Figure 1
The site of the main 1924-5 landslide as it appeared on November 21st (top) & 28th (bottom), 2023.
To the north of Appleby Station, the Settle & Carlisle Railway runs along the top of a massive embankment. Following a period of wet & stormy weather in December 1924, the embankment was damaged by a series of landslides and a substantial section of the retaining wall adjacent to Battlebarrow collapsed.
The contemporary newspaper reports transcribed below provide a fascinating account of the event, its impact on train services, and the nature & extent of the subsequent repair works.
The photographs in Figure 1 were taken in November 2023 and they show the site of the main landslide:
- The top photo is a context view, looking NNW along Battlebarrow (the main road leading north from the town). Bridge SAC/239 is visible in the distance (left) and the sign-post (centre) indicates the entrance to the Grammar School (which is mentioned in some of the newspaper accounts).
- The bottom photo shows the affected area in more detail. The end pier (centre) and approximately 25 yards of the adjacent retaining wall (left) were demolished by the landslide. They were subsequently rebuilt and the original blocks of red sandstone were probably used for the outer skin (although they have been laid in a slightly different pattern). The steeply angled low wall (right) was added to strengthen a previously unsupported section of the embankment.
According to the contemporary accounts, ground water played a key role in the landslide and, as can be seen in the photos, the repaired section of retaining wall is still very wet.
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, Friday 02 January 1925
ANOTHER GALE
... From most parts of the country came reports telling of destruction and flood damage caused by the renewal of the gale.
In the Thames Valley and round Kirkby Stephen - as far-removed examples - floods were as bad as ever.
Yorkshire had snow and 12 degrees of frost, followed by rain. The wind attained a velocity of between 60 and 70 miles an hour.
Some incidents of the storm are:
... There was a landslide near Appleby, Westmorland, involving part of the London, Midland, and Scottish Line, and only a single line was being worked. The railway bridge over the highway to Longmarton was considered unsafe, and road traffic was stopped. All down the Eden Valley is a series of lakes caused by the floods, and roads are impassable.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Monday 5th January 1925
THE RAILWAY LANDSLIDE AT APPLEBY.
A BIG REPAIRING JOB.
The landslide on the London Midland and Scottish Railway (Midland main line section) at Appleby, turns out to be much more serious than was first estimated, and is reported that several weeks will elapse before the railway is restored to normal running condition. The displacement has occurred on a huge embankment which carries the Midland main line from Appleby station to the point where the London and North Eastern (Eden Valley section) crosses by under-bridge. The embankment has a length of over a quarter of a mile, and is sixty feet high at one place - just as it approaches the magnificent overbridge under which passes the main road to Dufton. The massive bridge is supported by huge wing abutments, rising from about eight feet high at the beginning, to the height of the bridge parapet. It is on the Appleby side of this abutment that the most serious part of the landslide has occurred.
When it was first observed early last week there was merely a noticeable depression on the down side, but later in the week the side of the embankment began to press outwards, until it pushed away and broke down the massive stone work of the abutment. Many tons of masonry and embankment packing have been pushed out into the roadway, and half the road has been closed to traffic.
All traffic on the railway is worked, between Appleby and Long Marton, on the up main line, and all trains run over the danger spot at a very slow pace. At this end hundreds of tons of ballast have been deposited. The bridge itself, as well as the remainder of the abutments, are being closely watched by the engineers - directed by Mr. Fryer, of Derby. and Mr. Cook, of Leeds - who made hourly trials to ascertain if the masonry has shifted. For this purpose they have painted white discs on the stone work, and driven steel spiles into the road at a given distance from the discs. Each hour a measurement is taken of the distance between the discs and marked spots on the spiles, while light engines are being run over the down line at intervals to test the strength of the embankment at the place where the material has been displaced.
At the north side of the bridge a substantial new wall, with foundations nine feet deep, is being built of special hard stone from the Wakefield district. The line of the new wall is over a foot outside the old one, and thus will give the engineers a hold for the deposit of hundreds of tons of ballast. On Saturday about 100 men were working on the job, and yesterday the engineers expected to have 260 on, including gangs from Leeds and Nottingham.
It is stated that the engineers suspect that the subsidence has been caused by water getting under the embankment, the core of which (as far as can be seen at the break) is composed of huge cobble stones. An Appleby resident, who remembers the line being built, states that field over which this part of the embankment was erected was of marshy nature, and that the engineers of that period were a long time in finding a foundation.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Tuesday 6th January 1925
REPAIRING LANDSLIDE AT APPLEBY.
Snow thickly covered the ground in North Westmorland on Sunday, but considerable progress was made during the weekend towards repairing the damage caused by the landslide on the London Midland and Railway Scottish Railway (the Midland main line), north of Appleby. Yesterday gangs of navvies were excavating the foot of the south embankment on the up-side, where it is intended to place a big drain leading to a culvert under the main road, so as to get rid of the water which is suspected of causing the damage.
Only one train was allowed pass over the section on Sunday, the rest of the Midland traffic being diverted via the L. and N.W. section. Single line working was in operation yesterday.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 6th January 1925
A TERRIBLE WEEK.
STORMS AND FLOODS EVERYWHERE.
WIDE SPREAD DAMAGE.
...
APPLEBY. According to old inhabitants of the borough Appleby has to go back at least seventy years for a counterpart of the flood scenes witnessed on Friday morning. Late on New Year's night the Eden, which flows through and round the town, overflowed, and the road along the Sands was soon flooded. This is no uncommon thing for Appleby, and the wall slots, opposite the Shire Hall are there specially to give the water an easy course back to the river. But the water rose with such rapidity that those living in the vicinity of the river had to bestir themselves to save their furniture. Before midnight the water had reached the window sills of the houses opposite the bridge end on the Bongate side. ... Naturally. all the houses from the foot of Battlebarrow to Bongate Institute were flooded, and much damage was done....
GRAVE RAILWAY DANGER AT APPLEBY.
BATTLEBARROW LANDSLIDE.
26O MEN ON PROTECTIVE WORK.
AN ANXIOUS WEEK-END.On the Midland main line section of the L.M. & S. railway considerable interruption of traffic is likely to prevail for some time owing to a landslide at Battlebarrow, Appleby, which is of much more alarming dimensions than was at first reported. On Saturday there were over one hundred men working at the place, and the engineers were making arrangements to have 260 on the job all day on Sunday, including gangs from Leeds and Nottingham.
The disturbance has taken place in the vicinity of one of the finest bridges on the northern section of the line. As is well known to local people the railway runs for nearly half a mile, from Appleby station northwards to the point where it crosses the L.N.E.R. (Eden Valley branch) on the top of a high embankment, in parts about 60 feet high, and there is a V shaped depression between this embankment and the Midland Company's sidings. For many years now the Midland Company have been filling up this depression with ballast and debris from other parts of the system.
On the west side of the embankment, nearly opposite the Grammar School, there is a long abutment of massive masonry over a yard thick and graduating in height from about 6 feet at the Battlebarrow end, up to the altitude of the bridge which carries the line over the main road to the east fell-side. The force of the subsidence or squeezing outwards of the embankment may be gathered from the fact that about 25 yards of this solid masonry - composed of huge blocks of hard sandstone, probably from Crowdundle Quarry, and specially built on an inclined plane towards the embankment - has been pushed bodily on to the road, together with many tons of the embankment itself, which appears to be composed mainly of big cobble stones. Half the main road is piled up with debris from this slide, and has been closed to traffic. Lookout men are placed at each side to regulate the traffic on the part of the road still open. The telegraph and telephone poles were involved in the disturbance, and for a short time communication was severed. Gangs of men soon erected new poles on the other side of the road, and took the wires across to them.
Grave fears were entertained as to the possibility of there being further subsidence, and the engineers on the spot who are headed by Mr. Tryer, Derby, and Mr. Cook, Leeds, are making tests of the abutment walls almost hourly. For this purpose they have painted white discs on the walls at certain places, and opposite to each disc is a steel spile driven into the road-way, at a measured distance from the disc. The space between the disc and the spiles is measured at frequent intervals, and occasionally a light engine is taken over the down-line - which is closed to ordinary traffic to ascertain if there is any further bulging.
On Saturday a large gang of men were engaged in dumping trail loads of ballast on to the embankment, while another gang were building supports on the north end of the bridge at the Dufton side. For this purpose a special fawn-coloured hard stone is being brought from the Wakefield district, and on Saturday the engineers were taking on as many men as they could get. A line has been marked out along this road for the purpose of erecting a new abutment, of which it is reported that the foundations are to be 9 feet deep. It will be about a couple of feet nearer the Dufton road, and longer than the present wall, and its erection will permit of the deposit of many hundreds of tons of ballast to further strengthen the embankment on that side.
All traffic is being worked on the up-line, and the trains pass very slowly over the embankment. An Appleby resident, who remembers the line being built, has stated that the building of the embankment was a difficult and costly job for the company, as one of the fields over which it passed was of a marshy character, and much time elapsed before the engineers could secure a satisfactory foundation.
Although a considerable amount of snow fell during the small hours of Sunday morning the workmen engaged in restoring the embankment made great progress during the weekend, especially on the side of the bridge facing the Dutton road. Large gangs of men from different parts of the company's system have been working in shifts day and night during the week-end. The rough wall at the foot of the up embankment, on the north of the bridge, which was begun on Saturday afternoon has been almost completed, and yesterday men were engaged in distributing the train loads of new ballast deposited there. On the other side, where the large portion of the massive abutment wall has been pushed out on to the main road another gang of men were employed excavating a trench in which it is intended to lay a big drain, ending in a culvert under that road to the ground sloping towards the Eden. In this way it is expected that the water, which is suspected of having caused the subsidence, will be drained away. On Sunday the whole line in that area was practically closed to traffic, so as to impede the resiration work as little an possible. Only one train was allowed to pass during the day, the rest of the traffic being diverted via the L and N.W. route. The scene of the landslide is being visited by large numbers of people. Although much of the debris in the Battlebarrow side has been shifted, only half the road is available for traffic.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Thursday 8th January 1925
THE RAILWAY LANDSLIDE AT APPLEBY.
POSITION STILL PRECARIOUS.
Notwithstanding that many gangs of men have been working in shifts day and night restoring the embankment on the London Midland and Scottish main line at Appleby, which was seriously disturbed during the recent floods, it stated that a considerable time may elapse before the railway is in normal working order.
It is feared, moreover, that engineers have not yet got to the full extent of the subsidence, as yesterday operations on a large scale were begun on the north side of the great railway bridge. Here the foundation an extra and massive new "babbery" [sic] is being laid, and in due time it will be filled in with new ballast. Considerable progress has been made on the down line (south of bridge) side of the embankment, where the worst subsidence occurred; that which pushed out into the roadway about 25 yards of the thick abutment. Yesterday several train loads of hard stone from the Wakefield district were deposited on the embankment on both sides. A smaller landslide occurred at Long Marton, about two miles further down the line, and many men are engaged in removing debris, draining, and restoring the embankment. It is still necessary to work single line, and trains pass the obstructions very slowly.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 13th January 1925
APPLEBY RAILWAY LANDSLIDE.
Favoured with the fine weather good progress has been made during the weekend in strengthening both sides of the embankment of the Midland Railway at Appleby, which subsided in an alarming manner as fully reported in last week's "Observer." Hundreds of tons of rock and clinkers have been tipped, and the work of excavating for a massive concrete abutment on the west side is being rapidly pushed on.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Friday 16th January 1925
THE RAILWAY LANDSLIDE NEAR APPLEBY.
WORK OF RESTORATION.
The engineers in charge of the work of restoration on the London Midland and Scottish main line (Midland section) at Appleby are more satisfied with the progress of the work and the condition of the abutments than since the land-slide took place during Christmas storms.
The subsidence squeezed out into the rail-road hundreds of tons of the embankment, and pushed out about 25 yards of a yard-thick masonry abutment wall. As part of the remaining hundred yards of abutment on the south side the bridge was in danger, special arrangements were made by the engineers to enable them to detect any outward movement. On a test being made, it was found that there had been no further movement, thus indicating that the engineers have probably got to the bottom of the trouble.
Half the main road is still closed to traffic, and the remaining portion is protected by lookout men at each end of the obstruction. The traffic on the railway is still being worked by single line, and it is expected that a considerable time will elapse before normal working is resumed, notwithstanding that the gangs of men are working day and night shifts.
The landslide at Long Marton, about two miles down the line from Appleby, was more serious than was at first suspected, but excellent progress has been made strengthening the embankment, with trainloads of ballast, and the work is nearly completed.
At Culgaith, where there was a subsidence in a cutting between the two tunnels, the workmen are still engaged in clearing away the debris, and cutting away the dangerous part of the embankment.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 20th January 1925
A LONG AND COSTLY JOB.
