The Railway That Almost Was

 

This a true story but apologies if the facts are a little blurred. The old newspapers are faded and talk of gradients, yardage, tunnels & furlongs can confuse the picture. The year is 1874 and the railway boom is at its height. There was a case locally to improve the railway link between Huddersfield and Elland in order to cut freight costs & journey times. Indeed the track layout of 1874 is little different from today (bar the abolition of branch lines) so you can guess that the schemes failed but the plans were ambitions and one scheme in particular would have changed the landscape & development of our district if implemented.

First the London & North Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire joint companies’ scheme. They proposed a route that almost mirrors today’s by-pass. A tunnel over a mile long would have to be dug through Fixby Township and emerging just below the Ainleys Fire Clay works then veering down towards Low Laithe to join the current line. Cost £300,000 (about £25 million today). Proposal rejected by Parliament.

Now the second far more ambitious scheme submitted by the Midland Railway Company. Once again a tunnel, about a mile in length, would be dug through the Fixby Township. This tunnel would also emerge just below the Ainleys Fire Clay works (occupied by a haulage company nowadays) but the line would then veer south-westwards through Elland. Obviously housing on the Langdale estate (Gordon, Elizabeth, Langdale & Catherine Streets) was not fully developed. The line would probably have travelled down Huddersfield Road then curved towards South Lane and then aimed for the centre of Elizabeth Street. The new Elland Station would have been built just outside what is now David Sykes’ newsagent shop. The line would have then progressed towards a halt on Jepson Lane just outside Towngate House. We now reach Long Wall and, surely one of the most breathtaking ideas, to build a viaduct, about 104 feet maximum height, through the valley and across to Salterhebble. Thence onwards towards Halifax via another lofty viaduct and a new terminus to be situated where today stands the Barum Top public house. Cost not recorded. Proposal also rejected by Parliament.

The Midland proposal is jaw-dropping. It would have been a magnificent feat of engineering and don’t forget that the same company built the Settle to Carlisle line so they were capable of completing grand projects. You have to ask ‘what if’...well Elland would certainly look rather different today. Perhaps more housing to the East and North? More farms & countryside to the West (Savile Estate)? Mills & Industry to the South? Greetland & Stainland amalgamating with Halifax because such a line would cut our community? All academic because local opinion was either lukewarm or even downright hostile. We can but visualise the grand viaduct spanning the valley and towering over Elland Bridge, Woods & the Calder and then return to today’s magnificent views.

 

David J. Glanfield

Greater Elland Historical Society

(With special thanks to Brian Hargreaves).