Wyvern on Midland Hotel Boundary Wall – Bradford, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 47.734 W 001° 45.068
30U E 582260 N 5961500
A Wyvern is a legendary winged reptilian creature with a dragon’s head, 2 legs and a barbed tail. In this case it is being used as a symbol to represent the Midland Railway Company.
Waymark Code: WMJFEB
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/11/2013
Views: 1
The Midland Hotel, Bradford was built between 1885 and 1890 by the Midland Railway Company. It stood next to a grand railway station built at the same time. A boundary wall connected the railway station and the hotel.
Near to the junction of the wall and the station building was an arch window with this relief carving of the wyverns above the arch.
Due to falling passenger numbers in 1990 the railway line was truncated slightly to west, main station building was demolished and a smaller modern station erected at the end of the line.
When the station was demolished the boundary wall was retained together with this relief carving of the Midland Railway Company.
The Midland Railway company claimed that the Wyvern was a traditional symbol of the ancient kingdom of Wessex, but there is no documentary evidence of this.
The Midland Railway’s version of the Wyvern has no legs, but this is simply because it is lying on them rather than because it does not have any.
Some people have speculated that the Wyvern may have been inspired by sightings of the supposedly extinct dinosaur the Pterosaur. If so it would be a very scary
beast indeed.