Cleckheaton Viaduct
in Cleckheaton.
Also known as Mann Dam Viaduct.
See here for photograph and map.
Grade II listed.
The LNWR decided to build a second line into Leeds in order to ease congestion on the existing route. The new line included a station to serve Cleckheaton. This was across the valley from the town, so they constructed a remarkable steel trellis viaduct in 1900 to provide road access to the new Cleckheaton Spen station. It was designed by Francis Stevenson.[1]
1899 'In addition to the railway, the Company are making a new approach to the station by placing a viaduct across the valley which lies between the railway and the town of Cleckheaton. The roadway which the viaduct will carry will be between 60 feet and 70 feet above the valley, and will be 25 feet in width and a quarter of a mile long. It will constitute a valuable improvement to Cleckheaton, and has been built by the Company in deference to representations from the locality. The viaduct is built of brick piers supporting columns fored of steel rolled joists, the top being composed of steel rolled joists with jack arches of brick and concrete. This new approach will avoid the steep hill on the Leeds and Elland Road, which is the other means of reaching the station. ....' [2]
Unusually for a trellis viaduct, the parapets are constructed from stone.
The intermediate stations on the line closed in 1953, and the line closed in 1966.