The 501 yards long tunnel was opened by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (later part of the Great Central Railway and subsequently the LNER) on 21 September 1898.
[1] It was the only tunnel on its Beighton Branch (occasionally referred to as the "Sheffield Branch") which ran north westwards from Langwith Junction to Beighton Junction.
[2] The Beighton Branch lost its local passenger traffic at the outbreak of World War II[3] but remained in use for excursions,[4] diversions and relief, together with its prime purpose - coal.
The line through the tunnel was closed on 9 January 1967[6] and was subsequently lifted, though tracks almost to the tunnel mouth from the north remained in use until 1984 for wagon storage and shunting at Westthorpe Colliery, Killamarsh.
By 20 July 2013 foliage had finally rendered the northern portal invisible from the former railway bridge on the Spinkhill to High Moor road known as "Station Road."