P h o t o B l o g

Saturday 5 December 2009

Sunday Stroll: Delph Donkey



The Delph Donkey was the nickname of the branch railway that ran from Uppermill to Delph. The line was closed in 1963 and the track has since been made into a cycle track and walkway. It can be accessed from Uppermill or from Brownhill Visitor Centre around 7 miles from Ashton and, once the short climb to the track has been made, provides a level walk right through to the old Delph Station.

The walk is particularly suitable on a weekend like this, when there has been a lot of rain recently, as the track does not become as muddy as many field paths do. Yet there are views of the fields and hills between the trees that line the track.

Trains ran from Delph to Greenfield, then through Lees to Oldham. One of the stations on the line, not far from the location of the photograph, was called Measurements Halt, named after the factory it was built to serve.

Some have suggested that the line was so-named because the carriage was originally pulled by a horse. However, this was not the case, as this would not have been allowed because the track joins on to the busy main line.

The photo shows the bridge where Wall Hill Road crosses the track. This bridge was built on a skew, with interesting angled stonework forming the arch.

See Google Aerial View of this location.

2 comments:

  1. hi was the sunday stroll picture taken in summer ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well spotted, Greeny. The photo was taken a few weeks back, before the trees shed their leaves.

    ReplyDelete

If you are not able to sign in with a Blogger/Google etc account, then please click on "Name/URL" and type in your name or nickname.

If you have no URL you can leave that part blank.

Please do not post as "Anonymous".

If you are a spammer, please note: Most spam messages are filtered out automatically. The few that get through are deleted. Please don't bother.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
Add to Technorati Favorites