Railway underbridge MDL1/10, Thornhill Lane, Dewsbury, Kirklees

Summary

Largely unaltered masonry railway accommodation underbridge designed by Thomas Grainger and built 1845-1847 for the Leeds, Dewsbury and Manchester Railway.

Description

Railway accommodation underbridge, 1845-1847 by Thomas Grainger for the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway.

MATERIALS: Pennine Lower Coal Measures Sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: single carriageway arch flanked by deeply curving, raked wing walls retaining the embankments. The arch is semi-circular, formed with rusticated, V-jointed voussoirs that spring from impost bands. The rest of the walling is of coursed, squared, quarry-faced masonry. The bridge is topped by an ashlar string course and a ramped blocking course without parapets. The wing walls are ramped, terminating with simple pilaster-strips, and are capped with plain, squared ashlar copings. The trackside fencing and the metal gate for the archway are modern.

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.

Thornhill Lane accommodation underbridge, which remains largely unaltered, was built as part of the original construction of the line from 1845 to 1847 to allow access beneath a raised section of the line to a pair of cottages and fields to the east. The civil engineer for the railway line, believed to have been the designer of the bridge, Thomas Grainger (1794-1852), had been a leading advocate and designer of early railways in Scotland from 1823 onwards, but worked on a number of Yorkshire railways in the 1840s until his death following a railway accident in 1852.

Reasons for Listing

Thornhill Lane Bridge (MDL1/10), constructed in the mid-1840s by Thomas Grainger for the Leeds, Dewsbury & 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 Scottish railway engineer Thomas Grainger.

Architectural interest:

* although a simple, small accommodation bridge, the use of rusticated voussoirs, impost bands and a moulded ashlar string course lift its design above the purely functional.

External Links

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