It is evident that the restoration of the embankment on the Midland Railway, north of Appleby, which was damaged by subsidence during the Christmas and New Year floods, will be a long and costly job. The work is being pushed on with all haste, and gangs of men are working constantly on the spot. At the north side of the bridge the embankment has been strengthened by a thick dry wall at the foot, the intervening spaces having been filled with many hundreds of tons of ballast. The most serious part of the landslide, however, occurred at the south end, on the side of the embankment overlooking the Grammar School, and which pushed out into the road-way about 25 yards of the massive abutment wall. During the past week the engineers have by tests, satisfied themselves that there has been no further movement of the remaining hundred yards of abutment supporting the embankment to the bridge, and the workmen are now concentrating on the provision of defensive works opposite the school gates. Here a concrete foundation wall is being sunk to a depth of thirty feet, and hundreds of tons of broken stone and cement are being tipped into the channel that has been made. Special plant has been brought for the purpose, and a great many men are engaged on the job. Single line working has still to be adopted, and trains pass very slowly over the open line. Nearer Appleby, train loads of heavy boulders are being deposited down the embankment, as the engineers are carrying out a general strengthening scheme for the whole length of the "batter," though there has been no apparent movement at this part. The work of restoring the embankment at Long Marton, where a landslide occurred on New Year's Day, has been almost completed.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 10th February 1925
THE APPLEBY LANDSLIDE.
NORMAL WORKING RESUMED.
Double line working has been resumed on the L. M. & S. Railway (Midland section) at Appleby, the service having been interrupted for over a month on account of the extensive landslide that occurred on the embankment to the north of the station, during the New Year floods. Large portions of a 60ft. high embankment subsided on both sides of the line, and at both sides of the skew bridge leading to the Brampton rood. Although it has been found feasible to restore normal working of traffic, the restoration is by no means completed; indeed it is stated that many weeks, or even months, will elapse ere the prospected work is accomplished. An immense amount of special plant has been deposited on the job, and the workmen are now engaged in sinking a solid concrete abutment, which has a depth of thirty feet. The remainder of the bank, towards Appleby Station, is being strengthened with big boulders and ordinary ballast. Half the main road is still closed to traffic, and look-out men remain night and day on the road directing the traffic. There has been no further movement of the abutment wall near the bridge, and bridge itself is now deemed to be out of danger.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Monday 13th April 1925
RAILWAY LANDSLIDE AT APPLEBY.
The serious landslide on the Midland (main line) section the L.M.S., at Appleby, the repair of which has engaged hundreds of workmen, and many hundreds of tons of material since the new year, has shown signs of extension at a point in the same embankment nearer Appleby station, and several train loads of heavy ballast have been deposited at the spot, to be used for strengthening purposes. Extensive works are still in progress near where the first burst occurred, and restorative operations are likely to last well into the summer.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 14th April 1925
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS.
Further developments have taken place in connection with the landslide that occurred on the Midland Railway embankment at Appleby on New Year's Day. In the meantime scores of men have dealt with hundreds of tons of material that has been used for strengthening both sides of the embankment at each end of the skew bridge. During the past week the engineers have found a further portion that needs strengthening. This is near the signal box at the north of the station. Two trainloads at least of huge boulders have been deposited here, and men are engaged in placing them in position preparatory to filling in with smaller ballast. Work is still actively proceeding near the bridge, and on the Long Marton side of the bridge a new abutment wall is being built, nearer the Dutton Road than the old one, and a deep foundation of concrete is in course of formation. It has been stated that several more months will pass ere the whole job is completed, and the landslide must have cost the company many thousands pounds.
Penrith Observer, Tuesday 21 April 1925
ENCROACHMENT NEAR CROTTY BRIDGE.
At a meeting of the Health and Highways Committee a letter was read from the land and estate agent of the L. M. & S. Railway Company, with an accompanying plan showing the encroachment upon the side of the public highway near the railway bridge at Battlebarrow, and also indicating a strip of land near Crotty Bridge, which it was suggested, the Company might be willing to add to the highway as recompense for the surrender of public right over the land encroached upon. The committee recommended the Council to consent to the proposals, subject to the condition that, as regards the suggested addition of land to the highway, they should carry out the required excavation for, and formation of, the highway, and erect and maintain the necessary roadside fence.
Acknowledgements
The contemporary accounts were transcribed by Mark R. Harvey from digitised versions of newspapers accessed via the British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/).