Railway Warehouse And Loading Shed, Old Goods Yard

Railway warehouse and loading shed built around 1841-3 on the Heywood branch line by Thomas Gooch for the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company. Built in coursed, hammer-dressed sandstone and timber with a slate roof.

The building is rectangular in plan and was formerly designed with a track entering and exiting through the gable walls and running alongside the north-east side wall. It comprises a six-bay, full-height loading shed with a three-bay, three-storey warehouse at the north-west end. The upper floor of the warehouse over-sails the track lane.

The building sits on a high stone plinth beneath a double-pitched slate roof. The north-west gable wall has three bays with kneelers and stone coping, and a blind roundel to the apex. The central bay contains square windows with projecting stone sills on the ground and first floors, now boarded. A basement window is set into the plinth with recessed coursed stone blocking. To the left is a tall, wide opening with timber lintel where the track originally exited the building, now boarded over with corrugated metal sheeting. A similar square window appears at first-floor level. To the right are two wide doorways set one above the other, separated by a timber lintel and timber sill. Both retain timber double doors; the first-floor door is now boarded over with corrugated metal sheeting and the ground-floor door has a modern metal roller shutter. Above the first-floor doorway is a blocked opening for a cat's head hoist.

The south-west side wall has similar square windows on the ground and first floors to three left bays, now boarded. The first and second bays have basement windows set into the plinth; the third bay has a taller window which rises through the plinth and lit the warehouse stair to the basement. All now have recessed coursed stone blocking. To the right are three further original wide bays with timber lintels supported by the stone wall to the left and by metal brackets on three massive square timber posts, now raised on concrete padstones, to the centre and right. The fourth bay has been infilled with coursed watershot sandstone, with a straight joint between this bay and the three warehouse bays to the left. The high plinth continues with two tall windows with segmental arched lintels and projecting chamfered sills. The fifth and sixth bays are covered with corrugated metal sheeting and a metal walkway. A modern doorway and two windows appear in the sixth bay. Behind the sheeting, the fifth bay (and possibly the sixth bay) retains a timber screen formed by a series of hinged timber doors, enabling the wide loading bay to be opened up.

The north-east side wall has three bays to the right with square windows with projecting sills on the ground and first floors. Ground-floor windows have recessed, coursed stone blocking and first-floor windows are now boarded. To the left are six bays with tall rectangular windows with projecting stone sills to each bay; the four left bays are now covered by a modern lean-to extension.

The south-east gable wall is covered by corrugated metal sheeting with a small modern porch to the left and a tall, wide opening to the right where the track originally entered the building. Behind the sheeting is vertical timber planking.

The roof structure comprises queen post trusses with outer raking struts with metal shoes and strapping, and two purlins to each side. A stone cross wall separates the warehouse from the loading shed, with a wide opening on the north-east side for the track lane. The lane is separated from the basement and ground floor of the warehouse by a second stone wall. The first floor overrides this wall with two large trap doors set into the floor. The ground and first floors of the warehouse both have timber floorboards resting on deep, closely spaced joists supported by two trusses running across the building, with a cast-iron column at their mid-point. In the south corner is a timber winder stair leading up to the first floor, with a staircase beneath leading down to the basement, now compartmentalised by a modern concrete block wall. The cross wall has doorways with plank doors to the ground and first floors, and square windows with vertical bars and wooden shutters. The track lane wall has a similar window on the ground floor with a wider opening in the bay to each side, now boarded over. Both walls have blocked basement windows. On the first floor, the trap in bay three retains half the trap door and part of the hoisting mechanism with beams holding two iron pulley wheels and the remains of a capstan wheel. There are also beams and pulley wheels relating to the former hoist over the external first-floor doorway. In the south corner of the loading shed is a modern single-storey, flat-roofed office block which is not of special interest. The modern lean-to extension built against the north-east side wall is not of special interest either.

The Manchester and Leeds Railway Company was initially formed in 1825, but parliament did not pass the bill allowing the line's construction until 1836, when George Stephenson and Thomas Gooch were appointed joint principal engineers. The main line was completed in 1841. Thomas Gooch commenced work on the Heywood branch line in November 1840 and it opened on 15 April 1841. A plan of 1843 shows a single line terminating with the warehouse and loading shed, which were built approximately parallel with a canal warehouse of 1834 (now demolished). In 1847 the company was renamed the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. In 1848 a through-line was opened to Bury, which swept past the northern edge of the warehouse and loading shed. A new road, Sefton Street, appears on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map, curving round the southern side of the building. It is likely that the boundary wall and gate piers of the goods yard in which it stands were built around this time.