Diggle is famous for its railway tunnels under the Pennines and its canal. It boasts what is probably the longest and highest canal tunnel in Europe and the village once claimed the distinction of having the largest water wheel in England.
The nearby hamlets of Harrop Green and Diglea are both splendid examples of pre-Industrial Revolution weaving settlements. Their houses are built of stone, quarried from the local hillsides. The handloom cottages, with the top storey used for weaving, and the clothiers’ cottages are typical of those in scores of villages throughout West Yorkshire.
Before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the Diggle Road across the Pennines was part of the Oldham Mumps-to-Standedge Turnpike Road.
The tollhouse was at ‘The Gate’ public house - now known as the Hanging Gate located on Huddersfield Road in the village centre. It was not unusual to find rhymes inscribed on the top bar of a tollgate:

This gate hangs well to no man’s sorrow.
Pay for today, and I will trust tomorrow.

When the tollgates were abolished, a miniature of the gate was often hung over the door of the inn, with a revised form of rhyme inscribed: -

The gate hangs high and hinders none.
Refresh and pay, and travel on.

Growth in trade across the Pennines began to create congestion on the turnpike routes and the transportation of goods became laborious and expensive. As a consequence an Act was passed in 1794 for the construction of a narrow-gauge canal to link Ashton to Huddersfield by way of the Tame Valley, Mossley, Greenfield and Diggle. From Diggle a tunnel would be bored through Standedge, to emerge at Marsden. Standedge Canal Tunnel was opened in March 1811, when managers went through the tunnel on the barge ‘Lively’ the first boat to make the whole journey. Newly painted boats decorated with bunting followed ‘Lively’ and one of these carried a band playing Rule Britannia and other patriotic songs. It is said that 10,000 people gathered to see the ceremony. The population of Saddleworth at that time was just 12,579. Its construction had taken seventeen years to complete, with men working by candlelight. The tunnels length from Diggle to Marsden was 3 miles 171 yards.
The canal-boats were drawn by horses, which walked along the towpath to the entrance of the tunnel. There they were unharnessed and taken, via Boat Lane (near to the Diggle Hotel), over the top of Standedge to the barges at the other end. The boats were ‘legged’ through the tunnel by men pushing against the walls and roof with their feet. Sometimes, men needing work would wait at each tunnel end to offer their services as ‘leggers’.

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