Roch Aqueduct, near Littleborough
at Summit, near Littleborough, Lancashire
Also known as Rock Nook Aqueduct.
Built 1838-9 for the Manchester and Leeds Railway. Engineer: George Stephenson. Thomas Longridge Gooch? The aqueduct follows an an s-shaped path and crosses the railway on a skewed masonry arch bridge. The water is constrained by walls in the form of cast iron panels bolted together.
1839 'OPENING OF A PORTION OF THE LEEDS AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. The works on a portion of this line, namely, from Manchester to Littleborough, being now wholly completed, the directors determined on opening that part of the line to the public on Thursday last; and arrangements were made for having an experimental trip on the preceding day, when the directors invited a large number of their friends and the shareholders to accompany them this interesting occasion. ..... The trains were stopped at a part of the line where the Roach is carried across it by an aqueduct, at a height of about forty feet. The river has here been considerably diverted, and has been made to flow nearer the place where the workmen are engaged in tunnelling, for the convenience of having a ready supply of water. The company having alighted, proceeded to examine the works, at the tunnel, which are proceeding with all possible dispatch. ....'[1] . The tunnel was Summit Tunnel.
Historic England Grade II listing entry here.
Geograph entry here.
1852 'BURSTING OF AN AQUEDUCT. On Sunday morning an aqueduct, which carries the river Roch across the front of the Littleborough tunnel of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, immediately over the line, burst, owing to the great accumulation of water from rain during the night, and inundated the line, so as to prevent several of the morning trains from passing along it. Mr. Hall, the superintendent at Manchester, and other officers belonging to the company, proceeded to the spot immediately on receiving information of the accident by telegraph, and found a deep cutting of the line there concerted into a watercourse. Fortunately, the tunnel having a rising gradient under the hills into Yorkshire, the water took an opposite direction, and the damage was easily repaired. Mr. Hall ordered vehicles from Rochdale and other places to be brought to the mouth of the tunnel, and caused the passengers to be taken from the Lancashire trains across the hill to the Yorkshire side, and to bring back the passengers from trains on that side to Lancashire, so that, except for a few hours, the stoppage did not lead to any very serious inconvenience. A great number of excavators were set to work to cut a new channel by the side of the line for the river, and, before night, one line of rail was entirely restored to working order.'[2]