Railway subway MDL1/30, West Street Subway

Railway subway for the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway line, mid-1840s, by Thomas Grainger; 1847 to 1892, widened on the west side.

MATERIALS: sandstone; purple engineering brick.

DESCRIPTION: the subway incorporates a change in ground level, descending from east to west. It comprises two phases and is therefore differently detailed on each face. The east face has a segmental arch of stepped sandstone voussoirs with tooled margins and substantial rectangular, finely tooled coping stones. It spring from a quarry-faced impost band, with chamfered top and bottom edges, and terminates in rectangular piers, which rise to track level where there is an ashlar band and continue above terminating in flat coping stones. There is no parapet. The abutments and spandrels are constructed of squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone. Short, straight wing walls of squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone project to the south retaining some of their coping stones. Metal railings have been added to the parapet and wing walls. The west face was constructed in mid-later C19: it is taller with a semi-circular arch ring constructed of four bands of purple engineering brick springing from an impost band, with a stone parapet above terminating in rectangular coping stones. The soffit of this extension is also of purple engineering brick. Within the tunnel, the original mid-C19 segmental arch remains partially visible at the join with the extended section. The end of the curving wing walls are marked by square piers, and the coursed stonework extends beyond into a retaining wall for the embankment, also of squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone.