Boxing Day Randoms.

 A set here I took using a Samsung Galaxy Tablet on Boxing Day 2013, whilst out for a walk blowing away the Christmas Day cobwebs. Not much to add only they were taken in the Sowerby Bridge to Luddendenfoot area.

I've never discovered much about this building, it can be found by following a path from Tenterfields in the direction of Boulderclough and Luddendenfoot. I was once told it was part of Sagar Richards, which was an engineering company that occupy a sight to the north of the railway which passes to the right of the picture. There's no obvious signs that the sites were connected at the railway crossers a low bridge to the west of here which would have restricted access to larger vehicles.

This former mill pulley is on display in an apartment complex that occupies the former mills in the centre of Sowerby Bridge. Dugdales Mill can be seen in the background.

This stream runs through a private garden at Rose Grove to the west of Sowerby Bridge, the stream runs underneath the road in to the Rochdale Canal.

This former mill chimney long since disused offers a striking site in the centre of Sowerby Bridge, the road that runs past is the Old Cawsey an ancient packhorse route that was once the main road through the valley and Sowerby Bridge.

The 3 pictures above show Monkey Tunnel (no idea why it's called that). The tunnel runs underneath the railway line near Tenterfields Business Park.

Now offices and apartments this building was once the boiler house that helped Sowerby Bridge power that industry that built it from a hamlet alongside the River Calder into a town.

These rusty gates can be found near Trinity Academy, Sowerby Bridge, they were probably once one of the entrances to the school grounds, they have long since ceased to be used and have been left to rot, rust and decay.

This water culvert carries a water source from Sowerby underneath the railway in to the River Calder, it can be found near the red brick abandoned mill pictured earlier.

Willow Hall Drive is a private road that takes it's name from the nearby manor house. Despite being a private road it is accessible to cars and pedestrians.

The tree lined partially covered path leads up from the Hollins Mill area to the Friendly area of Sowerby Bridge.

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

Clicking any image should open a link in another window to the higher resolution version on Clickasnap.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Dean Head Church, Scammonden

 Dean Head Church or by it's proper name St Bartholomew's Church opened in 1865 occupying a spot then overlooking the Dean Head Clough Valley and since 1969 overlooking Scammonden Reservoir and The M62 Motorway. It is the 3rd church or chapel to have been built at this location since 1615. 

St Bartholomew's is the main building in a small cluster that also includes the former Dean Head School and a couple of dwellings. The rest of Dean Head - Scammonden village was lost in the early 1960's when the motorway and dam were built.

As the reservoir filled it was expected that the church and nearby buildings would become unsafe, many people expected these to have been demolished by the late 1970's -80's but happily this has not been the case, with the church roof being replaced in 2002.

These pictures were taken in March 2015 using a Polaroid is2132 bridge camera, they can also be seen on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

Clicking any image should open a link in another window to the version on Clickasnap.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Castleton Moor Railway Station

Castleton Moor Railway Station is a stop on the Esk Valley Line connecting Middlesborough with Whitby in North Yorkshire. Opened on the 1st April 1861 as Castleton Railway Station the station was built with 2 platforms as this stretch of the line was constructed with a passing loop, the station also featured a signal box, goods warehouse and yard. These were all lost in the early 1980's. The station was renamed Castleton Moor in March 1965.

The station has limited facilities which include a basic shelter, information boards and a ticket machine. It is unmanned and the former station buildings appear to now be a private residence. In the last full year of stats 4732 people used Castleton Moor at an average of 91 per week. The station is served by 11 trains per day, 5 towards Whitby and 6 in the direction of Middlesborough.

These pictures were taken on the 27th August 2022 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can also be seen full size, resolution and un-watermarked on Clickasnap.

Clicking any picture should open a link in another window to the version on Clickasnap.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Scammonden Motorway at Dusk.

 Just a single shot picture for this post taken on the 4th August 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR.

Taken from Scammonden Bridge looking eastwards towards the reservoir - Leeds bound motorway direction. This was a first attempt at long exposure by me, I think it turned out ok

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

The picture remains the copyright of Colin Green.

Halifax Bus Station May 2018 and a Ghostly Tale.

The first bus station to be opened in Halifax was to be found at Ward's End, opposite the Victoria Theatre. Opened in the 1940s, it was nothing like a modern-designed bus station, offering only limited stops. This was soon obsolete due to increasing bus travel, and in 1954 Halifax was to gain its first (proper) bus station at Cross Fields, an area of slums recently cleared known as the City.

