midleton railway

[juddster]

Hi Guys and GalsSince i was growing up i have always been interested in finding out about about the railway, inparticular the section of line that ran from the A61 Robin Hood to Rothwell castle. i asume that it was part of the midleton railway for the pits, i have never been able to find any info / pics of this area. iI have always wondered what this building was like when i was built. unfortunatley you are unable to see it now for the trees. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en ... =k&z=20Any help would be appriceated .    

[spongebob]

The lines around Rothwell were intended as part of a long distance route by the grandiosely titled East and West Yorkshire Union railway, I don't know where they intended to run to and from but it only got as far as linking the lines at Stourton and near Ardsley depot 5 and a half miles in all! The various colliery branches around Robin Hood were linked to this rather than the Miggy railway. I've got a couple of short references to the line in books either about lost lines or "then and now" sort of things.

[rainone]

Spongebob, are these lines the same as the ones shown on older maps as mineral railways? There is one which runs along the elevated route of the M621 between Stourton and Dewsbury Rd.Found an interseting site giving the history of the roads constructionhttp://www.ukmotorwayarchive.org/Follow the links for the motorway archive and select M621 South Leeds Motorway, then scroll to bottom of page.What I'd be interested to know is what the mineral railway lines did, who owned them, built them etc, i.e. a history of the mineral railways.

[Bramley4woods]

rainone wrote: Spongebob, are these lines the same as the ones shown on older maps as mineral railways? There is one which runs along the elevated route of the M621 between Stourton and Dewsbury Rd.Found an interseting site giving the history of the roads constructionhttp://www.ukmotorwayarchive.org/Follow the links for the motorway archive and select M621 South Leeds Motorway, then scroll to bottom of page.What I'd be interested to know is what the mineral railway lines did, who owned them, built them etc, i.e. a history of the mineral railways. Please refer to this Leodis picture :http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... LAY=FULLTh railway on the embankment entering from the top corner is the freight line from Beeston junction (opposite the White Rose Centre)to Hunslet. This ran alongside Dewsbury Road until the the Beeston Park Ring Road crossed it on an overbridge (still there) went past the Rex Cinema (now demolished) and skirted the back of the Allenby Road Estate to more / less where it appears in this photo at the right hand edge. In it's final days it used to carry coal to the Tingley gas works. I have seen it described as a mineral line but was owned and built to mainline standards by the G.N.R.http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co ... gds.htmThe M621 used the trackbed of the GNR line from Stourton up to the point where it appears on this photo. The bridges over Old Run Road and Bell Isle Road were replaced with wider structures. Once over Old Run Road (visible in this shot) the M621 curved in the opposite direction northwards towards Leeds over a bit of Hunslet Moor passing close to the two tower blocks.The Middleton Railway originally ran down Old Run Road, but by the time the GNR line was built must have been moved west 100m or so because it together with the Middleton Light Railway (Tramway)passed beneath a single bridge to the right, just out of shot in this photo. <Guessing> it could have been moved at that time to save the cost of an extra bridge. 2nd thoughts the Middleton Light Railway wasn't built 'till 1926 so maybe these accomodations weren't just as 100% straightforward as that.The Middleton Railway and the Middleton Light Railway ran parallel to each other about a couple of metres apart up to the GNR bridge.It was this alignment of the Middleton Railway that was moved once again and truncated when the M621 was builtThe Middleton Railway existed to bring coal down from Middleton Broom pit across Hunslet Moor, past Hunslet Station (Coal Staithe there), along side the Midland railway (which was below in a deep cutting), past the Craven Gate pub (Building still there and signed "Railtrack"), across The Midland Railway (Bridge gone now but you can make out where) across Jack lane and down Kidacre Street to Whittaker's Staithe. There was an engine shed in Pottery Fields, it would be stretching the imagination to think that it didn't supply coal to the gas works that stretched between Meadow Lane and Kidacre street, at least at some time.More details of ownership etc can be had by searching Google for Middleton Broom Pit..    

[Barwicker]

There is a very informative booklet (44 pages including some very interesting maps) entitled " East & West Yorkshire Union Railways" by a Mr D L Franks published in 1973 by Turntable Enterprises, Leeds for the princely sum of 55p. I saw a copy recently on a second hand railway book stall at the Normanton Model Railway Exhibition at Pontefract College (I think). I bought a copy a couple of years ago for £3.50!!The line appears to have been promoted by the directors of J & J Charlesworth Ltd who were the largest colliery proprietors in the Rothwell area and the main aim was to gain access to Hull docks via what became the Hull & Barnsley Railway. This would have been achieved by a connection with the latter company in the neighbourhood of Drax. The company had difficulties raising capital and many of its proposals came to nothing.

