Trackbed at Garden Avenue, Cleckheaton (Spen Valley Ringway)
INFO:
In the late 19th Century, London & North Western Railway opened a line linking Huddersfield and Leeds through the Spen Valley, via Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Cleckheaton. It ran parallel to the LYR's Dewsbury-Bradford route, and included station at all the sane intermediate towns. Stations on this line all included Spen' on their name to separate them from the LYR counterparts, which carried the name 'Central'.
Heckmondwike Spen itself was a hectic engineering task, with the line having to cut underneath the town centre via nine bridges and two short tunnels - the station was built halfway along this section. The stations at Liversedge and Cleckheaton meanwhile were mounted high on bankings - the latter even including a huge pedestrian viaduct connecting it with the town
The LNWR route - also known as the Leeds New Line - never took off with passengers although it was a huge advantage for textile transportation between the West Riding's mill towns and with a more direct route between Huddersfield and Leeds available via the Dewsbury and Morley corridor, the writing was inevitably on the wall. The passenger service perished in 1953, with the LYR Bradford route's following suit fourteen years after. Goods services continued, with a connecting spur being built between the two lines at Heckmondwike but these came to an end in the early 1990s.
The lines were lifted in parts between 1995 and 2001.
The LNWR corridor has since received the same treatment between Heckmondwike and Liversedge and is known as the Spen Valley Ringway. The route splinters from the Greenway southwest of Heckmondwike centre uphill via a path. Following the LNWR line turns off right under a road overbridge, and enters a large wide cutting before passing through bridges and a short tunnel where at time of writing the path has not yet been laid and the tunnel retains plain ballast. The route feeds into the site of Heckmondwike Spen station - now occupied by a private residential road called Old Station Close before resuming at the other end. The cutting here has to be seen to believed as the all-weather path passes through five stone overbridges and a short tunnel in a half -mile cutting underneath the town. After a further bridge beneath Cook Lane the line cruises through the suburban countryside. Liversedge Spen station is gone but can be identified by a filled station entrance at street level on Listing Lane. The route is severed a further half mile on by residential areas and parkland although the path continues onward to Cleckheaton where a miniature railway (I kid you not). occupies the trackbed. The trackbed is occupied by farmland at this point up to near Spen Bank, where a high embankment carries the old line above the town. Like the rest, Heckmondwike Spen Station has long been history but the huge 450ft pedestrian viaduct still survives as a public right of way. A former shed still survives on the station site, now part of a recycling works.
STATION CLOSURES
Heckmondwike Spen (1953)
Liversedge Spen (1953)
Cleckheaton Spen (1953)
Trackbed at Garden Avenue, Cleckheaton (Spen Valley Ringway)
INFO:
In the late 19th Century, London & North Western Railway opened a line linking Huddersfield and Leeds through the Spen Valley, via Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Cleckheaton. It ran parallel to the LYR's Dewsbury-Bradford route, and included station at all the sane intermediate towns. Stations on this line all included Spen' on their name to separate them from the LYR counterparts, which carried the name 'Central'.
Heckmondwike Spen itself was a hectic engineering task, with the line having to cut underneath the town centre via nine bridges and two short tunnels - the station was built halfway along this section. The stations at Liversedge and Cleckheaton meanwhile were mounted high on bankings - the latter even including a huge pedestrian viaduct connecting it with the town
The LNWR route - also known as the Leeds New Line - never took off with passengers although it was a huge advantage for textile transportation between the West Riding's mill towns and with a more direct route between Huddersfield and Leeds available via the Dewsbury and Morley corridor, the writing was inevitably on the wall. The passenger service perished in 1953, with the LYR Bradford route's following suit fourteen years after. Goods services continued, with a connecting spur being built between the two lines at Heckmondwike but these came to an end in the early 1990s.
The lines were lifted in parts between 1995 and 2001.
The LNWR corridor has since received the same treatment between Heckmondwike and Liversedge and is known as the Spen Valley Ringway. The route splinters from the Greenway southwest of Heckmondwike centre uphill via a path. Following the LNWR line turns off right under a road overbridge, and enters a large wide cutting before passing through bridges and a short tunnel where at time of writing the path has not yet been laid and the tunnel retains plain ballast. The route feeds into the site of Heckmondwike Spen station - now occupied by a private residential road called Old Station Close before resuming at the other end. The cutting here has to be seen to believed as the all-weather path passes through five stone overbridges and a short tunnel in a half -mile cutting underneath the town. After a further bridge beneath Cook Lane the line cruises through the suburban countryside. Liversedge Spen station is gone but can be identified by a filled station entrance at street level on Listing Lane. The route is severed a further half mile on by residential areas and parkland although the path continues onward to Cleckheaton where a miniature railway (I kid you not). occupies the trackbed. The trackbed is occupied by farmland at this point up to near Spen Bank, where a high embankment carries the old line above the town. Like the rest, Heckmondwike Spen Station has long been history but the huge 450ft pedestrian viaduct still survives as a public right of way. A former shed still survives on the station site, now part of a recycling works.
STATION CLOSURES
Heckmondwike Spen (1953)
Liversedge Spen (1953)
Cleckheaton Spen (1953)