocked to find Harwich Harbour was dead and Dovercourt was only just waking up’. He said that the town needed councillors with experience, not bounded by the borough limits, who would do their best to push on with the development of the town in every aspect. Elliot continued, ‘due to the backward conditions locally many young men and women have little or no employment and they have had to leave home to work miles away. This could be avoided if a little more spade work was done for Harwich as a port and Dovercourt as a residential area and holiday resort’. Elliott ended his address with the words ‘As responsible electors, if you require a Progressive and Prosperous Dovercourt please VOTE for ELLIOT but if you require a continuance of the old system, please do not vote me. This concluded with, as was customary at the time, ‘I am, Ladies and Gentlemen, yours faithfully, J. ELLIOTT.
The local elections were held on 1st November 1924. In a tight poll in Dovercourt, John Elliott, then aged 43, came top with 569 votes narrowly beating the also elected Mr J B Frankin who gained 565 votes. The Harwich and Manningtree Standard, commenting on the Dovercourt result, said ‘He (Elliott) is, we believe, an engineer of no mean ability and will, with the qualifications he has, be an asset to the council’.
Thus, newly elected, John Elliott began his council career determined to pull Harwich up and set about trying to galvanise his somewhat suspicious and reluctant fellow town council members into action. In a letter of thanks to the voters, with an added touch of humour, Elliott said, ‘I am going to push your interests to the best of my abilities, however before the next council meeting, I hope to get on with another piece of uninterrupted spade work, that is digging up my potatoes!’
Geographically, Harwich is sited at the tip of a narrow peninsula where Essex and Suffolk are divided by the confluence of the Rivers Stour and Orwell. The Railways came to Harwich in 1854 and despite Harwich having been the ‘Royal Gateway’ into England since the 1700s, due to the close connections between the British and German Royal Families, there was only one way in and out of it by road. By 1924, the end of the line, as far as the Great Eastern Railway was concerned, was the Great Eastern Hotel, which had recently closed. To travel on from Harwich by road and further north into England, especially into Suffolk and Norfolk, meant a thirty-three mile detour via Manningtree and Ipswich.
Shortly after his election in his endeavour to uplift Harwich and improve communications with Felixstowe, John Elliott came up with a grand plan. He determined that, in the best interests of trade and travel, a tunnel should be constructed under the estuary connecting Harwich to Felixstowe, a distance of less than two miles. It the tunnel was adopted it would eliminate the long detour through Manningtree and Ipswich and make towns like Southwold, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Norwich readily accessible. At that time there was no huge container port at Felixstowe.
The Grand Plan
Despite Elliott’s drive, many other Harwich town councillors were either sceptical or completely hostile to the proposal. Their attitude was not helped by constant badgering, bordering on harassment from Elliott. Nevertheless, Elliott pressed ahead. He wrote to prominent leading figures and to national and local newspapers outlining his proposals. He called for a conference to be held with neighbouring local authorities to discuss ways to improve road traffic between Harwich and Felixstowe and after much argument and several meetings Harwich council agreed to set up a sub-committee to look at setting up a conference.
In the meantime, Elliott separately wrote to several well-known civil engineering companies, such as the Metropolitan Tunnel and Public Works Ltd and John Mowlem & Co Ltd, who were both experienced in building tunnels, to get estimates for the work involved.
Yet, after seven months, despite Elliott’s best efforts, a conference still had not been called. In June 1925, in a long letter to the local press, Elliott vented his frustration on the council, the Chamber of Commerce, the LNE (London & North-East) Railway and the accuracy of the newspaper’s reporting. The LNER had opened a rail ferry from Harwich to the continent in 1924 and it was suggested by other councillors that the LNER could be approached about the possibility of running a vehicle ferry from Harwich to Felixstowe. Elliott, in his letter, expressed his doubt about the LNER as he thought they had too much sway in Harwich already. He also accused his fellow councillors of using the vehicular ferry option as a smokescreen and ignoring the tunnel option completely, whilst still doing nothing. Elliott also complained that the LNE Railway company could not or would not provide any estimates for the costing for a vehicular ferry to Felixstowe. As for the Chamber of Commerce, he said they were simply bereft of ideas. In Elliott’s view Harwich Council was a secret society whose only ambition was that ‘Harwich should remain the Land’s End of the East Coast and what was good enough in Tudor times ought to be satisfactory in the present day’.
Following several ill-tempered meetings throughout the summer and autumn of 1925, the council agreed to limit the scope of any conference to discussing a vehicular ferry only. Accordingly, the tunnel proposal was withdrawn.
Elliott though had still not given up. In October 1925, with Harwich councillors still debating the merits of a vehicle ferry from Harwich to Felixstowe and whether to hold a conference or not, the Borough received a deputation from a group of the unemployed demanding that jobs be found for them.
The November 1925 local council elections had seen Councillor Wills lose his seat, much to the satisfaction of John Elliott. In another letter published on 7th November 1925 Elliott wrote ‘now the electors of both wards have dealt with certain people in a most effective manner’. Yet whilst most of the newly elected councillors expressed great sympathy for the unemployed there was no consensus on the tunnel.
