When constructing the Helwith Bridge section of its Settle & Carlisle line, the Midland Railway Company had to alter the course of the River Ribble [1] and replace an historic river crossing [1 & 2].
The old and new arrangements are documented in the accompanying contract plan (see Figure 1), which has been uploaded here courtesy of the Midland Railway Study Centre (reference 88-1997-5_5.7). This version of the plan has been edited (to improve clarity & contrast and to reduce download times) and it is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Notes:
[1] F.S. Williams, "The Midland railway: its rise and progress. A narrative of modern enterprise" (1876), p 486:
"Here a county road has for many years been carried over the Ribble by a little bridge; but the county authorities refused the railway company permission to make a level crossing, so the public road had to be diverted and conducted over the river and the railway by a viaduct of considerable length, which, standing beside its little old predecessor, furnished, our engineer remarked, a contrast between "bridges, ancient and modern." Near this spot the line passes along what was once the bed of the river, which had to be diverted along a new course blasted out for it; and by the side of the river a long wall has been erected to protect the embankment from floods."
[2]: "The Midland Railway (Settle to Carlisle) Act, 1866", Clause 32:
"In executing the Works of the Railway at Horton in Ribblesdale the Company shall at their own expense reconstruct the Bridge called Helwith Bridge over the River Ribble in the Wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewecross in the West Riding of the County of York in such a Way as shall be required by and to the reasonable Satisfaction of the Surveyor of Bridges for the Time being for the said West Riding, and of a Width of Twenty Feet between the Parapets of the said bridge."
Image gallery
The photographs in the montage below were taken by Mark R. Harvey in April 2023 and they show the site from various viewpoints, as per the caption.
