Railway overbridge MVL3/107, Colne Bridge (B1168 Bridge Road), Huddersfield, Kirklees

Summary

Railway overbridge, 1845-49, designed by A S Jee for the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway; widened by the London and North Western Railway 1881-84.

Description

Railway overbridge, 1845-49, designed by A S Jee for the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway; widened by the London and North Western Railway 1881-84.

MATERIALS: squared coursed quarry-faced gritstone, tooled gritstone, and blue engineering brick.

DESCRIPTION: three-span, segmental arched bridge with a smaller fourth arch built over a cutting, with the northern end obscured by the adjacent embankment. The faces of the arches have tooled keyed voussoirs with projecting key stones, with tooled edges resting on slightly projecting ashlar impost bands. The voussoirs project out slightly from the surfaces of the stone block soffits of the arches. The abutments and the spandrels are built of coursed quarry-faced gritstone. The ends of the three railway arches are supported by projecting vertical-faced buttresses. The stone courses in the spandrels are even in height and rise to a slightly projecting quarry-faced string course, supporting a second ashlar course. The string courses to either side of the bridge, act as the base for the parapet walls, with ashlar coping stones that terminate in rectangular stone piers, which break forward from the face of the bridge. A blocked pedestrian gateway is situated towards the northern end of the north-east parapet wall. A plain bay with inclined string courses and parapet walls, separates the railway arches from the smaller southern arch that matches the appearance of the other arches, but is both lower and narrower, and has an arch soffit of blue engineering bricks. The arch is flanked by vertical faced buttresses supporting rectangular stone piers. It has unequal spandrels beneath inclined string courses, supporting the parapet walls. The southern buttresses are partially obscured by curved and canted wing walls, with flat ashlar coping stones terminating in low stone newel posts with capstones.

History

In contrast to the main trunk lines of the late 1830s that were constructed by single railway companies the route from Stalybridge to Leeds had fragmented origins and was the work of three different railway companies: the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway, Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway, and the Manchester & Leeds Railway.

The Huddersfield & Manchester Railway was authorised in 1845 and followed the route of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal for much of its length, including a railway tunnel through the Pennine hills set alongside the earlier Standedge Canal Company tunnel of 1811; in 1846 the railway company also acquired the canal. Joseph Locke and Alfred Stanistreet Jee were appointed to survey and design the new line, the two engineers having already worked together on a major project linking Manchester and Sheffield. Jee became the lead engineer for the Huddersfield line, which passed through challenging terrain, assisted by resident engineers that included his brother Moreland Jee (until 1848) and Herbert F Mackworth. Construction of the line was divided into various contracts, with many contractors being only responsible for a single cutting, viaduct or tunnel portal. The largest contract for the Standedge Tunnel between Diggle and Marsden was let to a single contractor, Thomas Nicholson in 1847. The tunnel's completion in 1849 marked the opening of the line.

The Leeds end of the route, which was also authorised in 1845, was constructed by the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway. The engineer was Thomas Grainger who had previously largely worked in Scotland, and the line was completed in 1849.

A short three-mile section of the route between Heaton Lodge Junction and Thornhill Junction near Mirfield was developed by the Manchester & Leeds Railway and was constructed between 1837 to 1840, with George Stephenson as the chief engineer. The structures on this line were designed by Thomas Gooch under the oversight of Stephenson. In 1847 the railway company changed its name to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.

In 1847 the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway and the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway were acquired by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) so that the company could access the city of Leeds and the textile towns of West Yorkshire. This pitted them as rivals to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, although at points on the route the two companies had to work together. By 1851 the London & North Western Railway had an overall mileage of railway track of 800 miles and it became the most prominent railway company in the country and the largest joint-stock concern in the world in the late C19. Although the LNWR had a general manager, Captain Mark Huish, the lines of the Stalybridge to Leeds route still managed their own affairs. LNWR later carried out expansion works, including the widening of tracks and bridges, the construction of additional tunnels, and station alterations. In 1923 the line became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway, and subsequently part of the nationalised British Railways in 1948. The line, its structures and track are currently (2018) owned by Network Rail, and the passenger services operated by TransPennine Express and Northern Rail.

Colne Bridge is thought to have been originally built as a double-span overbridge to carry the Kirk Heaton to Bradley Road (B1668) over the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway, using a northern continuation of the embankment from the adjacent Sir John Ramsden's Canal Bridge No 3. The bridge was then believed to have been extended to a three-span length with an additional subsidiary southern span, by the LNWR between 1881 and 1884, allowing it to cross four railway tracks and a path. It is difficult to determine whether this is the case, as the bridge has the appearance of having been built in one phase.

Reasons for Listing

Colne Bridge (B1168 Bridge Road) MVL3/107 of 1845-49, by Alfred Stanistreet Jee for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* an original 1840s overbridge constructed during the heroic age of railway building on what is now one of the main railway lines in northern England;
* designed by the noted railway engineer Alfred Stanistreet Jee.

Architectural interest:

* a triple-span segmental arch bridge with a fourth subsidiary arch, demonstrating a high level of craftsmanship in its construction, detailing, and dressing;
* if the bridge has been lengthened, this has been undertaken sympathetically with little impact to its visual character.

Group value:

* with the other listed structures designed by Jee on the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway line.

External Links

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