However, for Elliott the plight of the unemployed and their appeal to the Borough was seen as a golden opportunity for advancing his tunnel proposal once again. In December he published a booklet on the umemployed. see image below. He sent copies to national newspapers and influential people all over the country promoting the case for a tunnel.
The booklet’s running theme was ARE WE DOING OUR BEST FOR THE UNEMPLOYED AND THE TAXPAYER? Elliott argued that poor communications were hampering national and regional growth and making exports uncompetitive. He said a state grant could cover the cost of the tunnel and he highlighted that already the Government had proposed major improvement schemes for road transport. In Elliott’s opinion, so far little or nothing happened due to an inefficient, bloated civil service and incompetent government ministers. Elliott described Harwich council as lethargic when they should be making every endeavour to lobby the Government on the crossing’s merits. He said, ‘spending over one million pounds each week on dole payment (unemployment benefit) to help people slowly starve was a gross waste of taxpayer’s money’.
At the same time working people were having their wages depressed due to being taxed to fund the unemployed. It was a vicious circle which raised prices and depressed trade. Elliott was equally critical of state subsidies given to industry. Coal production was singled out ‘as prices were too high’ despite the largesse of the government.
Printed on the inside cover of the book was an offer from John Elliott of six cash prizes for the best essays received under the heading of ‘WHY WE NEED THE TUNNEL’. The competition was open to all men, women and children who resided in Essex or Suffolk. However, a condition of entry was that the title page of the book had to be sent in with the entry, so entrants had to buy a copy of The Unemployed, the Tunnel and the Taxpayer to enter the competition. It was promised the name of the winners would be published in local newspapers on January 16th 1926.
The Unemployed, the Tunnel and the Taxpayer was reviewed by Harwich and Manningtree Standard on the 2nd January 1926, without comment, under a headline ‘THE GREAT COAST ROAD’. The booklet and the review created a flurry of local interest and a few letters but resulted in little action.
In the meantime, John Elliott busied himself with other council matters. At the January 1926 council meeting he proposed an extra council seat for Dovercourt or even for the borough to use a system of proportional representation for elections. The proposals were rejected. In another motion Elliot complained that the council ‘was employing people from outside the borough’. He identified a council typist who came from Felixstowe and an accountant from Ipswich. The motion demanded that the Borough make every effort to employ Harwich or Dovercourt residents. This motion too was rejected. Another motion submitted proposed that all council correspondence sent out should carry the office opening hours, so ratepayers would not waste time travelling to council offices to find them closed. This suggestion was referred to the Estate and Finance committee for further consideration. Nevertheless, as regards to the tunnel a whole year had passed with no progress. Elliott’s temperament won him few friends and he was thoroughly disgusted. Furthermore, the promised publication of the winning names in Elliott’s Tunnel essay competition didn’t appear as promised in newspapers.
In March 1926 John Elliott attended a conference in Colchester about a new road route from London called BRIDGING THE COLNE. The Mayor of Colchester (Councillor Piper) presided and over 30 representatives from various authorities were present. It was agreed that a bridge would be the desired option and that a further conference should be held as soon as a draft scheme was prepared.
Shortly after the Colchester conference the Harwich Chamber of Commerce suddenly suggested that trial borings should be made with a view to obtaining more precise costing for the tunnel. Perhaps things were looking up for the Grand Tunnel plan after all?
However, before any borings were drilled, a bizarre turn of events took place. Newspaper offices in Fleet Street, motoring magazines and motoring organisations nationally received guilt-edged invitation cards to attend the opening of the Harwich – Felixstowe tunnel. The invitations came from a Mr J H Parr, the chairman of the Opening Celebration Committee of the HARWICH – FELIXSTOWE VEHICULAR TUNNEL.
The invitations requested newspapers’ staff and readers to be present at 4 o’clock for the opening of the tunnel on April 3rd 1926. This was Easter weekend. The invitations were originally printed Thursday 1st April however on receipt, the April 1st had been subsequently crossed out by hand and overwritten with Saturday 3rd April. Motorists were advised to line up outside the Great Eastern Hotel at 3.45pm.
The invitation added that, following the opening ceremony, a procession of cars would pass through the tunnel at 4.15pm and arrive in Felixstowe 15 minutes later, near the air force depot.
The Daily News informed its readers that the tunnel ‘would be free of toll from 6.00am until midnight and that the owner of every car would be given a leather bound, beautifully illustrated souvenir containing a description of the tunnel as a superb engineering feat’.
On Friday 2nd April 1926 the Autocar (now described as the ‘World’s oldest car magazine’) made the following announcement:-
HARWICH – FELIXSTOWE TUNNEL
‘The new tunnel which passes under Harwich Harbour and connects Essex to Suffolk was officially opened yesterday (Thursday) afternoon (1st April). Ventilation and lighting of the tunnel are by electricity and during the Easter weekend the public are invited to make use of the free toll.’
