Railway overbridge MVL3/28, Oldham Road

Summary

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

Reasons for Designation

The overbridge MVL3/28 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 overbridge 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 and crafted stone bridge with attention to architectural detail in the use of a skew-coursed soffit, stepped, picked and tooled ashlar voussoirs with v-joints, ashlar impost band and coping and contrasting rock-faced spandrels, parapets, piers and wing walls, all lifting 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.

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.

Oldham Road bridge dates to the construction of the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway between 1845 and 1849 when A S Jee was the lead engineer (it is depicted and named as Frenches Top Bridge on the first edition 1:10,560 OS map surveyed between 1849 and 1851 and published in 1854). The bridge was constructed to carry Oldham Road over the railway line adjacent to Greenfield Station.

Details

Railway overbridge 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 skew overbridge is located on the north-east side of Greenfield Station and carries Oldham Road over the two-line track below. The bridge has segmental arches with stepped voussoirs and slightly taller keystones. The v-jointed voussoirs are of picked ashlar with tooled margins. They spring from an ashlar impost band with similarly detailed ashlar quoins to the bridge abutments, which are otherwise constructed of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks, as are the spandrels. The bridge soffit is constructed of skew-coursed, rock-faced stone blocks. The bridge arches are framed by slightly projecting piers of rock-faced stone, the rows coursing through to the wing walls, which are continued a considerable distance round the inner curves of the road on each side. The bridge, piers, and wing walls have parapets of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks with square-moulded stone coping and a lower string course of two square-moulded bands. At the west end of the southern parapet is a former opening, now blocked.

Sources

Other
TransPennine Route Statement of History and Significance: West of Leeds V3.1. Prepared for Network Rail, March 2017. Alan Baxter Ltd.

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