The Robert Stephenson Lifting Bridge and its wanderings
1) Robert Stephenson lifting bridge over Grand Union Canal, West Bridge, Leicester
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. Immediately behind the wooden lifting bridge is Soar Lane road bridge.
View through the railway lifting bridge over the canal, leading to sidings at the Soar Lane Wharf with its goods shed straight ahead and the Pingle Wharf which was reached by a sharp turn to the left, West Bridge, Leicester, 16/10/1965. The wharves received wagons of coal and lime for unloading and transshipping into Leicester and environs.
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. By this time the bridge was out of use and was permanently raised up on blocks to give clearance for canal traffic underneath. The operating cabin with the hand crank used to lower and raise the bridge deck is on the left and Soar Lane road bridge is immediately on the right.
The sign on the bridge reads:
LMS
WAGONS OF GREATER
CAPACITY THAN 12 TONS
MUST NOT CROSS THIS
BRIDGE
BY ORDER
Due to the weight restriction, movement of wagons across the bridge and into the sidings was originally by horse haulage, though in the last few years of use it is reported that an adapted tractor was used to propel wagons across. Normal locomotives would have been too heavy and would not have crossed this bridge.
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. Photograph taken from Soar Lane road bridge, on the left.
There are dimensioned plans of the bridge drawn by British Railways which are kept at the Midland Railway Study Centre and are viewable at https://www.midlandrailwaystudycentre.org.uk/resources/SoarLane/99-1449_BR_BridgeOffice.jpg.
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 the heading there states that the lifting mechanism was steam powered which is incorrect. The bridge was wooden and was counterbalanced so no great effort would be required to raise it and it would only need to be lowered from its resting position and raised infrequently which would make steam powering uneconomical. It was apparently raised and lowered by a hand crank in the hut, but, alas, no old photograph has come to light to illustrate this.
The original location of the wooden 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.
Robert Stephenson was the engineer for design and building the Leicester and Swannington Railway, with the backing of his father George Stephenson who was engaged with the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but who helped raise the capital for this railway. Authorised by the Leicester and Swannington Railway Act 1830 this was the first main railway line in the midlands.
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 in the photograph above. A branch from the main line, off to the right, was carried over the bridge to sidings at Soar Lane Old Wharf and Pingle Wharf off 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 normal locomotives were not allowed across and wagons were drawn by horses and in latter days pushed by a tractor. Being counterbalanced the bridge could be raised and lowered by hand crank in the shed on the right, though unfortunately no photographs of this mechanism are known to exist.
The bridge was dismantled, apparently by the then owners British Rail, at some time between 1965 and 1973, as evidenced by the photographs here though information about this is elusive. The components were transferred to the Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester, where it was later rebuilt nearby.
The bridge was subsequently moved again and rebuilt at the newly opened 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 has been 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 wooden lifting bridge designed by Robert Stephenson was built by the Leicester & Swannington Railway across the Leicester Navigation canal (later the Grand Union Canal) at its wharf at West Bridge, Leicester. In the raised position there was clearance for a canal boat to pass under the bridge together with the horse on the towpath which pulled the boat, while in the lowered position wagons could be pulled over the bridge by horse to sidings. With the closure of the railway here 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 canal towpath immediately below the truncated track in the foreground. Soar Lane road bridge is on the right and the former goods shed at Soar Lane Wharf is in the background, then occupied by builders’ merchant Ellis & Everard Ltd.
The lifting bridge was dismantled from over the canal, apparently by the then owners British Rail, and the components were moved to the grounds of the newly opened ‘Abbey Pumping Station’ museum of technology in Leicester. The remains of the bridge are shown here in 1973.
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 over a drainage ditch just outside Abbey Pumping Station, seen here in 1982. Much of the dismantled woodwork appears to have been reused, but note that some of the counter-balance weights have been removed and tossed into the ditch.
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 at the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre 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 on the left.
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. The tall, tower section on the right of the cabin represents the original operating cabin with the hand crank to raise and lower the bridge deck, while the lower section on the left has displays telling the history of the bridge.
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.
Seen here in April 2026, a week after the official opening, the lifting bridge reconstruction looks splendid with the warning notices and the granite setts leading up to it.
This is an old unused wagon label for a load of coal to be delivered from Nailstone Colliery, near Coalville, to a coal merchant at Soar Lane. Having completed the sections of the label at the colliery it would have been secured by the spring clip in the label holder on the side of the appropriate wagon.
The crank which is used to raise and lower the deck of the bridge is located in the tall, tower, section of the cabin. Alas, there is no known photograph of the original mechanism when the bridge was in place across the canal in Leicester.
Next to the operating crank, the lower part of the cabin has displays telling the history of the bridge. Here are some of the components which were not up to modern standards or were too corroded to be reused in the reconstruction.
An ‘OO’ gauge model of the original site of the lifting bridge, located on the right, over the canal and the wharves at Soar Lane in Leicester as it was in 1937.
A model of the Stephenson lifting bridge in its lowered position over the canal in Leicester. The horse is standing on the canal towpath waiting for the bridge to be raised so that it can then continue by walking underneath.
Display of photographs in the cabin showing the bridge restoration.
Display board giving the history of the lift bridge. There are also audio recordings about various aspects of the lift bridge to listen to by selecting appropriate buttons on the side of the cabin.
Panoramic photograph of the original site of the lifting bridge over the canal in May 2026, with the usual curved distortion of such photographs. The former industrial areas on both sides of the canal have been redeveloped with dwellings and Soar Lane road bridge which was alongside the lifting bridge has been given a new colourful paint scheme, as have nearby walls! The main Leicester and Swannington Railway sidings and main line were a few hundred yards to the right while Pingle Wharf and Soar Lane Wharf sidings were on the left bank here. Alas, there is now nothing remaining of the lifting bridge installation here, just an information board at the side of Soar Lane describing the bridge.