Bridges of Castlefield

October 14, 2024

Castlefield is in the west of Manchester, and is home to some great bridges.

Two canals meet here, and they were here first, so we start with them.

The red is the Bridgewater, the first to be built, from coalfields in Worsley. It drew its water from the Medlock, in blue, which became increasingly polluted. When the Rochdale Canal arrived, the Bridgewater could gets its water from there. This necessitated building a tunnel for the river. Some sources indicate this used a siphon to allow the water to get back up to river level, after going deep enough to get under the canals. Further upstream, I guess it has just been culverted.

The railways here are more complex - hardly unique in Manchester - due to the vagaries of history. This view is annotated with the lines, based on the Railway Clearing House map of 1910.

The blue is the LNWR line from Liverpool, the original Liverpool and Manchester line. The station is now the Museum of Science and Technology. The yellow is rather more recent, it is Ordsall Chord. which opened in 2017 - from the top of the map, the line curves east and goes to Manchester Exchange, now closed, and then into the next-door Manchester Victoria.

The cyan was the Cheshire Lines Committee railway, into Manchester Central, which is now GMEX. The good station is northeast of that, and nothing remains of that. The Midland Railway ran trains from here to St Pancras, and the Midland hotel is just northeast of the station.

I believe two extra lines were put in in 1892, to the north of the existing tracks, on a steel viaduct, rather than brick arches. This was closed in 1969, and unused for many years before being adopted by the National Trust to form a "sky park", I think just last year.

The older two tracks are now used by the trams, which then go south of GMEX heading into Manchester

The red is the Great Northern, leading to a large goods station, with trains presumably running on CLC metals to access. The building is still extant, and converted into shops in a sympathetic manner.

The red lines were the Lancashire and Yorkshire (L&Y), heading east to Manchester Piccadilly, and are all still in use.

And so the bridges...

Iron Arch Bridges

We start with the CLC line over Deansgate. This is an iron arch bridge; weight is supported by seven identical spans. The iron work has a gothic church-window style.

Curiously this same design is visible on the L&Y bridge over the canal, though only six spans to support it.

But most of the other bridges on that line are different.

On a smaller scale, there are also three footbridges over the canal.

Brick Bridges

Most of the shorter arches are done in brick, but some longer ones too. This is the L&Y line.

One oddity of note is this arch on the CLC line. While the other arches are all brick, this one has the curve in stone. I assume a decorative decision.

Lattice Bridges

There are two lattice bridges. These are able to span longer distances, and were used on the CLC lines to cross the canals.

The older line runs mostly on brick arches, but has two spans of lattice girders. You can see it behind the iron arches in this image.

Note the tower at the end, designed to fit into the ambience of the area. It serves no purpose in strengthening the bridge. These, on the other hand, do:

The later bridge has eight sections - all different lengths.

The columns are 10' diameter I am told. Note that the tops have the castle theme again.

Bow Arch Bridge

There is a bow arch bridge, on the new Ordsall Chord.

There is a second one that crosses the canal - and I must admit, I am not sure if this is the right category. Not sure when it was built, but a lot of footbridges built for the millennium look very like this one!