Railway underbridge MDL1/24, Jack Lane, Batley, Kirklees

Summary

Underbridge for the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway line, mid-1840s, by Thomas Grainger.

Description

Railway underbridge for the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway line. Mid-1840s by Thomas Grainger.

MATERIALS: cast-iron, quarry-faced sandstone with ashlar piers.

DESCRIPTION: a shallow arched, cast-iron beam bridge carrying the railway line over Jack Lane, which occupies a deep gully, and hence the abutments and wing walls are substantial structures. The bridge is similarly detailed on both sides. The angled abutments are constructed of rectangular, rusticated stone blocks with a plinth and moulded cornice with demi-acorn finials to the corners. The abutments terminate in square ashlar piers, which rise to track level where there is a moulded cornice, above which are narrower square parapet piers. Attached to the piers are gently curving and angled wing walls with square ashlar coping; they terminate in square piers with shallow pyramidal caps. The south-east wing wall has a later stone wall constructed upon part of it, and the stone coursing of the south-west wing wall continues into a further section of walling with stone bands associated with a second bridge that formally stood here. The bridge has a simple cast-iron balustrade of stick balusters supported on cast-iron fascia beams that spring from a moulded impost band on abutments of quarry-faced local sandstone; each fascia beam is formed by an arched girder with infilled spandrels above, finished with a moulded top flange supporting the iron balustrading above. The re-built track deck has riveted steel beams and transverse joints.

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.

Jack Lane underbridge was designed by Thomas Grainger and dates to the construction of the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway between 1845 and 1847. The bridge is depicted on the first edition 1:10,560 OS map surveyed between 1847 and 1851 and published in 1854. It is linked by stone walling to a second railway bridge that formerly stood to the west. After 1895, the track deck was rebuilt with riveted steel beams and transverse joints.

Thomas Grainger (1794-1852), the civil engineer for the Dewsbury and Manchester Railway, had been a leading advocate and designer of early railways in Scotland from 1823 onwards, working in Yorkshire from the 1840s until his death in 1852 following a railway accident. His design for Jack Lane Bridge can be seen as a relatively early acknowledgement of the inherent weakness of cast-iron level beam bridges: cast-iron being strong in compression, but weak in tension. By forming the underside of the beams as arched girders, even though the arch is very shallow, the additional loading on the bridge from passing trains would compress the arch against the abutments: a standard level beam would flex downwards in the middle, placing the beam into tension. Cast-iron beams were very widely used for early railway bridges, their use dramatically declining for new bridges following the Dee Bridge Disaster of 1847. Although cast-iron continued to be widely used for arched bridges (but generally with more pronounced arches) into the 1870s, subsequent bridge failures such as Inverythan, Aberdeenshire (1882) and Norwood Junction, London (1891) led to the wholesale replacement of cast-iron bridges carrying railway lines, with most of those retained having strengthened or replaced decks.

Reasons for Listing

Jack Lane Bridge (MDL1/24), 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:

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

* designed by the notable Scottish railway engineer Thomas Grainger, who worked extensively in England and Scotland.

Architectural interest:

* a good example of a mid-C19 cast-iron underbridge, that is imposing in scale and displays craftsmanship in its construction and detailing;

* it reflects engineering practice of the time in utilising cast-iron shallow-arched girders, acknowledging the inherent structural problems in constructing cast-iron beam bridges.

Group value:

* with the other listed structures designed by Grainger on the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway line.

External Links

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