Leeds Railway Station's 'Lost World'

[Cardiarms]

There's picture elsewhere. You can see a large beam over the entrance and a ramp inside, presumably for hauling the boats in and out.Off to find the link.

[Cardiarms]

Not the best photoshttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx ... Message=50

[chameleon]

Cardiarms wrote: Not the best photoshttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx ... Message=50 There are a few on Leodis and Phill has a couple of the canal side - probably quicker to ask him to repost then search here......

[jim]

Ramp and beam theories inventive but unlikely.The branch canal was fully navigable right through to the river and upstream.This indicates a channel around four feet deep all the way.I think that the ramp seen is either an engineered blockage put in place to counter flooding,or that it is natural sedimentation that has taken place in the fifty-plus years since there was last traffic or even water flow through the tunnel.The beam?I haven't the faintest idea of it's purpose.. I look forward to the inventive proposals I feel sure are to follow.

[buffaloskinner]

Yes Cardiarms thats the one I am thinking of, only seen it from the other side of the river though.If that was the canal then I believe that there would have been a lock somewhere very close to the tunnel mouth.

[Cardiarms]

From what Jim has said it's actually in the tunnel though there's definitely an obstruction in the tunnel now, though it's hard to see clearly. The beam is a big bit of metal and is either for lifting or holding something up. I lean toward lifting as it's wider at the bottom but I'm no engineer.

[jim]

For the exact position of one of the lock gates,look at the map that Chameleon posted at 08.46.If you blow it up twice,one pair of gates and part of the lock chamber can be seen.The rest of it will then be under the first Wellington station,but it's relationship with the wider basin,the main canal,and the river is clear.The map is Godfrey's Leeds sheet 14 1847-1863 large scale,entitled LeedsStations which shows Wellington,Central,and most of Wellington St Goods.Leeds New hasn't been built,the sheet containing the then Marsh Lane terminus hasn't been published,and Leeds's first main line station,that of the North Midland Railway at Hunslet Lane is shown on Sheet19,Pottery Field.For the contributor who asked about the King's Mill and Oil Mill water courses,they are clearly shown on Sheet 15,Lower Briggate and Riverside.Hope this helps.

[chameleon]

jim wrote: For the exact position of one of the lock gates,look at the map that Chameleon posted at 08.46.If you blow it up twice,one pair of gates and part of the lock chamber can be seen.The rest of it will then be under the first Wellington station,but it's relationship with the wider basin,the main canal,and the river is clear.The map is Godfrey's Leeds sheet 14 1847-1863 large scale,entitled LeedsStations which shows Wellington,Central,and most of Wellington St Goods.Leeds New hasn't been built,the sheet containing the then Marsh Lane terminus hasn't been published,and Leeds's first main line station,that of the North Midland Railway at Hunslet Lane is shown on Sheet19,Pottery Field.For the contributor who asked about the King's Mill and Oil Mill water courses,they are clearly shown on Sheet 15,Lower Briggate and Riverside.Hope this helps. Annoyingly, there are a few maps we'd love ot have to complete the area but Godfrey say they have no plans to include them

[cnosni]

chameleon wrote: jim wrote: For the exact position of one of the lock gates,look at the map that Chameleon posted at 08.46.If you blow it up twice,one pair of gates and part of the lock chamber can be seen.The rest of it will then be under the first Wellington station,but it's relationship with the wider basin,the main canal,and the river is clear.The map is Godfrey's Leeds sheet 14 1847-1863 large scale,entitled LeedsStations which shows Wellington,Central,and most of Wellington St Goods.Leeds New hasn't been built,the sheet containing the then Marsh Lane terminus hasn't been published,and Leeds's first main line station,that of the North Midland Railway at Hunslet Lane is shown on Sheet19,Pottery Field.For the contributor who asked about the King's Mill and Oil Mill water courses,they are clearly shown on Sheet 15,Lower Briggate and Riverside.Hope this helps. Annoyingly, there are a few maps we'd love ot have to complete the area but Godfrey say they have no plans to include them What about the central library

[Brandy]

jim wrote: OK,I'm a sucker for an audience!Across the river bridge most ofl the arches which held the Granary Wharf hippie shops seem to have gone over to parking,but look at the arches to the left.Not only do they run north/south,close inspection reveals that each dividing wall has a bricked-up east/west opening which I'll cover later.Coming outside we come to the area depicted in the attachments to the previous posts.Note that above the new brickwork is a massive iron beam.This tunnel was not originally arched,but was a branch of the canal to the upper reach of the river and was bridged using ironwork.There was actually a lock beneath the station approaches here with three sets of gates to cope with varying river levels.Boats served Soapy Joes and possibly other firms.Yorkshire Electricity's wharf received coal into the 1950s,after which the branch became derelict.Just inside the south end of the tunnel a short arm ran east through the arches I mentioned earlier,and in the 1950s I remember two or three abandoned Leeds and Liverpool short boats abandoned here,still afloat and loaded to the limit with worn out tyres.As to the fire mentioned in the previous post,I believe that the collapse occurred in the tunnel as ironwork would have less resistance to heat than brick.I don't think the railway ever used the arches west of the river for it's own purposes and feel doubtful if they had let them to tenants for many years when we explored them as apprentices-they were unlit and rubbish-filled,with mounds of an appalling lime-like substance.More later good stuff Jim............keep it coming