Trestle Bridge, Blake Dean - ALC00812

"But hark! What sound is that which startles him (the tourist) with its shrill shriek, almost making him forget that he is 'far away from the madding crowd?' On the opposite side of the valley he descries a railway engine with a train of trucks just emerging from the wooded hillside, and he cannot help thinking that the vandals are on us again. But we shall have to explain that this is the temporary tramway, recently laid down by Mr. Tempest, contractor for the new reservoirs at Walshaw Dean, now in the course of construction by the Halifax Corporation. The line commences on the hillside near Whitehill Nook, and about five minutes walk from the village of Heptonstall, where quite a village of workmen's huts had sprung up, with Mission Church, Reading Room, etc., and known by the appropriate name of Dawson City, after its more distinguished prototype in Alaska. The line is about five or six miles long, and was constructed for the purpose of conveying material required in the construction of the waterworks. A little farther on the tourist is again brought to a standstill to admire the beautiful trestle bridge, which at this point carries the tramway across the valley. The bridge is 590 feet long and 105 feet high, and was constructed by Messrs. G. H. Greenwood & Co., Joiners and Builders, Hebden Bridge. After crossing the valley the tramway is cut across the moor direct to the works."

Extracts from "Guide to Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge & Neighbourhood including Cragg Valley, Colden Valley and Heptonstall" [ref S3/2]

Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

No date yet

PHDA - Alice Longstaff Collection

Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

ALC00812.tif