In the 1980's, Halifax's bus station at Cross Fields had outgrown the site it occupied, with many buses now stopping in the town centre with their passengers never visiting the station. The local authority targeted a site nearby to develop between Northgate and Winding Road, and in October 1989, at a cost of £2 million, the new bus station was opened, with the former Sion Sunday School, Congregation Church, and Jubilee Hall being incorporated into its development.

This bus station was recently demolished to allow for the development of a new bus station on the site. At a cost of £17.7 million, a new bus station serving Halifax will open in 2023.

A couple of recent stories to feature the bus station include the discovery of bones during its recent redevelopment and an interesting ghostly tale from a waiting passenger; this can be read at the bottom of the pictures.

These pictures were taken in May 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can be seen below and on Clickasnap in full size, resolution, and unwatermarked.

The frontage and remains of the Sion Congregational Church, Jubilee Memorial Hall. The hall was opened in 1866 and offers an impressive eastern entrance top the bus station.

The former Sion Congregational Church Building, it is part of the bus station and used to have a burial ground nearby. The church was closed in 1959.

Sion Sunday School opened in 1846, the frontage was moved and incorporated in to the bus station when it was developed in 1989.

As I alluded to earlier, there is a story about the bus station being the subject of ghostly happenings. A man waiting for his bus to depart saw two women approaching the bus weighed down with shopping. Upon them preparing to embark, he looked away for a moment, and when he looked back, they had disappeared completely from view on the bus and the surrounding station.

These pictures were taken on May 27, 2018. I'm not sure how much of this bus station still exists as the redevelopment works are still ongoing, with a plan to open the new bus station sometime in 2023.

Thanks for looking; please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Copley Viaducts, December 2018

 Copley is a small village to the south of Halifax, West Yorkshire widely known for the 2 railway viaducts that cross the valley to the west of the village, there is actually 3 railway viaducts with the third crossing the River Calder to the east of the village. The pictures below show the 2 more widely known viaducts at Copley taken on the 9th December 2018.

The 23 arch Copley Viaduct is the more commonly known viaduct, it's the youngest of the 3 having been completed and opened in 1852. It completed the first direct link between the Sowerby Bridge Railway Station and Halifax Railway Station, trains having reversed up from Greetland Railway Station to Halifax when the branch line connecting them opened in 1844.

The viaduct passes over or nearby to the River Calder, Copley Cricket Ground, Calder & Hebble Navigation Canal and the A6026 Wakefield Road.

Both the viaducts can be seen here in this picture taken from Norland. The smaller and older Copley 3 arch viaduct was built by George Stephenson for the Manchester and Leeds Railway. The viaduct carried the first line to pass through the Copley Valley when opened in 1840. The line was closed to passenger trains in 1970, the odd diversion or excursion train using the now mainly freight route. Plans to close the line between Milner Royd and Heaton Lodge Junctions were discussed a number of times before being abandoned completely in the 1980's. In 2000 Brighouse station reopened and passenger trains regularly passed over the viaduct once again.

These 2 pictures were taken on the 9th December 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. The picture below shows the third Copley Viaduct and was taken on the 25th February 2019.

This viaduct crossers the River Calder to the east of Copley village, near to Old Rishworthians sports ground. Opened along with the line in 1840 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway line passes the bottom of North Dean Woods. I have previously posted about this viaduct here in a post called Copley Viaduct (the lesser known one)

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Square Independent Chapel and Congregational Church Spire, Halifax

Square Independent Chapel opened on the 24th May 1772 taking it's name from the area of Halifax it was built in. The chapel is constructed of red brick and is 60ft square and when opened was the largest independent place of worship in the country. The chapel cost a fortune for the time £2000 to build and the red brick is said to contain bulls blood to highlight the red. 

The chapel held it's last service on the 12th June 1857, when it became the Sunday School for the newly constructed Square Congregational Church, which had recently opened next door. In 1939 the Army took control of the building for the war effort and the Chapel was given Grade II listed status on the 3rd November 1954. The local Council purchased the building in 1969 with a plan to demolish it, the Victorian society getting the building on the listed for preservation register in 1970. In 1985 Calderdale Council once again had a plan to demolish the building, again this never came to fruition before the Square Chapel Building Trust bought the building for £25 in 1989 spending over £3million in the refurbishment of the building which was to become the Square Chapel Arts Centre in 1992.

