Opened to traffic in 1848, two years after being authorised, the tunnels carried the North Staffordshire Railway line between Kidsgrove and Tunstall.

The older Harecastle Canal Tunnels ran so close that vibrations from the trains allegedly affected their integrity.

The Middle and South tunnels have been disused since the realignment of the railway in 1965 as their limited size made them unsuitable to install overhead electrification apparatus.

[2] An alternative route for the tunnels had been considered,[3] but was discarded, partly because of objections from Thomas Kinnersley of Clough Hall but also because the alignment had gentler gradients.

[8][4] In early 2013, the British Government directed the Department of Transport to put the disused tunnels up for sale.