Collyhurst Footbridge and Barney's Steps
There may be several footbridges in Collyhurst, but only one is associated with 'Barney's Steps'. Also known as Bank Bridge.
The bridge crossed a series of railway tracks, constructed by the L&YR, but since removed. For a pedestrian footbridge over a railway, it is unusually substantial, having four masonry arches. However, the distinctive aspect of the bridge arises from its elevation relative to Collyhurst Road, on the eastern side.
This 1960 photograph shows Collyhurst Road in the foreground, with the footpath crossing the River Irk en route to Cheetham.
In this 1934 aerial photograph, looking north, the four-arch footbridge can be seen near the bottom of the photo (identified as the Collingham Street footbridge). Immediately above and to the right of the bridge is a group of two-storey buildings. These are identified on the 1915 O.S. map as the 'Little Green Works (Packing Materials)'.
L. S. Lowry used the bridge and its steps as a subject in several drawings and paintings.
The footpath was presumably an ancient right of way descending from Cheetham to the Irk Valley at Collyhurst, crossing ground which for many years provided clay and housed brickworks. This 1910 photograph shows the bridge from the Cheetham side, looking east. Looking back through old maps provides no compelling reason to explain the presence of a footbridge here, until we get to Green's 1787-94 map, which shows a small footbridge crossing the River Irk at the same location as the present road bridge across the river. Green's map shows that after crossing the Irk a footpath heads westwards across a field, alongside a boundary hedge, until it reaches the foot of an escarpment, when it turns and heads north for 150 yds, where there was a way up the escarpment to join a track which headed west and then south west to join the Manchester-Bury road. All the land mentioned belonged to the Earl of Derby at the time, and was divided into fields, with very few buildings. Bancks's 1831 map shows that the old track which led to the Manchester-Bury road had become Peel Lane. Houses had been built on one side of the lane.
Referring to later maps and to the 1960 photograph suggests that the fields below the escarpment had been covered by landfill, facilitating expansion of the L&YR's facilities, which included carriage sheds and sidings.