In the last two weeks of January 2021 my wife and I followed the length of the Micklehurst Loop from Stalybridge to Diggle. We had been looking for new local walks to undertake in the spirit of lockdown. The route proved to be a gem. Each day that we walked we travelled along part of the Loop line and then crossed to the neighbouring Huddersfield Narrow Canal for the return journey. Everything was enhanced by the presence of a number of cafes providing take-away drinks, cakes and some more substantial food. Each day we walked around 5 miles, there and back. This is the first of a number of posts covering the Loop line. ................ http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/01/31/the-micklehurst-loop-part-1
This is a short addendum to my first article about the Micklehurst Loop, promoted by a few emails from an online acquaintance, Tony Jervis. .... http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/05/the-micklehurst-loop-part-1a
Interesting history. It's amazing how quickly progress and time erases the past, and how difficult it can be to trace the past. Thanks for sharing!
How quickly things change. What once was so vital, is suddenly discarded. It disappears from sight, then from memory, as though it never happened. Anything which remains just does not fit any longer. Becoming almost a mystery to those who follow. Sad.
A second addendum to my first post about the Micklehurst Loop. Just a few days after I completed addendum 1A about the first length of The Micklehurst Loop and particularly about Staley and Millbrook Station and Goods Yard, I heard from James Ward who recollected some photographs taken by his father of the demolition of the Spring Grove Viaduct. He also pointed out a series of photographs on the 'Timepix' website. These are predominantly photographs of the Greater Manchester Revision Point Collection undertaken by/on-behalf-of the Ordnance Survey in the early 1950s and are held by Manchester Libraries. The introduction to the 'Timepix' website makes it clear that all of their watermarked images are free to download and share. http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/15/the-micklehurst-loop-part-1b
I thought the views of that viaduct were interesting. How closely they passed above the buildings. Quite the narrow clearance.
Yes, tight clearance and careful demolition, I think. Only part of the old mill building remains, seemingly now disused. Tight clearances are not unusual in the UK as railways were often threaded through conurbations. Here the route was determined by the space available on the East side of the Tame Valley. Levels and gradients for the line were determined by the need to meet the mainline further up the valley. The alignment also needed to access the best open spaces for goods yards. In this case, immediately north of the viaduct.
Another addendum to my post on the first length of the Micklehurst Loop which includes, among other things, the two CEGB locomotives which served the coal facilities at the Staley and Millbrook Goods Yard http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/18/the-micklehurst-loop-part-1c-including-hartshead-power-station
This is the second length of the Micklehurst Loop. It covers the length between Staley and Millbrook Goods Yard and Micklehurst Passenger Station building. .... http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/21/the-micklehurst-loop-part-2
The third length of the Micklehurst Loop takes us from Micklehurst Passenger Station House to Chew Valley Road Bridge in Greenfield. ...... https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/02/22/the-micklehurst-loop-part-3
Since publishing the first three articles about the Micklehurst Loop. I have had a trickle feed of comments, particularly about the Staley and Millbrook Goods Yard. This short addendum to the first article seeks to bring those items together in one place. It is the fourth addendum to that first post. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/03/...ea-around-the-staley-and-millbrook-goods-yard
An addendum to the post about the third length of the Micklehurst Loop which covers a 1963 image contributed by Keith Norgrove and some further information about Mossley Gas Works and its sidings. ..... https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/03/09/the-micklehurst-loop-part-3a
This last post on the Micklehurst Loop completes the journey to Diggle and takes us to the mouths of the Standedge tunnels and Diggle Station. We completed our walk in January but returned in April to take a few pictures at the site of what was once Diggle Station. .... https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/04/16/the-micklehurst-loop-part-4
An addendum to earlier posts about this short line. ..... http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/09/09/the-micklehurst-loop-once-more While on holiday in September 2021, I was reading older copies of the magazine BackTrack from the turn of the millennium, from, at that time, Atlantic Publishers. (More recent editions are published by Pendragon Publishing.) Volume 14 No. 3, March 2000 included an article by Jeffrey Wells [1] about the Micklehurst Loop (p142ff) Since then I have, over the past 18 months, kept my eye open for interesting shots of the line. This is a selection of these that I have permission to share .... A big thank you to copyright holders/photographers. Their details appear with each image. http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/03/01/the-micklehurst-loop-once-more-2
