The following contemporary account appeared in the 27th June 1872 edition of the Bradford Observer and it recounts a visit by the writer to the Garsdale Head area.
Just beyond the junction with Hawes branch there occurs one of the heaviest embankments on the whole of the main line, - the Moorcock bank, as the contractors term it. It is upwards of 700 yards in length, 51 feet at its highest, and with an average height of 40 feet. At least 300,000 cubic yards of material will be required to form this immense embankment; but its size is not the greatest difficulty with which those engaged in its construction have to contend. The ground on which it has to be placed consists of a layer, fifteen feet thick, of peat, which cannot be made a good firm unshifting bottom. It has been drained and dug out to & depth of several feet; but still the Moorcock embankment is in rather shifty condition. This is partly owing to the nature of the material of which it is necessarily composed, - that same slippery boulder-clay referred to in my former article. The incessant wet weather of the last eighteen months has so acted upon the material put into the bank, that it frequently 'slides,' or gives way, the base widening out and the top getting lower. I was shown a photograph of the embankment exhibiting & singular instance of this. A tramway had been laid down, apparently on a firm surface; but in this photograph the rails are visible several feet higher than the earth on which they had been laid, but which has slipped from under them. Leaving the Moorcock embankment with hopes that a season of fine weather may permit it to settle finally, we follow the line which crosses the turnpike road from Sedbergh to Hawes, about a quarter of a mile west of the Moorcock Inn, by a one-arched skew bridge, 39 feet span on the skew. The height of this bridge from the foundation is 50 feet, and it contains nearly 3000 cubic yards of masonry. The stone used in building it is quarried about a mile off, and carted down to the place. At this bridge is the boundary between the West and North Ridings. Immediately beyond it is what is known as the Moorcock cutting. This is a very heavy work, - a quarter of a mile in length, with a greatest depth of 66 feet, and an average depth of 50 feet. It has been extremely difficult to make, because of a disposition manifested by the sides to "shale," or "slip." In all, 200,000 cubic yards of material, clay mixed with large boulders, has been or will be taken out of this cutting. Immediately beyond it is an embankment of equal length, with an average height of thirty to thirty-five feet.
Acknowledgements
This extract was transcribed by Mark R. Harvey from digitised versions of newspapers accessed via the British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/).