Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway bridge plans

The original provenance of these plans is unknown: no office stamps are evident, but most of them are working drawings of bridges on the Accrington-Colne section of the East Lancashire Railway and the Burnley Branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. They give no indication of architects or draughtsmen. Presumably they were used by the original engineers of the line and subsequently for reference in the offices of successive railway companies.

The East Lancashire Railway Act of 1845 authorised the construction of the Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Colne Extension Railway. The line was surveyed by T L Gooch and C E Cawley and construction was divided into two sections. The contract for the Hapton-Colne section was awarded to William and Richard Hattersley on 8 December 1845. The line from Accrington to Burnley Barracks opened for service on 18 September 1848, and the extension to Colne opened on 1 February 1849.

The Burnley Branch, a line running from Todmorden to join the Burnley and Colne Extension at Gannow Junction, was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1845 as a branch of the Manchester and Leeds Railway. It was finally completed in September 1850.

The Manchester and Leeds Railway became the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1847. This company amalgamated with the East Lancashire Railway in 1859, the new company retaining the name of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

Purchased from H Cullerne Pratt, Stratford, London, 14 April 1982 (acc. 4831)