West Midlands
VICTORIA STATION BRIDGE Manchester 1844 & 1909 N53o 29’ 9.8” W2o 14’ 44.o”
The station was built in 1844 by George Stephenson and completed by John Brogden. It was enlarged by William Dawson in 1909. The viaduct must have been built in Stephenson’s day, but was probably redone by Dawson.
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Manchester Area
STALYBRIDGE AQUEDUCT (Also known as the Stakes Aqueduct) 1801 SJ954 982 N53o 28' 52.1" W2o 4' 14.0"
Walking along the Huddersfield Narrow Boat Canal at Stalybridge in what is now a heavily industrial area of Manchester, one would hardly notice this pioneering aqueduct. It was the recommendation of Benjamin Outram that an iron trough should be used to replace a damaged masory aqueduct. His aqueduct was completed the same year that Thomas Telford was also using cast iron plates to line his Chirk Aqueduct carrying the Ellesmere Canal over the River Ceiriog. The iron work was likely provided by the Butterley Works. The trough still carries the canal over the River Tame 200 plus years later.
This is a very tricky place to find as it is buried far from a street in the midst of the St. Paul's Trading Estate. Pick up the tow path at Peel Street and follow it in a north westerly direction towards the River Tame. This is where a GPS on "pedestrian mode" is invaluable.
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- Category: Manchester Area
NANTWICH AQUEDUCT nr. Crew, Cheshire 1830 Thomas Telford HEW 497 SJ642 526 N53o 4' 9.3" W2o 32' 7.6"
This aqueduct is one of a trio of similar cast iron trough aqueducts that Telford designed for three different canals: this one on the Ellesmere Canal, the nearby one at Congleton and the Stretton Aqueduct. He used six foot square flanged iron plates bolted together to create the trough which spans 29 l/2 feet and provides a 13 foot wide channel. This, like its sibling Telford aqueducts, is provided with bold masonry abutments making double graceful, sweeping curves on both facades that perfectly complement the simple iron box and give it drama. The crisp, simple cast iron railings tie the two materials together.
This aqueduct spans the A534 Nantwich-Chester road on the west side of town.
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Manchester Area
HAZELHURST JUNCTION BRIDGE 1801 James Brindley Caldon Canal and Leek Branch N53o 4' 52" W2o 4' 46.3"
James Brindley (1716-1772) trained as a millwright but was soon recognized for his engineering skills especially with steam engines. He surveyed and laid out the first commercial English canal for the Duke of Bridgewater in 1765. To save time and money, he laid out his canals along contour lines which avoided tunneling and making cuts but which also made them very curvey and lengthy. He invented the narrow lock with a single upper gate and double lower gates in the dimension of seven feet six inches in width and six feet seven inches in length which set the design of canals and locks and the 'narrow boat' for generations. He also invented puddle clay to seal the canal bed. It was his vision to link the four great rivers of England with canals: a project eventually carried out by his successor civil engineers.
Brindley lived most of his life in Leek. There is little documentation about this charming roving bridge Number 35 where the Leek Branch splits off from the Caldon Canal and doubles back on itself to cross the Caldon Canal on the bold painted brick aqueduct just east of the junction. The Leek Branch was completed in 1801 by Brindley's son-in-law. However, the Hazelhurst Junction was given new locks in 1841 so it is hard to date the iron bridge. Note the whimsical curves on the ends of the fence around the pool and the circle motif in the supports for the lock foot bridge.
To find the junction, take Denford Road off A53 (there is a boarded up pub on the corner at this time). Immediately after the second hump-back brick road bridge, turn right into the Hollybush Inn parking lot and start walking the tow path past the front of the Inn for about ten minutes. You will come to the arched brick aqueduct which carries the branch canal over the main canal, but continue on five more minutes to the head of the junction.
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Manchester Area
GALTON BRIDGE 1829 Smethwick Thomas Telford HEW 1197 SP029 890 N52o 30' 7.1" W1o 58' 44.9"
The original Birmingham Canal was laid out by James Brinkley in the 1770's following the contour lines to maintain the level which resulted in a very lengthy canal. ThomasTelford was commissioned in the 1820's to make improvements. This bridge crosses a deep cutting he made which lowered the Birmingham Canal level and eliminated six summit locks.
The design of the iron work is very similar to Telford's Holt Fleet Bridge and his Mythe Bridge. However, Telford always shows originality and flare in the design of the masonry abutments of his bridges (having apprenticed as a lad with a mason). The masonry of all three of these bridges is unique to that bridge, so that a casual observer would not notice the similarity of the iron work. A single cast iron arch has a 150 foot span. There are six arch ribs, each made up of seven segments of diagonally intersecting ribs. The bottom chord of each rib is accentuated with a band of different diamond pattern similar to that of the foot bridges for the Birmimgham Canal he also designed. They were all cast by the Horseley Iron Works.
The Galton Bridge is now adjacent to a handsome, simple arch viaduct of blue Staffordshire brick and the train station is beside the north end of the bridge.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
ENGINE ARM AQUEDUCT 1827-30 Thomas Telford HEW 492 SP024 888 N56o 29' 53.4" W1o 57' 59.1"
James Brinkley's and John Smearton's original 18th century canal followed the contour line to maintain its level. Thomas Telford laid out a new, shorter line for the Birmingham Canal in the late 1820's which bypassed some of the loops of the old canal but which also involved more locks and more cuts. Canals need to be replenished at their summit to maintain their water level. This aqueduct carries water from the Rotton Park Reservoir (now called the Edgbaston Resevoir) at the top of the Smethwick lock flight twenty feet above the Birmingham Canal’s later and lower level as part of Telford's improvements to this waterway. The Smethwick Engine of its name pumped water from the lower new canal level back up to the summit.
