The Cambridgeshire railway tunnel featured in a James Bond film
Cambridge has often starred on the silver screen, serving as a perfect backdrop for stories about science, romance, and more. However, one surprising location in Cambridgeshire has also made it into major films – including the James Bond film Octopussy.
The railway tunnel at Wansford was used in the 1982 film, in a scene where carriages are shunted. A dramatic gun battle between hero Bond, played by Roger Moore, and villain General Orlov, played by Steven Berkoff, also played out near the entrance to the tunnel.
It was also used in a Queen music video, for the song Breakthru, with the train that the band is riding apparently crashing through a brick wall. However, while the shot of the train approaching the brick wall is filmed from within the tunnel, it appears that the exterior shot was filmed elsewhere, under a railway bridge rather than a tunnel.
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The tunnel, around 500m from the old Wansford Station, was completed in June 1845 as part of the railway line between Northampton and Peterborough. According to Historic England: "The tunnel was constructed in seventeen months by 1,000 navvies camped in a disused quarry in the parish of Elton."
The line was once double track, but today it only has a single track running through its full length. There is a siding within the tunnel, entering at the eastern end.
The tunnel is now part of the preserved Nene Valley Railway (NVR), which as a whole has been used in several films, TV shows, adverts, and more. The new station of Yarwell Junction opened to the public in 2007.