The Old Railway Goods Shed

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I have added this page so as I can share with you some information together with some more photos of this Grade II Listed Building.

The former railway goods shed dates back to 1847, and was listed as a grade II listed building on the 27th November 2007.

It was listed for the following principal reasons:

1- it is a survival from the expansionist second phase of railway development, dating to 1847.

2 - It is associated with the local cotton industry which it and the railway it adjoins were built to serve.

3 - It survives virtually intact and unaltered from its original structure, dimensions, and floor plan.

4 - It demonstrates the original flow of traffic transferring cotton goods from road to rail transport.

5 - It contains its original raised platform and a rare working hand-cranked jib crane dating to the mid-nineteenth century.

The building was constructed using coursed rubble sandstone with a grey slate roof.

It is a single storey 4 bay building, with an open interior, one side of the building is built into a steep embankment rising to eaves height at the rear. The railway tracks entered from a branch of the main line at one end of the building, and continued out of the other end for a short distance. Horse drawn or later motor driven transport entered at one end, near to the embankment.

The inside of the building has 3 exposed trusses of king-post construction with a metal strut replacing the king post and bolted through the tie beam via a semi circular iron cradle, and a central beam running longitudinally across the tie beams. The truss ends are supported on timber corbels with shallow stone buttresses below. There are traces of a possible former floor level at the height of the wall plate. There is a stone flag floor. The railway tracks which run through the building have been concreted over.

A post in the centre of the building, near to the end of the platform and rising to the central truss, forms the upright member of a pivoting hand cranked jib crane. The post and arm are of squared timber with an angled brace, and are operated by a manual cog and ratchet winding mechanism with a cable drum at the base running up to a large cast iron cable wheel at the top. The cable has a pulley system at the jib end wheel and the crane rotates through 360 degrees.

The railway line and station at Summerseat was opened in 1846, and this goods shed was built shortly after this. The line and the shed were principally designed to serve the local cotton mills of which there were several, the nearest one being twist Mill.

The station was rebuilt in 1860 by the East Lancashire Railway's resident engineer, John Perring, and the jib crane may date to this time, if not earlier. The mills which the goods shed served were in decline by the early 20th century, and the nearest, Twist Mill, was gone by 1939. The siding and yard were still in use up to the early 1960's, but the railway siding tracks were removed around the time the railway became single track in 1967.

I would like to thank Martin Hodson for allowing me to take these photos,

and also for letting me share them with you, on this web site.