The ironwork was cast by the Horseley Company. The cast iron trough is supported on a single arch of 52 foot span with five ribs with the tow paths supported by cast iron arcades decorated with gothic designs. The bridge spandrels, similar to Telford bridges at are braced with radial ribs. The rhomboidal openings in the spandrels create an optical illusion that they are curved which gives the bridge both an airy and a bold posture. Telford used this design for the spandrels of other bridges: Meole Brace Bridge 1813, Cound II 1818, Stokesay Bridge 1823, Cantlop Bridge 1812 and Atcham Bridge 1818 of which only Cantlop Bridge has avoided dismantling.
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
DUDLEY PORT AREA BRIDGES Birmingham Canal Navigation “Horseley Iron Co.1855’
Improvements made to the Birmingham Canal Navigation system in the mid 19th century included a number of branches including the Gower Branch at Tividale, and the Bradeshall Branch and the Toll End Branch all around the Dudley Port area. At each junction there is one or more Horseley Company iron foot bridges of the type originally designed by Thomas Telford for his improvements to that canal system in the late 1820's in the Birmingham neighborhood. This design, cast by the Horseley Company of Tipton, was used throughout the canal systems that Telford worked on and after his death the Horseley Company continued to cast them for subsequent canal improvements and expansion. The 1820's bridges have more elaborate cut-out details in their parapets than the later ones as here which have a simplified XXX detail. The exception is the very plain bridge at Gower Junction (the southern end of the Bladeshall Branch which is of a later date.
These are 'roving bridges' which allow a pedestrian or the horse towing the canal boat to cross over to the other side of the canal. The parapet is low, as are the smoothly rounded wings of the approach ramps for ease in sliding over the tow rope. You can still see the diamond pattern of the raised iron ribbing which would have held in place the dirt or turf that once covered the bridge decking and gave the horse's hooves some purchase. Today, they are filled in with tarmac for the convenience of joggers and bicyclists.
The branch bridges are difficult to get to because on the north side, the railway tracks prevent access to the canal. On the A461 between Dudley Port and Great Bridge, take the first road to the west (not well marked), after going under the train viaduct and the canal aqueduct. Several hundred yards ahead, there is a small dirt road to your right going down to the canal. Further along A461, another right turn is Tipton Road/Dudley Road East that goes along the south end of the grid of branch canals. Prepare to do some long hikes along the towpaths.
- Dudley Port Junction N52o 31’ 19.7 W2o 2’ 36.4”
- Tame Valley Junction N51o 48’ 17.1” W0o 3’ 24”
- Dudley Port Branch Aqueduct N52o 31’ 26.1” W2o 2’ 54.4”
- Brades Hall Junction N52o 31’ 3.9” W2o 1’ 45.7”
- Gower Junction N52o 30’ 36.6” W2o 1’ 59.6”
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
BROWNHILLS AQUEDUCT 1850 HEW 283 SK053 064 N52o 30' 20" W1o 55' 25.8"
This aqueduct which still carries the Anglesey Branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal over the now abandoned Walsall- Lichfield RR has a twin nearby, the Birchills/Keamore Aqueduct. They were built by Fosters & Company Engineers of Wednesbury. In spite of encroaching greenery and creative graffiti on the plain tall iron parapets on the canal level, from below the aqueduct retains its 19th century bold iron work supported by abutment towers and a central column of blue Staffordshire brick. There is nice detailing on the outside of the parapets. A screening arch has an XX detail in the spandrels. Stiffening fins along the bottom of the trough are masked by a very shallow arch on the outside panels.
The top of the aqueduct with the canal is to the west of a very busy intersection of A5 (Watling Street) and B5011 (Chase Street) A path from Chase street leads right to it. To see the underside is not easy and one has to slide down a steep incline of brambles and weeds off the side of A5 or walk through the tunnel that took the tracks under the big intersection and wend one's way through the weeds growing in the old track right of way.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
BROMFORD JUNCTION BRIDGES 1829 N52o 30' 26" W2o 0' 17.2"
This pair of elegant bridges on the Birmingham Canal Navigation lies within a maze of motorways but appears to be in the deep country. They are adjacent to the Spon Lane Locks. Getting to them by the canal tow path involves walking under the M5 motorway and through many slick mud puddles as the seepage from the embankments of the motorway trickles down into the canal across the path. However this little oasis in the urban jungle is popular with bicyclists and fishermen.
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area
BIRMINGHAM CANAL NAVIGATION HORSELEY BRIDGES 1828-29 N52o 29' 50.01" and N52o 29' 7.7"
Thomas Telford was commissioned to improve James Brindley's 1770's Birmingham Canal which had been built following the contour lines for ease of construction and fewer locks. Telford shortened the length of the canal by cutting off some loops of the original route and adding locks in the cuttings. In doing so, he needed to bridge the resulting junctions as well as take the tow path over new locks supply outflows which maintained the water level. He designed a basic canal bridge for the new junctions which the Horseley Iron Works cast for him. Two examples occur on the south side of the canal between Rabone Junction (aka Smethwick Junction) and the Engine Arm Aqueduct on the lower level new canal branch.
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- Category: Wolverton & Birmingham Metropolitan Area