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Description: Railway Bridge with wall to west and coal drops to east

Address: Former Coal Drops Station Road Sowerby Bridge Calderdale

Grade: II

Group detail: Station Road (north side)

Full description:
Railway bridge with attached wall and coal drops. Probably c1875. Built for Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Rock-faced stone; timber and iron to coal drops. Bridge carrying railway over road has long retaining wall on left and 15-bay coal drops to right. Bridge: rusticated round arch, the voussoirs aligned to courses; flanked by flat piers, that to left narrower; ashlar band below parapet with flat ashlar coping. Retaining wall, sloping down to ground level on left: ashlar band below parapet which on right is of rock-faced stone but otherwise of thinly-coursed stone; rubble coping. Coal drops: bays divided by stone piers with taller, quoined, tapered end piers which have ashlar bands and chamfered capstones. The top third of each bay has a board retaining wall; the middle third paired coal shutes with iron spouts (some removed), shutters and winding gear. The drops are set under the railway track and coal would have been dropped into them from trucks on the line above. The coal drops are an impressive and extremely well preserved example of the type. The Manchester to Leeds railway line was constructed c1840, engineered by George Stephenson. The bridge may date from that time, but is probably more likely to be associated with the provision of extra sidings and track in the 1860's and '70s (the viaduct over Town Hall Street/West Street was widened in 1862; the station moved to its present site near the coal drops in 1876. Sowerby Bridge, p25. Sowerby Bridge Chamber of Trade and Commerce Official Tourist Guide.