The simple gravestone at Yeadon Methodist Cemetery could easily go unnoticed.

The sad epitaph for James Myers notes that he died at the age of 22 "by an accident in the Bramhope Tunnel on the 14th day of April 1848.

Buries next to his three-year-old daughter who dies two weeks later of an unspecified cause, James is clearly a tragic figure.

But his is not the only tale of death and sacrifice connected with the construction of the Bramhope Tunnel.

At Otley Cemetery a memorial depicting the entrance of the tunnel stands as a permanent reminder of the 23 men who gave their lives to enable the massive feat of engineering to take place.

The number of dead seems staggering to a modern audience but tunnelling was a hazardous job which claimed the lives of many.

Horsforth Village Historical Society vice-chairman Peter Watson said: "It was a high risk area, particularly in those days when they didn't have the technology that we have now.

"The number of deaths may sound high but for something like the Settle to Carlisle railway which was a really substantial project, the death rate would have been even higher."

Now as Network Rail nears completion of a £10m project to renew track and drainage systems in the tunnel it is amazing to realise the sheer scale of the original operation and the dangers involved.

A Horsforth Village Society publication, Transport and Communication, describes the massive task which faced the tunnel's builders.

In 1844 a prospectus was issued to raise £800,000 in share capital for the building of a "cheaper, more expeditious and direct communication between Leeds and the towns and villages west thereof and the town of Harrogate, Ripon, Newcastle, Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland."

A vital part of the new Leeds to Thirsk rail link would be the 3,743 yard Bramhope Tunnel.

The impressive construction necessitated the removal of 265,000 cubic yards of stone. SAt the height of the project 2,000 workers and 400 horses were needed.

The task took four years to complete and the cost of the line escalated to well over double its original estimate. The rocks proved difficult to blast while flooding and subsidence were constant problems.

Metal sheets were used to divert the torrents of water which poured through the roof.

Mr Watson said: "Water was a major problem due to the various streams in the area. In an attempt to defray the escalating costs a waterworks scheme involving several reservoirs and an aquaduct was proposed but never implemented."

He added: "Water problems have created difficulties over the years, one notable event being a reported three-ton icicle which derailed a train in the 1096s."

Now more than 150 years later the tunnel is still prone to flooding and standing water - and the new scheme of work by Network Rail is attempting to finally solve the problem.

The line was eventually opened in 1849 - no doubt much to the delight of the many local people who had seen their area transformed by the massive influx of migrant workers.

Former Bramhope Parish councillor Philip Sunderland has researched and written articles for the parish magazine and the Internet about the history of the tunnel.

Mr Sunderland, a doctor of engineering, who moved to the area about 30 years ago, said: "When I realised there was this tunnel in Bramhope it fired my interest and I was quite keen to find out more about it."

In his articles he describes the effect on the local community of such large numbers of workers.

At the height of the construction work 2,3000 labourers were pitched up in and around Bramhope, many of them with their wives and children.

More than 300 wooden huts or boothies were constructed to house the army of outsiders - 200 of these in the field opposite the present day Bramhope Cemetery.

Mr Sunderland says: "It was claimed that the small wooden huts housed as many as 20 people, sleeping "box and cox" on a shift basis, in what must have been highly unsanitary conditions."

The local school was overwhelmed by the number of navvies children - at one point only ten of the 30 youngsters attending were actually from the village.

With so many young men flooding into the area public disorder and drunkeness became commonplace, and tensions grew between the navvies and the villagers.

In an attempt to keep control of the situation a railway police inspector Jos Midgeley was employed to keep law and order - but even he was attacked by a group of men.

Mr Sunderland said: "On another occasion, at Wescoe Hill on the other side of the Wharfe, a mini-riot ensued when the contractors tried to cut off the supply of ale.

"There was a mass brawl in which the navvies recovered their supply of ale but the disturbance had resulted in the death of one man."

The tunnel borders the area between Bramhope and Horsforth, and local historian Alan Cockcroft is another person who has been fascinated by its past.

Mr Cockcroft, who has published a pictorial history of Horsforth, owns a copy of what could be the only remaining photograph from around the time of the tunnel's construction.

It shows a steam crane which was used for lifting heavy blocks during the building work at Bramhope.

The photograph is one of the few reminders of the almost Wild west period in the village's history.

But other clues remain for those who know what they are looking at. During the tunnelling operation 20 shafts were sunk into the ground and men were lowered by bucket to work on different faces in torchlight at the same time.

Today, four of those shafts remain and are now used for ventilation. One can be seen to the north of the A660 near the scout hut, one is behind Park House, another is opposite Camp House Farm and the fourth is near the Horsforth/Cookridge border.

An old sighting tower is still visible in the field opposite Bramhope Cemetery. Spoil can also still be seen in tip along the line of the tunnel.

More reminders of the impact of the scheme on the local community can still be seen in some of Bramhope's old property deeds.

Water drainage over the whole area was affected by the tunnel and litigation was launched by a number of farmers, landowners and residents who claimed they had suffered a loss od deterioration in their water supply.