Railway tunnel portals MVL3/41, west end of Standedge Tunnel

Three railway tunnel portals at the west end of Standedge Tunnel; the centre portal built between 1845-1849 by the contractor Thomas Nicholson and engineer Alfred Stanistreet Jee for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway line, the south portal built at the same time, in advance of a tunnel excavated between 1868 and 1871, and the north portal built between 1890 and 1894 for the London & North Western Railway.

MATERIALS: brick or gritstone arches, coursed and squared quarry-faced gritstone walls, and ashlar dressings.

DESCRIPTION: the west portals of the three bores of Standedge Tunnel are situated in a deep cutting next to Station Road, Diggle. All three portals are set into a coursed and squared quarry-faced gritstone wall. The centre portal and the south portal were both built between 1845 and 1849 and have a matching design; each portal has a Tudor arch with quarry-faced voussoirs and straight sides flanked by battered buttresses. Running above the arches and across the buttresses is a moulded ashlar stringcourse and blocking course, acting as a cornice to terminate the structure. These two portals were originally each for a single track railway, although the bore of the south portal was not excavated until 1868-1871; the entrance constructed earlier in anticipation of the tunnel. The north tunnel portal was built for a double track between 1890 and 1894 and is therefore taller and wider than its neighbours. It is formed of a Staffordshire blue brick horseshoe arch set within an ashlar roll moulding. Flanking the arch are two projecting quarry-faced buttresses or piers whilst above it is an ashlar course, then a moulded and tooled string course and a tooled blocking course. Set into the centre of the blocking course is a large date stone.