Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

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Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 162,258 pages of information and 244,500 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Difference between revisions of "Roch Aqueduct, near Littleborough"

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Geograph entry [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2135528 here].
Geograph entry [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2135528 here].
1839 'OPENING OF A PORTION OF THE LEEDS AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. The works on a portion of this line, namely, from Manchester to Littleborough, being now wholly completed, the directors determined on opening that part of the line to the public on Thursday last; and arrangements were made for having an experimental trip on the preceding day, when the directors invited a large number of their friends and the shareholders to accompany them this interesting occasion. ..... The trains were stopped at a part of the line where the Roach is carried across it by an aqueduct, at a height of about forty feet. The river has here been considerably diverted, and has been made to flow nearer the place where the workmen are engaged tunnelling, for the convenience of having a ready supply of water. The company having alighted, proceeded to examine the works, at the tunnel, which are proceeding with all possible dispatch. To give our readers some idea of the enormous extent of this undertaking, we may state that the tunnel itself will be upwards of 2,800 yards, or about a mile and two-thirds in depth. A great number of workmen are employed; the work being continued night and day, the men take it in shifts of ten hours each. In some of the shafts, twelve or fourteen men are engaged, in others a greater number.'<ref>Leeds Times, 6 July 1839 </ref>


1852 'BURSTING OF AN AQUEDUCT. On Sunday morning an aqueduct, which carries the river Roch across the front of the Littleborough tunnel of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, immediately over the line, burst, owing to the great accumulation of water from rain during the night, and inundated the line, so as to prevent several of the morning trains from passing along it. Mr. Hall, the superintendent at Manchester, and other officers belonging to the company, proceeded to the spot immediately on receiving information of the accident by telegraph, and found a deep cutting of the line there concerted into a watercourse. Fortunately, the tunnel having a rising gradient under the hills into Yorkshire, the water took an opposite direction, and the damage was easily repaired. Mr. Hall ordered vehicles from Rochdale and other places to be brought to the mouth of the tunnel, and caused the passengers to be taken from the Lancashire trains across the hill to the Yorkshire side, and to bring back the passengers from trains on that side to Lancashire, so that, except for a few hours, the stoppage did not lead to any very serious inconvenience. A great number of excavators were set to work to cut a new channel by the side of the line for the river, and, before night, one line of rail was entirely restored to working order.'<ref>Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 14 February 1852</ref>
1852 'BURSTING OF AN AQUEDUCT. On Sunday morning an aqueduct, which carries the river Roch across the front of the Littleborough tunnel of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, immediately over the line, burst, owing to the great accumulation of water from rain during the night, and inundated the line, so as to prevent several of the morning trains from passing along it. Mr. Hall, the superintendent at Manchester, and other officers belonging to the company, proceeded to the spot immediately on receiving information of the accident by telegraph, and found a deep cutting of the line there concerted into a watercourse. Fortunately, the tunnel having a rising gradient under the hills into Yorkshire, the water took an opposite direction, and the damage was easily repaired. Mr. Hall ordered vehicles from Rochdale and other places to be brought to the mouth of the tunnel, and caused the passengers to be taken from the Lancashire trains across the hill to the Yorkshire side, and to bring back the passengers from trains on that side to Lancashire, so that, except for a few hours, the stoppage did not lead to any very serious inconvenience. A great number of excavators were set to work to cut a new channel by the side of the line for the river, and, before night, one line of rail was entirely restored to working order.'<ref>Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 14 February 1852</ref>

Revision as of 17:44, 31 December 2021

at Summit, near Littleborough, Lancashire

Also known as Rock Nook Aqueduct.

c.1839 for Manchester Leeds Railway Co. Engineer G Stephenson. Rock-faced stone with cast-iron side walls. The aqueduct adopts an s-shaped curve on plan, a skew segmental arch spanning the railway. Trough has a stone base and prefabricated side walls in 1.5 m (approx) sections which are bolted together.

Historic England Grade II listing entry here.

Geograph entry here.

1839 'OPENING OF A PORTION OF THE LEEDS AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. The works on a portion of this line, namely, from Manchester to Littleborough, being now wholly completed, the directors determined on opening that part of the line to the public on Thursday last; and arrangements were made for having an experimental trip on the preceding day, when the directors invited a large number of their friends and the shareholders to accompany them this interesting occasion. ..... The trains were stopped at a part of the line where the Roach is carried across it by an aqueduct, at a height of about forty feet. The river has here been considerably diverted, and has been made to flow nearer the place where the workmen are engaged tunnelling, for the convenience of having a ready supply of water. The company having alighted, proceeded to examine the works, at the tunnel, which are proceeding with all possible dispatch. To give our readers some idea of the enormous extent of this undertaking, we may state that the tunnel itself will be upwards of 2,800 yards, or about a mile and two-thirds in depth. A great number of workmen are employed; the work being continued night and day, the men take it in shifts of ten hours each. In some of the shafts, twelve or fourteen men are engaged, in others a greater number.'[1]

1852 'BURSTING OF AN AQUEDUCT. On Sunday morning an aqueduct, which carries the river Roch across the front of the Littleborough tunnel of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, immediately over the line, burst, owing to the great accumulation of water from rain during the night, and inundated the line, so as to prevent several of the morning trains from passing along it. Mr. Hall, the superintendent at Manchester, and other officers belonging to the company, proceeded to the spot immediately on receiving information of the accident by telegraph, and found a deep cutting of the line there concerted into a watercourse. Fortunately, the tunnel having a rising gradient under the hills into Yorkshire, the water took an opposite direction, and the damage was easily repaired. Mr. Hall ordered vehicles from Rochdale and other places to be brought to the mouth of the tunnel, and caused the passengers to be taken from the Lancashire trains across the hill to the Yorkshire side, and to bring back the passengers from trains on that side to Lancashire, so that, except for a few hours, the stoppage did not lead to any very serious inconvenience. A great number of excavators were set to work to cut a new channel by the side of the line for the river, and, before night, one line of rail was entirely restored to working order.'[2]


See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. Leeds Times, 6 July 1839
  2. Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 14 February 1852