Roch Aqueduct, near Littleborough
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.
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.'[1]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 14 February 1852