Railway accommodation underbridge MVL3/29, Wickens, Uppermill, Oldham

Summary

Accommodation underbridge for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway. Mid-late 1840s by A S Jee.

Description

Accommodation underbridge for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway. Mid-late 1840s by A S Jee.

MATERIALS: rock-faced and ashlar sandstone (shale grit/Kinderscout grit/millstone grit).

DESCRIPTION: the accommodation bridge carries the two-track railway line over a footpath which slopes down to the south. The bridge has deep, segmental arches with v-jointed voussoirs of picked ashlar with tooled margins and slightly projecting, taller keystones with diagonal tooling. They spring from a similarly detailed, ashlar impost band. The bridge abutments and spandrels are of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks and the bridge soffit is of smaller, coursed, ashlar blocks. The ashlar parapets have a slightly projecting, square-moulded band with deeper panels above. The raked and splayed wing walls terminate in slightly projecting, rectangular piers and are of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks with square-moulded ashlar coping.

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 and 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.

This underbridge accommodates a track beneath the railway line. It was designed by A S Jee and dates to the construction of the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway between 1845 and 1849 (the railway line is shown on the first edition 1:10,560 OS map surveyed between 1849 and 1851 and published in 1854.)

Reasons for Listing

The accommodation underbridge MVL3/29, Wickens, constructed in the mid-late 1840s by A S Jee for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* constructed during the heroic age of railway building and a little altered example of an 1840s accommodation underbridge on what is now one of the main railway lines in northern England;

* designed by the notable railway engineer Alfred Stanistreet Jee.

Architectural interest:

* as a well-designed bridge, with good quality stone masonry and attention to architectural detail in its use of picked and tooled, v-jointed voussoirs with larger keystones, ashlar impost bands, parapets, coping and soffit and contrasting rock-faced stonework of the spandrels, abutments and raked and splayed wing walls which all lift it above the purely functional.

Group value:

* architecturally inter-related with the other listed structures designed by A S Jee on the Huddersfield & Manchester line.

External Links

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