[spongebob]

rainone wrote: Spongebob, are these lines the same as the ones shown on older maps as mineral railways? There is one which runs along the elevated route of the M621 between Stourton and Dewsbury Rd.Found an interseting site giving the history of the roads constructionhttp://www.ukmotorwayarchive.org/Follow the links for the motorway archive and select M621 South Leeds Motorway, then scroll to bottom of page.What I'd be interested to know is what the mineral railway lines did, who owned them, built them etc, i.e. a history of the mineral railways. I'd have to agree with what Bramley4woods says about that line. In fact if you turn right at the Tommy Wass towards Middleton about 100 yards on is the filled in bridge over that particular line.Intersting motorway site you've found there and there are some construction photo's on Leodis of both the M621 (the original bit and not the former M1 section) and M62 around Tingley to Birstall.As for the mineral lines most were probably just a series of lines linking the dozens of small collieries with the mainline.I suppose it depends how old the maps are you are looking at as to what some will be labelled as. The line through Rothwell lost its passenger services within a very short time of opening but strangely retained the station buildings although the O/S map I'm looking at doesn't show these.

[rainone]

Thanks everyone, it all makes sense now.Havn't been up near the old Rex for years, but I remember the line.The map I was looking at was the 1901 OS (Godfrey Ed). Get from Civic Trust and others.http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/leeds.htmHunslet map.The railway thats now the Middleton Railway is shown as a mineral railway. This line branched at the old Hunslet Lake recreation ground, one branch continued parallel to the Midland Railway towards Leeds. The other branch veeres off to the right along the back of the Arthingtons to join the big railway depot just past Balm Rd. I can see where the motorway ran over the bed of the old GNR line from Stourton to Hunslet Carr, in fact one thing I had never noticed, but confirmes why the rows of terraces called the Parnaby's and the westbury's that you see from the slip road from Stourton onto the M621, look so odd, like they are just hanging there. Half of these rows where demolished to take the road. If you look at the 1901 map, the houses that remain hadn't been built, but where mapped out.Another thing I never knew was that there was a station on the Midland Railway at the end of Moor Rd under the bridge across the line to Hillidge Rd. (If I'm not mistaken this is where they are building the big suspended footbridge at the moment).The things we've lost!

[The Parksider]

For Miggy railway fans the shop at the railway has a full history book worth every single penny I tells ya.Git down there with a few quid!!

[Reginal Perrin]

Barwicker wrote: There is a very informative booklet (44 pages including some very interesting maps) entitled " East & West Yorkshire Union Railways" by a Mr D L Franks published in 1973 by Turntable Enterprises, Leeds for the princely sum of 55p. I saw a copy recently on a second hand railway book stall at the Normanton Model Railway Exhibition at Pontefract College (I think). I bought a copy a couple of years ago for £3.50!!The line appears to have been promoted by the directors of J & J Charlesworth Ltd who were the largest colliery proprietors in the Rothwell area and the main aim was to gain access to Hull docks via what became the Hull & Barnsley Railway. This would have been achieved by a connection with the latter company in the neighbourhood of Drax. The company had difficulties raising capital and many of its proposals came to nothing. I've got this book,. A must for any Rothwell History buff.

[w41tzer]

well judster, looking at the picture as it uploads you are looking at the remains of a triangular junction of the lines corectly stated as being charlsworths to serve their pits, to the right the line went to rothwell station and beyond also spurs to rose pit, just above the castle, to the lower left on to robin hood station over bridge spurred to jane and bye pits now charmingly under modern housing yes even the shaft! or at least definatly one, to the top both aforementioned curved around to a line down past the old hospital under wood lane where a water tank was situated by the line on and around that industrlal formation to a pit at the top of belle hill right beside what is now new M1 link,a line also went straight on on an incline down and under the cinder oven bridge on pontefract?lane and on to a tar/coke works i think prior to reaching the hospital a spur joined the low shops pit at the bottom of what is now a modern cul de sac, the item in the middle of the picture you asked about is i believe a loading dock, its a concrete topped flat item and had a metal rail around one? side, its still there( oct 2010) and remains of barrier, crossing the line at the bottom to slight left of the dock and going up/down was a lattice bridge of typical construction which we used to call the shaking bridge, the book mentioned is indeed excellent with full plans, the line from Rothwell station carried on under the school field over a level crossing (still there in part ) under 4 bridges the 3rd of which spanned approx 40' cutting was built of girders and old sleepers ( as indeed 4th) to serve farmers crossing, line passed fanny pit ( most pits named after charlesworths daughters) to go under new M1 link near jnc 44, look to left coming off here from selby road and you can see it, and hence to mainline,beyond robin hood it went under a bridge near the tetley pub (victoria?) and passed the grammer school on and passed another pit and over to outwood and mainline? just before the victoria pub it also branched of over a lane near carlton under lane and onto the M62 as was, the bridge over the M62 here had a similar height brick railway bridge before with a large painted advert on it,, the line deviates from M62 and becomes the road which ajoins the dual carriageway from jnc33? M62> wakefield,the old testing station area had a spur and a loading dock used to be visible and the spencer and swithens pits had one too on the opposite side, all the pit lines this side are lost due to opencasting and farm land i think although the farm on swithens pit did used to have a pit wash house with china sinks when i sneaked over a long time ago,anyway under the dual carriageway (old road jnc is well above and to your right!) the line picked up another pit, had a line go on to methey with a bridge under the M62 as this pit was still going then and also a spur to staithes on the canal near here,