The old wagon lifting tower at Wellington Place.

Post by **chameleon** » Tue 26 Jul, 2011 9:56 pm

Leodian wrote: There is a report titled 'Raising a plaque to a piece of railway past' on page 22 of today's YEP. It is about the unveiling "last night" of a blue plaque at the old wagon hoist in Wellington Place. The report also has a little bit of the history of the hoist.I have tried to find if there is an online version of this report but if there is one I have not been able to find it so far. Sometimes these 'minority' issues apear towards the weekend

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 16 May, 2013 11:54 am

Some kind of work going on at the goods lift, this live/time lapse cam is supposed to be recording ithttp://www.mepc.com/wellingtonplace/LiveProgress.aspxI don't know much about what's going on really, I got some random message, I presume from someone connected to the project. I'm guessing they did a flickr search for everyone who has taken photos of the hoist and sent them the link?

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 16 May, 2013 2:52 pm

It's been a sunny day so far and so there is a shadow of the tower that makes an interesting sundial looking at some of the recent images today.

jim · Post by **jim** » Thu 16 May, 2013 7:19 pm

Following Phill's post I took a detour from my usual daily walk to town to have a look at the site. The signage on the protective hoardings to the Whitehall Road side of the site have information and "finished" pics of what is going on. The project is to build a block containing "office and retail space". The Wagon Tower is shown on the views in unaltered condition.In the excavations the foundations of the G.N.R. warehouse are appearing. Being inquisitive I noticed a lady doing obviously archaeological studies and engaged her in conversation. The Wagon Tower is being closely monitored due to its listed status, work will be kept at a distance from the Tower and the uncovered material in the excavations is being recorded. I mentioned my previous memories of the old goods yard from my days working for BR on mechanical equipment within the yard and we exchanged various bits of information. I was invited to return in the future to see what else turns up, and to comment on anything which might appear of which I might have memories.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 16 May, 2013 7:43 pm

The YEP today has a report on page 30 about the development of Wellington Place by the property investor and developer MEPC. I've just done a search and a following link will bring up a section about Wellington Place on the MEPC website. Clicking on the 'Download the Wellington Place brochure (6.7mb)' link on that page will ring up a 30 page document. On page 10 there is an excellent wide area aerial photo of Leeds captioned 'West End taken in 1962' and also a small photo/illustration of the lifting tower captioned 'Tower Square'. This is the main link:- http://www.mepc.com/wellingtonplace/Wel ... Place.aspx

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Thu 16 May, 2013 7:46 pm

jim wrote: Following Phill's post I took a detour from my usual daily walk to town to have a look at the site. The signage on the protective hoardings to the Whitehall Road side of the site have information and "finished" pics of what is going on. The project is to build a block containing "office and retail space". The Wagon Tower is shown on the views in unaltered condition.In the excavations the foundations of the G.N.R. warehouse are appearing. Being inquisitive I noticed a lady doing obviously archaeological studies and engaged her in conversation. The Wagon Tower is being closely monitored due to its listed status, work will be kept at a distance from the Tower and the uncovered material in the excavations is being recorded. I mentioned my previous memories of the old goods yard from my days working for BR on mechanical equipment within the yard and we exchanged various bits of information. I was invited to return in the future to see what else turns up, and to comment on anything l which might appear of which I might have memories. Well done jim I am sure you will be a great help to them with your knowledge of BR.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Thu 16 May, 2013 7:47 pm

Favouring my 1960's 'scorched earth' upbringing, I'd demolish it.

jim · Post by **jim** » Thu 16 May, 2013 9:59 pm

Puzzling picture Jogon. Is that a selection from your packed lunch? As an afterthought you could do a what and where "find the listed building" competition.

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri 17 May, 2013 7:20 pm

Took another look at the work site today.Clear ground plan of the outer end of the GNR goods warehouse emerging, with some unusual features not yet understood. Definite evidence of a cellar I had not known about previously. Best find - a set of water hydraulic pipes sticking out of the ground after being rooted up, complete with flanges and other joints. They must have run down the shed alongside the internal rail tracks. In the "Hydraulic Accumulators" thread in SL I had postulated (careful Jim!) that the hydraulic pumps for the lifts joining Holbeck High and Low Level Stations had also worked machinery in the Gotts Field warehouses and yard. I never imagined that there would also be a set of pipes crossing the river bridge to the main Wellington Street yard when the GNR had only one single track warehouse there.It is possible that due to the number of wagon turntables in the sidings between the GNR and NER warehouses hydraulic capstans were once provided there, which might make more sense of this pipe branch.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Fri 17 May, 2013 9:22 pm

Jogon wrote: Favouring my 1960's 'scorched earth' upbringing, I'd demolish it. I have to say that the "proposed development" pic shows spectacularly ugly set of buildings and deserves a large bulldozer running right through it.Is that really the best that they could come up with..?