Square Congregational Church opened on the 15th July 1857 as the replacement for Square Independent Chapel. When built the church had the second tallest spire in Yorkshire at 235ft until Edward Akroyd had the nearby All Souls Church built with a spire that was just 1ft taller. Local legend suggest this was deliberate as Akroyd had a rivalry with the Crossley Family who had contributed to the construction of Square Church. The church held services until 1970, a year after it had merged with the United Congregational Church. 

Square Congregational Church was granted Grade II listed status on the 2nd March 1950. The church became a target for vandals after closure and the main body of the church was devastated by a large fire on the 3rd January 1971, and a further fire and gale before 1973. In 1976 the church was demolished saving the spire and foundations and becoming a rest-garden area until it was closed off in 2005 after the spire had become unsafe. Around this time workmen who had checking the spire structurally became convinced there was a ghost inhabiting an inaccessible area near the top of the spire, this was after photo's they had taken showed a shape that they claimed could not be explained.

The spire remained closed off for a number of years with some members of Calderdale Council requesting its demolition, before the town decided a new library was needed and this was constructed including the spire as a and rose window as a central part of the new building which opened in 2017. The spire with the new library now forms a welcoming part of the new eastern entrance to the Piece Hall.

The Rose Window seen to the left of the spire is based on the east window at Selby Abbey.

The new Halifax Library Building can be seen built around the spire.

These pictures were taken on the 27th October 2019 with a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can be seen on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked.

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

The Rochdale Canal from Lock 2 to Bridge 1A

 The Rochdale Canal is one of my favourites to photograph and the section pictured in this post is near my house so I pass it quite often. The stretch from Sowerby Bridge Lock 2 to Bridge 1A is short section but passes through probably the most expensive to build part of the canal, Tuel Lane lock and Tunnel.

The Rochdale Canal was closed in 1952 and the section from bridge 1A Tower Hill to a spot between lock 2 and the Tuel lane Tunnel was infilled, A car park covering the section near the bridge and a grass embankment the tunnel entrance down from Wharf Street, the remaining section was covered by the new Tuel Lane - Wharf Street Junction. This saw the loss of a canal bridge carrying Wharf Street and 2 locks in this section of closed canal.

In the early 1990's work started to reopen this section of the Rochdale Canal with a tunnel under the new Tuel Lane -Wharf Street Junction and a new Lock 3/4 replacing the 2 locks lost when the canal closed. When the works was completed and canal reopened in April 1996 (officially May), lock 3/4 was now the deepest inland lock in the UK at a depth of 19ft 8inches, because of this the lock is manned and controlled by the lock keeper. Boats wishing to use the lock from the Sowerby Bridge Wharf side must get permission before entering Tuel Lane Tunnel, this is due to when the lock empties the waters can cause extreme turbulence inside the tunnel.

During the construction of Tuel Lane tunnel the old Wharf Street Canal Bridge was found to still be intact underneath the road, I believe this although strengthened is still visible just inside the tunnel mouth. Originally the bridge exited near to where the modern day traffic lights are situated between the Commercial Inn and Christ Church, the tunnel now stretchers for approx 340ft.

These pictures were taken on April 10th 2022 using a Nikon d3300SLR camera. They can be seen below and on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked.

The original Wharf Street bridge can just be seen inside the tunnel.

The former Jolly Sailor Pub (closed 1939). The Building was once the caretakers residence
for Lock Hill Mills. The part of the mill that stood alongside was demolished
in the late 1990's, the red brick part of Lock Hill Mills still stands on the southern bank
of the River Calder. The Jolly Sailor is now a set of apartments.

The canal pictured from Wharf Street in the direction of Lock 2. The building to the left
is the Roxy a local nightspot thats started life as the Electric Cinema around the time
of World War 1. The cinema closed in 1963 and became a bingo and cafe, before eventually
becoming a nightclub - bar.

A view of Tuel Lane Lock and Christ Church Tower. I was just trying to get a different angle
of the lock and down in to the tunnel, taken from the LIDL supermarket car park.

Tuel Lane Tunnel entrance in to the lock.

Tuel Lane Lock, which is lock 3/4 on the Rochdale Canal replaced 2 locks on this
section of canal, lock 4 would have been just behind where I am stood, lock 3 was on the bend inside
the tunnel just in front of the church tower. These were infilled along with this section of canal after
closure in 1952. This was a car park with a disused theatre to my right when I was growing up 

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.