The winding-engine house chimney base at Whiston Incline

Summary

The Classical style sandstone base of a chimney, originally for a winding-engine house, of 1829 by George Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Reasons for Designation

The winding-engine house chimney base at Whiston Incline, of 1829, by George Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* it is an original structure on the world’s first intercity passenger railway line, a line whose successful operation proved the potential of locomotive-hauled public railways and changed the face of transport infrastructure;

* it is emblematic of the decision to abandon rope-hauled inclines and use self-propelling engines for entire journeys, prompted by the successful demonstration of the capability of the Rocket locomotive in 1829 on this incline and at the nearby Rainhill Trials.

Architectural interest:

* although a partial survival, it is one of the earliest railway structures in the world;

* its good-quality classical detailing, designed by the pre-eminent railway engineer George Stephenson, far exceeds functional requirements and is typical of the quality of early railway architecture.

History

This chimney served the boiler for a winding-engine house, built at the top of the Whiston incline around 1829, by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), the first intercity passenger railway in the world. George Stephenson had been reappointed as the line’s engineer in 1826 and modified a proposal for horse-hauled inclined planes, to instead use stationary winding engines, as in his design for the Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825).

Trials held at nearby Rainhill and won on 8 October 1829 by Robert Stephenson and Company’s ‘Rocket’, finally demonstrated the viability of using steam locomotives between the inclines. This was a pivotal event in the establishment of modern-style mainline railways. However during breaks in, and after the trials, Rocket also successfully hauled loads of 8 and 12 tons, and a carriage containing 20 to 30 people, up the Whiston incline. This showed that locomotives alone could haul intercity trains.

After Rainhill the company intended to use winding engines to maintain average speed, but early accounts confirm that by the time the railway opened on 15 September 1830 they were not being used (except at the Liverpool station at Crown Street). Instead, assisting locomotives were made available, kept in small buildings at the bottom of the inclines. The Whiston engine house appears to have been repurposed to supply pre-heated water to locomotives. Accounts mention watering taking place at Parkside (then known as Kenyon, where a similar chimney is seen in early illustrations by TT Bury and Isaac Shaw) and at Rainhill, and this is the likely site of the Rainhill facility.

In the late 1960s Stoney Lane was straightened where it crosses the railway, causing the engine house itself to be demolished.

Details

The base of a chimney for a winding engine house, of around 1829, by George Stephenson for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway company.

MATERIALS: sandstone, probably the stone through which the Whiston incline is cut.

DESCRIPTION: the chimney base stands on the bedrock, in the angle between the Stoney Lane over-bridge and the south wall of the cutting, to the east of the bridge.

The base is in the form of a Classical pedestal, square in plan and about 3 metres high. It is of ashlar stonework, with stepped and cyma-recta moulded plinth, dado with recessed panels, cyma-reversa moulded cornice and a short square plinth for the chimneyshaft (all of these vertically tooled). Unusually, all of the external angles are decoratively horizontally-grooved. The upper surface has a circular flue hole of around two feet in diameter. There is (in 2024) some damage with graffiti and vegetation growth.

Sources

Books and journals
Dawson, Anthony, The Rainhill Trials, (2018), 74
Singleton, David, The Liverpool and Manchester Railway: A mile by mile guide to the world`s first "modern" railway, (1976), 45
Walker, James Scott, An Accurate Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, (1831 third edition), 24-32
Taylor, Thomas, A History And Description Of The Liverpool And Manchester Railway, (1832)
Freeling, Arthur, Grand Junction Railway Companion to Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, (1838), 24

Other
Merseyside HER entries MME10048 and MME20890

End of official list entry

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