The Bosley Railway Bridge formerly carried the Churnet Valley line over the Macclesfield Canal between locks 11 and 12.
The line opened on 13 July 1849 and closed on 30 August 1988 after 139 years of operation.
The embankment which formerly carried the line can still be clearly seen on the western side of this bridge over the canal.
'The Churnet Valley Line (1948 – 1989)
As of 1st January 1948, the entire British Railway network was nationalised, and the Churnet Valley came under the jurisdiction of the newly formed London, Midland region (BR(M)) section of British Railways. The railways though were tired from the hardships of the war effort, and savings needed to be made. Competitions from road transport were forcing service reductions, and so British Railways commissioned a study into the inherited network and learning how to make it more profitable.
For the Churnet Valley Line, falling passenger numbers saw the advertised public passenger services withdrawn with a handful of workmen trains surviving for the copper works at Oakamoor and Froghall. The Ashbourne Line lost its passenger services from 1st November 1954 onwards, with Leek to Stoke services being completely withdrawn on 7th May 1956, and then services between Macclesfield and Uttoxeter withdrawn from the 7th November 1960 onwards. The sole passenger service retained along the Churnet Valley Line became the non-advertised workmen’s trains between Leek and Uttoxeter.
Dr Richard Beeching’s report “The Reshaping of British Railways” was published on 27th March 1963, and recommended the closure of over 5000 miles of rail lines and more than 2000 stations in order to reduce overheads and start making a profit. Sadly for the Churnet Valley and its associated branch lines, the majority of the 27-¾ plus miles were included in this.
The Ashbourne Line closed first on 1st June 1964, quickly followed by the North Rode to Leek section on 15th June 1964 that was lifted almost immediately. All local goods facilities were withdrawn as well along both the Churnet Valley & Cauldon lines, except for the facilities at Leek. The withdrawal of all remaining passenger services between Leek and Uttoxeter was to then follow on the 4th January 1965, with Standard 4 4-6-0 no. 75035 becoming the last locomotive to haul a passenger train into Leek from Uttoxeter. The removal of the workmen’s trains also brought about the closure of the line between Oakamoor Sand Quarry and Uttoxter that was to be lifted early in 1966.
The remaining southern section became a single line section in 1968, and goods traffic to Leek ceased in July 1970 with the 1-mile section from Leek to Leek Brook Junction being closed at the same time.
The only section left now was the Leek Brook Junction to Oakamoor quarry, serving the British Industrial Sand Quarry, with the connecting line from Stoke to Leek Brook Junction being left in place to allow these freight trains to get to the West Coast Mainline from the Churnet Valley. The branch to Cauldon quarry was also still active, with limestone traffic continuing to be produced up until February 1989 when the quarry turned to road transport and the line was mothballed as a result. However in 1994 two enthusiast railtours, organised by the Branch Line Society, ran up the Cauldon branch, before the line was returned to its mothballed status with Cauldon Quarry being categorised as a Strategic Freight Site by BR.
The sand traffic from Hepworth’s Sand quarry at Oakamoor saw sand be transported to St Helens in Merseyside for use in glass making, before the quarry was closed on 30th August 1988, which brought an end of commercial services along the Churnet Valley Line after 139 years.' (
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'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 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.' (
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