The Stephenson Lifting Bridge and its wanderings
1) Robert Stephenson lifting bridge over Grand Union Canal, West Bridge
My photograph of the lifting bridge four years later on 16/10/1965. The support on the towpath has been removed but tie-bars have been left dangerously in place.
View through the railway lifting bridge over the canal, leading to sidings at the Pingle Wharf with its goods shed straight ahead and the Soar Lane Old Wharf which was reached by a sharp turn to the left, West Bridge, Leicester, 16/10/1965.
The bridge is counter-balanced by large weights at each corner so that it could be raised and lowered manually by a hand crank in the cabin on the left.
The sign on the bridge reads:
LMS
WAGONS OF GREATER
CAPACITY THAN 12 TONS
MUST NOT CROSS THIS
BRIDGE
BY ORDER
So movement of wagons across the bridge and into the sidings was by horse haulage, though in the last few years of use it is reported that an adapted tractor was used. Locomotives would have been too heavy and would not have crossed this bridge.
There is interesting information about this bridge and its operation in the ‘General Notes’ section of the ‘Movable Bridges in the British Isles’ website on the page archived at web.archive.org/web/20220330074326/http://www.movablebridges.org.uk/BridgePage.asp?BridgeNumber=1396. Note that this states that the lifting mechanism was steam powered which seems unlikely—the bridge was wooden and was counterbalanced so no great effort would be required to raise it and it would only need to be raised infrequently which would make steam powering uneconomical.
The railway lifting bridge over the canal with track leading from the main line to sidings and a warehouse behind the photographer, 16/10/1965.
The original location of the railway lifting bridge over the canal, near West Bridge, Leicester, seen here in a raised position in 1961. Behind the lifting bridge is Soar Lane road bridge, see map below. Scan from a negative in my collection by an unknown photographer.
C. R. Clinker, in his "The Leicester and Swannington Railway", says of the lifting bridge “The contract for making the Soar Lane branch was let on 24 August 1833 to Messrs. Copeland & Harding for £3.960. This line, 27 ch. long, diverged from the main line 31 ch. short of West Bridge and crossed the Leicester Navigation by a small wooden lift bridge slung from four pillars, over which the counterbalance weight chains ran in grooved wheels. It was designed by Robert Stephenson and built by the company in its own shops. On 27 December 1833 Stephenson agreed to an amendment of the original design, reducing the height above water-level from 11ft. 4in. to 9ft. 10in. which the Leicester Navigation Co. considered sufficient. The movable portion was 28ft. 6in. long and 11ft. 6in. wide, carrying a single line of railway. The branch was brought into use on 4 October 1834 and provided valuable additional accommodation for coal traffic for shipment by the Navigation, and also for the town itself. The original bridge was replaced by a new one towards the end of 1845; this was also made by the company and was almost identical with the old structure. Parts of it have been retained in the existing bridge.” [1]
The bridge was raised and lowered manually by the mechanism from the hut on the right and carried a branch from the main line, off to the right, to sidings at Soar Lane Old Wharf and Pingle Wharf, over to the left. Behind the lifting bridge is the ornate Soar Lane road bridge. Due to the relatively light construction of the lifting bridge it had a weight limit of 12 tons, so locomotives were not allowed across and wagons were drawn by horses and in latter days by a tractor.
This bridge was removed and later rebuilt next to Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester. It was then moved again and rebuilt at Snibston Discovery Museum in Coalville, where after some years the wood (not all original) was starting to deteriorate. With the closure of the Snibston Museum the metal components of the bridge were moved to a Leicester City Museums store while the wood was destroyed. The metalwork has since been transferred to the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre where the bridge is being rebuilt. The wanderings of this bridge are shown in the photographs below.
Another view of the Stephenson lifting bridge, from a negative in my collection, taken in 1961 by an unknown photographer. Of note is the support on the canal towpath for the bridge when it is in the lowered position.
The original location of the Stephenson lifting bridge over the canal, in Leicester next to Soar Lane from map published in 1915, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland used under CC BY 4.0 / pointer added. The pointer indicates the direction of view of the previous photograph.
Reference:
In the 1830’s a lifting bridge was built by the Leicester & Swannington Railway across the Leicester Navigation canal next to its West Bridge wharf. In the raised position canal boats could pass under while in the lowered position wagons could be pulled over by horses. With the closure of the railway in the 1960’s this bridge was dismantled for preservation and its wanderings between different sites are illustrated in the photographs below.
The site of the lifting bridge in 1974 after the structure had been removed. This is looking east with the towpath immediately below the truncated track in the foreground, Soar Lane road bridge on the right and the former goods shed in the background.
The components of the dismantled lifting bridge are shown here in 1973 in the grounds of the newly opened ‘Abbey Pumping Station’ museum of technology in Leicester.
Another view of the dismantled lifting bridge at Abbey Pumping Station. The whole base of the lifting section, with rails still in place, is on the right.
The lifting bridge was rebuilt just outside Abbey Pumping Station, seen here in 1982, and much of the dismantled woodwork appears to have been reused. Note that some of the counter-balance weights have been removed and tossed into the stream.
Another view of the lifting bridge outside Abbey Pumping Station in 1982.
When Snibston Discovery Museum in Coalville opened in the early 1990s the lifting bridge was transferred there and was rebuilt alongside the entrance with a suitable open wagon, as shown here. However, the museum closed in Summer 2015 and the bridge was dismantled once again with the wooden parts being destroyed though the metal parts were put into store.
After the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre proposed to rebuild the bridge in its grounds, the metal components of the lifting bridge were transferred into storage there, photographed in July 2021.
The lifting bridge had started being rebuilt again with new wooden members when photographed in March 2023.
By June 2023 the bridge was beginning to take its familiar form.
This view from March 2024 shows the bridge structure nearly complete with the construction of the operating cabin advancing rapidly.
A few weeks later in July 2024 and considerable progress has been made on both the cabin and the lifting bridge which is nearing completion.
2) Robert Stephenson lifting bridge at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester
3) Robert Stephenson lifting bridge at Snibston Discovery Museum, Coalville
4) Robert Stephenson lifting bridge at the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre
Information about the restoration project at the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre can be found at “The first rail vertical lift bridge?”, while information about the Heritage Centre can be found at heritage-centre.co.uk/
Click here for further photographs on this website taken along the Leicester West Bridge branch.
Many of the photographs in these railway photograph galleries are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Attribution should include a link to www.nigeltout.com.