Railway subway MDL1/31, Lady Ann Road Subway

Railway subway for the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway line. Mid-1840s, by Thomas Grainger. Modifications to west wing walls and portal between 1851 and 1892.

MATERIALS: quarry-faced sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: the subway is constructed of squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone, and incorporates a change in ground level, descending from east to west. The faces are differently detailed.

The eastern face has a semi-circular arch of stepped, rusticated quarry-faced voussoirs with tooled margins. It springs from a quarry-faced impost band with chamfered top and bottom edges. The triangular parapet comprising a pair of large stone slabs is set upon a finely-tooled concave-moulded string course. The abutments are slightly raked and there are straight and curving short wing walls to either side with finely-tooled square-plan coping; the walls run into the embankment but appear to terminate in short piers.

The western face is higher and slopes down to the left. The semi-circular arch is of ashlar construction with stepped voussoirs, between slightly battered abutments. The straight and curving wing walls are constructed of squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone, those to the right incorporating particularly large stone blocks.