BARNOLDSWICK AND THE RAILWAYS

[Stanley]

BARNOLDSWICK AND THE RAILWAYS

An extract from Chapter 1 of ‘The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’ by R W Rush. Published 1949; The Railway World.

Historical Survey

As far back as 1825, it was first suggested that the two important cities of Manchester and Leeds should be linked by a railway. They had, and still have, much in common, being the chief textile centres of the two counties, the former mainly in cotton goods, and the latter in wool, and the merchants of both cities had frequent business with one another. However, this early' scheme, though a public company was formed, unfortunately came to nothing, as at that time it was considered that the difficult route through the Pennines was unsuitable for a railway. Five years later, October 1830, the project was again brought forward, and a route by way of Rochdale and the Todmorden Valley was surveyed by George Stephenson. A Bill was introduced to authorise the construction, but meeting with violent opposition from the proprietors of the Rochdale canal and several other companies, the proposal was heavily defeated. The promoters were not beaten however and at a meeting held in Manchester Town Hall on 28th January, 1836, a resolution was passed urging the necessity of linking Manchester and Leeds by rail, appointing George Stephenson again as engineer, and plans were deposited in Parliament for the coming season. " Third time lucky" proved a good proverb, for after strenuous opposition, the Bill for construction was passed.

Operations began on 18th August, 1837, with the cutting of the first sod near Manchester, and within two years the section from Manchester to the southern mouth of Summit Tunnel, just beyond Littleborough, was completed. Stephenson himself said afterwards that the line was the greatest piece of railway engineering which had been accomplished to that date, owing to the extreme difficulty of the route. Through the greatest difficulty of them all, Summit Tunnel, 2,885 yards long, the line could not be got into working order throughout until March, 1841, but was opened in sections. From Hebden Bridge, six miles on the eastern side of Todmorden, the line onwards to Leeds was tolerably easy, and construction was pushed ahead so that Hebden Bridge was linked with Leeds on 5th October, 1840. From Normanton, the approach to Leeds was by way of Methley, by running powers granted over the North Midland Railway. Three months later, the section from the northern portal of Summit Tunnel to Hebden Bridge was complete, and finally when the two boring parties met in the middle of the tunnel after nearly four years hard work through solid rock, Manchester was linked with Leeds. The tunnel nearly proved the Waterloo of the undertaking., underground springs and soft patches greatly encumbered the working parties, and on several occasions the headings were flooded, but by dint of strenuous pumping, and the lining of the tunnel throughout by bricks - it is said that nearly 23 million bricks were needed - the engineers triumphed over nature, and the way was clear. Summit caused anxiety from time to time through the pressure of underground water, and had the reputation of being extremely wet, but in recent years it has been entirely relined, and is equal to any forces Mother Nature can pit against it.

An idea of the difficulties to be surmounted can be obtained from a glance at the map. The Pennines are here at their ruggedest and bleakest, and the valleys are narrow and for the most part steep. Between Manchester and Leeds no less than 11 tunnels, 22 viaducts totalling in all 214 arches, and 134 bridges had to he constructed. The total amount of tunnelling amounted to 5,432 yards, of which Summit accounted for just over half.

The Manchester terminus was in Oldham Road, whence the line passed through Rochdale into the watershed beyond Littleborough, and so into the head of the Todmorden Valley, a three-armed narrow defile in the midst of which stands the town of Todmorden, half in Lancashire and half in Yorkshire. The north-westerly arm of the valley climbs towards Burnley, and the eastern arm, through which the Manchester and Leeds Railway ran, broadens out after Hebden Bridge, with smaller side valleys branching off. In most of these side valleys are the important towns of the West Riding-Halifax, Dewsbury, Bradford, Huddersfield, and others-all of which were gradually connected by branches. Wakefield, the county town of the West Riding was reached, and thence by way of Normanton, Leeds was approached from the south. east, a somewhat circuitous route. A rather ornate type of station characterised the route; at the time some wag humorously dubbed them "Elizabethan villas," but in spite of it all, they were much cheaper to construct than most of those on other railways of the period.

……. Other smaller companies were authorised and under construction about this time, the most important being the Liverpool & Bury, which constructed a line from the former city through Wigan and Bolton, to Bury. The West Riding Union Railway, incorporated in 1846 for the building of certain branches in Yorkshire was also under construction, and in August 1846, all these lines were amalgamated under the title of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.

Another sources of traffic into and out of Manchester was the Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway, authorised in 1844 to construct a line from a junction with the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Railway at Clifton through Radcliffe, Bury and Ramsbottom to a terminus at Rawtenstall, in the midst of the Rossendale Valley. Further Acts passed in 1845/46 enabled the company to extend the line from Rawtenstall to Bacup, and to build a line diverging at Ramsbottom up the western side of the valley through Haslingden to Accrington, where it forked, the western branch proceeding five miles further to join at Blackburn with another company also in the construction stage-the Blackburn and Preston Railway. The eastern branch continued from Accrington to Burnley and Colne. The five mile Bacup extension entailed several short tunnels, and passed through a narrow precipitous gorge at Cloughfold, in which there was barely room for road, railway and river side by side. With two short tunnels near Ramsbottom, and the longest of them all-467 yards-entering Blackburn, the routes chosen were far from easy. By far the most difficult section was that from Stubbins Junction (Ramsbottom), to Accrington, which climbs steadily from its commencement for 5,3 miles at 1 in 65-100 to the summit at Baxenden, then drops for 21 miles at 1 in 38-40 to Accrington, where the station was built on a very sharp curve. Thence onwards to Burnley and Colne, the line was easy. This line in modern times has been immortalised by the heroic feats of the Aspinall 2-4-2 tank engines on such important expresses as the 4.25 Salford to Colne business train, covering the 27 miles from Salford to Burnley non-stop in 45 minutes, surely one of the hardest tasks ever assigned to a tank engine over such mountainous grades. [SG note: This train was the one favoured by the Manchester Men coming back from their day on the Cotton Exchange. It is a good indication of how many travelled daily from the Colne area as it was a through service.]


THE BARNOLDSWICK BRANCH.

Extract from ‘The Midland Railway North of Leeds’ by Peter E Baughan; published 1955 by David and Charles.


Finally, of the schemes absorbed in the 189os, we come to the Barnoldswick Railway. This had been authorised as far back as 1867 to make a line about 2 miles in length from the Leeds & Bradford Extension just south of Earby. It had been opened for traffic on February 8, 1871, and the Midland had worked the line from the beginning. In March, 1898, the Barnoldswick company asked the Midland if it would buy. As the line was trouble-free and regularly paid out a reasonable if fluctuating dividend -on June 30, 1897, it was 5 per cent.-the Midland agreed and the necessary powers were obtained in 1899. These three small additions then, the Guisley Yeadon & Rawdon, the Y.D.R., and the Barnoldswick, together with the new Heysham line shortly to be in service, completed the build up of the Midland system north of Leeds.

Finally, on November 16, 1922 the traffic committee authorized the fitting of steam heating apparatus in the nine carriages and two engines working the Barnoldswick branch service, nearly twenty years after the main line coaches had been so fitted and barely a month before the Midland ceased to exist.