Bosley Railway Bridge - Bosley, UK - Railroad Bridges on Waymarking.com

The Macclesfield Canal was the last narrow canal to be built in the UK and was completed in 1831. Engineer Thomas Telford designed the canal with all its twelve locks in a short distance, only 1¼ miles, so as to improve efficiency of operation and maintenance.

"The Churnet Valley Line was one of the three original routes planned and built by the North Staffordshire Railway. Authorised in 1846, the line opened in 1849 and ran from North Rode in Cheshire to Uttoxeter in East Staffordshire. The line was closed in several stages between 1964 and 1988 but part of the central section passed into the hands of a preservation society and today operates as the Churnet Valley Railway.

The tender for construction of the line was let in 1847 to J & S Tredwell for a price of £330,218. Construction began in September 1847 and in November 1847 a champagne party was held 40 feet (12.2 m) underground to celebrate the laying of the first brick in Nab Hill tunnel near Leek. Work on the section south of Leek involved diverting the River Churnet at Consall and also one of the first instance of a canal being converted into a railway with closure of the Uttoxeter Canal and it being used as the track bed between Froghall and Uttoxeter. The conversion had been made possible by the acquisition of the Trent and Mersey Canal and its subsidiaries, the Caldon Canal and the Uttoxeter Canal, by the NSR as part of the 1846 act. Work on the line was concluded in 1849 and the line of 27 miles 54 chains (44.54 km) opened to both passenger and goods traffic on 13 July 1849.

Following Nationalisation, the line became part of the London Midland Region of British Railways. Passenger services remained fairly consistent with the wartime levels of 5 up trains and 6 down trains a day with additional workmens services between Leek and Uttoxeter. Falling passenger numbers throughout the 1950s led to a proposal in 1959 for the withdrawal of all advertised passenger services between Macclesfield and Uttoxeter and the retention of the non advertised workmens services between Leek and Uttoxeter only. Despite objections the proposal was implemented on 7 November 1960. This did not stem the financial losses on the line, and the entire line between Leek and North Rode closed in June 1964. At the same time local goods facilities were withdrawn at all other stations except Leek[18] followed in January 1965 by the withdrawal of the workmens services over the south section between Leek and Uttoxeter and the closure of the line south of Oakamoor.

This left the line with public goods services from Leek to Stoke and bulk sand traffic from Oakamoor. The Leek services lasted until 1970 when the line between Leek and Leekbrook Junction closed but the Oakamoor sand traffic continued until 1988." Details extracted from this Wikipedia page.

Bridge Type: Girder Bridge Usage: Abandoned/Not Active Moving Bridge: This bridge is static (has no moving pieces)

Visit Instructions:
Please provide a photo taken at the time of visit.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   06/21/2019 Poole/Freeman visited it 06/21/2019 Mike_bjm visited it

View all visits/logs