Later the Felixstowe Times reported that at least 300 cars and motorcycles had turned up in Harwich up by early afternoon. The paper added ‘there was practically every conceivable kind of car from a Rolls Royce down to a humble Ford and from Charabancs to the lowly lorry’.
Yet, no one in Harwich or Dovercourt or Felixstowe had received invitations. To the visitors, what seemed most odd on arrival was that nothing was visible to indicate the tunnel’s opening, a grand event by all accounts. There were no flags, bunting or banners hung across the road to mark the tunnel entrance. As for the Great Eastern Hotel which might have been the centre piece for the ‘opening ceremony’ that was closed and had been so for three years.
The police were kept very busy, mainly answering questions from puzzled motorists as to where the entrance to the tunnel was. A local fisherman decided to have fun and told a series of puzzled motorists who asked him, ‘Where is the tunnel?’
‘Just over there’ came the reply pointing to a spot on the quay, ‘but the tide has covered it at the moment’. As the queue of cars grew longer the police found it difficult to control hundreds of locals jamming onto the quay to see what was going on. By 3.30pm the quay was packed with family parties, many of whom had brought tea and luncheon baskets. Just to add to the confusion the manager of the Pier hotel, a Mr Collins, put up a sign at the front which read ‘Entrance to Tunnel through the Tea Room’.
Yet, as the afternoon wore on and although some reporters had hopped on the passenger ferry to Felixstowe to see vehicles emerging from the tunnel on the Suffolk side, it became clear there was no gala opening, no Opening Celebration Committee, no leather-bound souvenir brochures, no sign of Mr J H Parr and above all no tunnel.
Some of the drivers who had spent all day trying to get to Harwich were not in the least amused. One gentleman who came in what was described as magnificent touring car said ‘It’s a fraud’ before turning back the way he had come. Other motorists sheepishly slipped away with as little loss to dignity as possible although some stopped to discuss and enjoy the joke and may possibly may have indulged in the fine tea offered at the Pier Hotel.
Whilst most national newspapers and motoring magazines had printed word for word what was on the invitation from Mr J H Parr, the editor of the Daily Chronicle was somewhat sceptical, especially as the opening date had been altered by hand. The editor believed a hoax was in hand and had tipped off Mr Collins at Pier Hotel accordingly.
Amongst the spectators standing on the Quay on the afternoon of April 3rd was Councillor John Elliott who took every opportunity to promote the tunnel scheme to anyone who would listen. He said it was evident that with the number of cars turning up, the case for a tunnel was reinforced. Later, in an interview with the Daily Mail, he added ‘They will blame me for this hoax and I shall be hung drawn and quartered’. At the same time Elliott neither denied or admitted to being, or even knowing, the mysterious J H Parr.
On April 5th 1926 the Daily Chronicle took the moral high ground and led on the PHANTOM TUNNEL HOAX ‘being the greatest April fool stunt perpetrated for many years’. The paper added that its earlier hoax warnings were disregarded by other papers and that nearly 1,000 motorists were victimised. However, quite how the Daily Chronicle arrived at the figure of one thousand motorists (as opposed to the Felixstowe Times and Daily Mails at least 300) is not clear.
In the following week the local papers carried reports of the affair. The Harwich & Dovercourt Standard commented ‘a more silly or vexatious piece of mischief would be difficult to imagine’. In contrast the Essex County Standard described it as ‘a remarkable practical joke played at Harwich’ and then reported much of the detail described above. A similar column was written in the Essex Telegraph who described it as an extraordinary hoax. It went to say much of the blame, if that is the right word for the hoax, lay with the national daily papers and motoring magazines.
Despite all the excitement and disappointment on the day, the hoax seemed to sound the final death knell of the tunnel. On the other side of the River Stour some members of Felixstowe Urban District Council had supported the idea of applying for a grant to ascertain the tunnel cost, however, Councillor Dr Guiseppi described the tunnel as one of the most foolish schemes every brought forward.
Shortly afterwards both Harwich and Felixstowe Councils abandoned the tunnel idea and chose to pursue a vehicle ferry option. Yet this too never came to pass. As for the Government and the national papers they were no doubt distracted by the General Strike that began in May 1926.
As for Councillor John Elliott, with his tunnel plan effectively scrapped, although remaining a local councillor, he stepped back to concentrate on his property interests in Dovercourt. He also developed another pet project, that of the provision of lending libraries and to this end he pursued local and national government with the same energy as he had devoted to the tunnel.
John Elliott died on 6th November 1968 aged 87 and was buried in All Saints Church, Dovercourt. His wife Evelyn passed away in 1998. There seem to be no surviving children. As for the mysterious Mr W H Parr, the Chairman of the Opening Celebration Committee, despite local suspicions that John Elliott knew his identity, the secret went with him to the grave.
Sources. Essex Records Office
Nigel Mowle Harwich Research Team
Essex County Standard, Essex Weekly News
Essex Telegraph, Essex Countyside 1985 (Winifred Cooper)
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