ABC Wednesday: New Bridge

Today's post for ABC Wednesday is N for "New Bridge" and the photo shows the new bridge that is being constructed over the Ashton Canal at Margaret Street, near Portland Basin.

The bridge replaces an older bridge that was too narrow for larger trucks to cross to gain access to industrial premises on the south side. Unfortunately this bridge was 115 years old, making it one of the oldest structures in Ashton. The brick-arched bridge was constructed to give access to fields and a handful of cottages, which were all that there was between the canal and the river at that time. But, hey - what is the value of history when it stands in the way of progress?

See Google Street View of this location.

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"New Bridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "N" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Skew Bridge

"S" is for "Skew Bridge" and today's photo shows a skew bridge across the start of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Whitelands in Ashton.

When I showed you a wider view of this canal bridge back in February, I promised that I would say something about the design of the arch when we got to "S"!

A skew bridge is one which crosses at an angle other than a simple right angle. When this bridge was built in around 1797, engineers were still trying to perfect the art of building skew bridges, so this is a fairly early attempt. If you look at the larger view (by clicking on the photo) you can see that the courses of brick at the side of the bridge are horizontal, with a distinct boundary where they meet the bricks forming the roof arch, which are "winding courses" laid in a helicoidal fashion, perpendicular to the outside face of the bridge. Some of the photos here will explain this.

The first perfectly constructed skew bridge in the country, where all the bricks are laid in winding courses, with none laid horizontally, was built only a few miles away at March Barn Bridge on the Rochdale Canal in 1797. This design has a lot more strength than earlier attempts.

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See Bird's Eye View of this location.

"Skew Bridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "S" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Portland Basin

Portland Basin is my favourite part of town! It is at the junction of two of the canals that radiate from Ashton.

The basin itself is the wide part of the Ashton Canal in front of the Portland Basin Museum, which started life as the Ashton Canal Warehouse.

An arm of the canal leads off under the magnificent stone footbridge, across an aqueduct over the River Tame, leading to the Peak Forest Canal.

The photo shows how this is a favourite location for fishing, boating, walking or just hanging around by the water. Not bad for a corner of an industrial northern town!

See Bird's Eye View of this location.

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"Portland Basin" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.


"Portland Basin" is also my contribution to the City Daily Photo March Theme Day of "My Favourite Part of Town".
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in the March Theme Day.

Riversvale Bridge

"B" is for "Bridge" and today's photo shows Riversvale Bridge, which crosses the River Medlock to the north of Ashton.

If you thought that Ashton under Lyne was completely made up of cotton mills and terraced brick houses then it may come as a surprise to find that this picture was taken within the boundary of Ashton.

The bridge at one time carried the winding main carriage road between Ashton and Oldham across the River Medlock, between Taunton and Bardsley, before the straight Turnpike road was built through Waterloo, taking a direct route.

These days the road across the bridge is used only by walkers, cyclists and horses making use of the network of paths in Daisy Nook Country Park. To the right of where I was standing to take the photo once stood the imposing Riversvale Hall demolished in the 1940s.

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See Birds Eye View of this location.

"Riversvale Bridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "B" posts from around the world please follow this link.
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Footbridge

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"F" is for "Footbridge" and this one crosses the Ashton Canal at Portland Basin.

The present steel bridge is comparatively recent and replaces an earlier one that was probably wooden. The canal itself has been there since 1796 and was built for horse-drawn narrow boats to carry coal down to Manchester.

As you can see, this photo was taken at a warmer time of year. The only "F" photos I have taken recently involved frozen things and we have probably seen enough such photos for now!

See Birds Eye View of this location.

"Footbridge" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "F" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Stalybridge Saturday: Victoria Bridge

Today's photo was taken at Victoria Bridge, where Trinity Street crosses the River Tame, in the middle of Stalybridge (two miles from Ashton).

The splendid details of the Victorian ironwork has been picked out by the careful paintwork. The date 1867 appears in small white lettering above the word "Victoria". A larger plaque below shows the date 1991 - presumably when the bridge was refurbished. (Click the photo to see larger version.)

The building to the right of the bridge is the Post Office. You can just see part of a weir where the river disappears around the bend. In the distance you can see the snow-covered Pennine moors. Although the snow has melted down in Stalybridge, the snow on the hills lasts a lot longer!

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Stalybridge Saturday: Huddersfield Canal

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal sweeps through the centre of Stalybridge, just 2 miles east of Ashton under Lyne. This section of canal was re-opened in 2001 and had previously been filled in and occupied by the Delta cable works. The Tesco store was built on the site of the factory and its car park is split by the canal. A footbridge has been built for customers and their trolleys. Behind Tesco a new block of apartments has been built in the style of a traditional warehouse building.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

Over The Top

This was the main A635 Manchester Road through Bottom Mossley last weekend. The road was closed off for 24 hours while a giant crane was set up to help put a replacement footbridge into position across the railway.

The railway lines runs behind the houses, which is why such a large crane, which was capable of lifting 80 tonnes, was needed.

The old and new bridges were not lifted over the houses, though. At around 3.00 am the old bridge was lifted down onto bogies on the railway track and moved along to the station yard 300 yards away, where a smaller crane lifted it off.

On Sunday afternoon the new bridge (which had arrived at the station yard by lorry) was lifted onto the bogies and moved along the track to the bridge site. The large crane in the photo then lifted it from the bogies, rotated it and placed it onto the bridge piers.

The railway line was closed to trains through much of the weekend, although some freight trains moved through very slowly late on Saturday night. The road closure caused disruption to cars and bus services. Some of the drivers of the rail replacement coaches seemed uncertain as to which way they should go to get to the next station at Stalybridge!

Hopefully the new bridge will last another 150 years!

See Google Aerial View of this location.