stone bridge rodley

[billy the buffalo]

If i remember correctly there used to be an old horse drawn tram carriage abandoned at the railway pub side of the pack horse bridge,it was only the shell of the tram , and i do not know what happened to the shell as i am going back 35 years at least.Regards to the bit about airfields in Leeds i am sure that i once read a book where it mentioned airfield at Middleton,Seacroft,Roundhay as well as Dawsons Corner i am sure it was something to do with airfields in WW1 also i know its not Leeds(maybe a LS postcode though) but there is also an old ww1 hanger that is still in situ alongside the A64 opposite the entance to Hazelwood Castle Hotel         

[The Parksider]

Had a short walk along the old Horsforth to Calverley "lane" which was rendered obsolete by the building of the new bridge over the Aire at Rodley.Whilst nothing much to add to the thread it is nice to explore the Calverley lane as it passed the old station hotel - now the abandoned Paris restaraunt which is boarded up and decaying.Through what is a track to the old bridge over the aire and on to a steep bank where you can go up steps or double back around the hill via the Railway pub. Round the cottages on a lovely old cobbled road and over the canal passing an old gas lamp (not many of these left) by a cottage before over the canal and up a lane heading up the hill to Calverley.In the lane there's an old drain cover and nearby a blue painted gas lamp standard. It was obviously a proper lane at one time.Whilst the new road was built to carry cars and lorries, I assume the old calverley lane could at best manage a horse and cart, and a walk down it has to be imagined without reference to cars. Many people must have walked from both Horsforth and Calverley down to the railway station when cars weren't even in existence.The area combines two old forms of transport the railway and the canal and the pubs and cottages must have been a reaction to the introduction of the same. If you want to try to find a window into the past I'd recommend a walk down the old calverley lane, that's for absolute sure - try to ignore the metalled road, on the horsforth side, and the nearby new bridge, whilst imagining people and goods travelling and being carried the old way and you can just about drift back 100 years.Anywhere else in Leeds such a window to the past can be evoked?

[Uno Hoo]

What an interesting post, Parksider.My kids, when young, couldn't understand why the station was so far from Calverley. I explained that the main purpose of the railways had been to link cities, and took the least hilly routes wherever possible - particularly Stephenson. I also told them that people in isolated communities would think nothing of walking a few miles to a station in order to travel much longer distances. Even in my own lifetime - I'm 64 - I can remember quite a few people walking from Calverley to catch trains to Ilkley, or up the Yorkshire Dales. To children brought up entirely within the car generation this seemed unbelievable at the time, although I'm pleased to say that both are now keen walkers. My elder son has gone one better, and drives both diesel and electric trains along that line, and other routes on Northern Rail's network. He enjoys the stretch between Leeds and Shipley, partly because of his exoeriences of seeing the old Rodley bridge, but rather more, I suspect, because it's quite a high speed stretch, although he didn't enjoy hitting a deer between Rodley and Newlay.

[The Parksider]

Uno Hoo wrote: What an interesting post, Parksider.My kids, when young, couldn't understand why the station was so far from Calverley. It's a fair walk down from Calverley then through the fields. Did it today and theres a drain and gas lamp base in the field from the gateway, and some old ironwork where the lane come to the second gate and you walked around that ironwork rather than open the gate.All ironwork painted royal blue!!I'd love to go back in a time machine to walk the route when it was a proper lane all lit up by the gas lamps. At the entrance there's a stone marked "Station Fields" and it's part of the leeds millenium way..........There's an older stone with a bracket behind it. That has blue on it too!!

[trophy]

the cobbled road from the railway pub up to the canal was used by coal lorries going to the gas works.these were long bonneted commer and dodge short wheelbase tippers.

[socistep]

its an interesting mixture around that area, as you come down Calverley lane from Horsforth, you go past the now closed Clariant factory and over the long closed 'Calverley & Rodley' station.Looking at old maps then when the ring road was built from Horsforth to Rodley it cut off the 'Calverley bridge' area and also hid the old lane with the section that went off to meet the train station, this is hid a lot where 'calverley lane' crosses over the nice stone bridge, its an area I often walk around but not as popular as the canal, once over the bridge you go up and to the right for Calverley and left past the railway pub to Rodley - can imagine this was quite a busy place back in the day, especially as there was a mill at some point and the old gasometers looking at old maps/photos and the main bridge into the train station.Interesting to hear the accounts of people walking to/from calverley and the gas lamps! That will be something to picture in my mind next time I'm down there which will be soon no doubtRing road - I understand the section from Horsforth to Rodley was built in the 20s looking at old maps, I didn't realise it was then 30/40 years later that the Rodley to Dawsons corner was built, I just assumed it was built at the same time, it looks like there was a t-junction where the 'Horsforth New Road' met the Rodley road, now replaced with the roundabout - I guess also why the A65 in Horsforth is known as 'New Road Side'

[BarFly]

I am particularly interested in this thread as I lived in Calverley during my formative years and would have loved a bridge over the canal from Calverley to Horsforth without resorting to the ring road. Sadly for us kids the only bridge was a swing bridge from a farm in Calverley, which was always locked shut.

[mhoulden]

Here's a photo of the stone bridge I took in October 2009 in a weekend of stormy weather. On Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhoulden/3 ... 37341/It's been a while since I last went over it, but I don't think it's currently that overgrown (but we have just had winter so the vegetation may have died back). There's a footpath on the "Horsforth" side of the river heading away from the which has new a sign warning that fields may be uneven or slippery. At least it isn't one of those daft trip hazard signs that are a trip hazard in themselves.Once you got across this bridge, how did people cross the canal before the ring road bridge was built? Was it just the "Owl" swing bridge or was there another one?

[trophy]

i would assume the swing bridge at the bottom of the station fields has been their since the station was built.

[Uno Hoo]

I imagine it pre-dates the station - after all, the canal was there first. That lane was the route between Calverley and Horsforth (and Rawdon, as a bridle path goes straight up from the lane to join the A65).Having just re-read this thread, reference to the coal lorries going to the gas works reminds me of going there in my grandad's car, a 1933 Vauxhall 12, reg'd JU 3360, to buy coke. This was carried home in a large zinc bath strapped to the back, so I can almost claim that we stored coal in our bath!Our first family car was a 1956 Morris 1000, reg'd 1530 NW. Funny that I can't remember any of the other numbers over the years. Sorry to stray slightly off-topic, but strange that I can remember those of the first significant cars in my life.