Pudsey Quarry Rail Line

[Si]

I've just noticed on Godfrey's 1908 Pudsey map, that there was a rail branch from the main line just before Greenside tunnel, which ran down to the quarry. I used to play (laik) down this valley as a kid, and rode my motorbike down there as a teenager, but don't remember any evidence of the line. Some buildings are also shown, and I can remember the remains of a vault (cellar?), some grooves in two rows of stones (crane?) and there was a large rock near the cliff edge with a chain running through a hole in it. Does anyone (Phill d, perhaps) have any more information, or even pictures? Thanks in advance,cheersSi

[rikj]

This would have been Smalewell Quarry, maybe giving its name to the present Smalewell Road. This Pudsey site might have more info if you get in touch with them. There's a pic of a train coming through the bridge (still there) that carried the road down to the quarry.The photo on that page is also in "Pudsey in old picture postcards volume 2", with a little bit more info."The gravelled area in the foreground is where a private track from the quarry connected with the mainline to Bradford. The track ran behind the photographer."Don't know what sort of quarry it would have been, but I'd guess stone as most buildings in Pudsey were built of local stone. The fact that it merited a link to the railway implies it was of good quality and could be sold elsewhere in preference to their own local stone.Clay and fireclay were also quarried in the area, but often by drift mines. Also coal.

[Si]

Thanks for your reply, Rikj, just seen it. I'll have to look for that book. I think it's more likely the quarry was named after the road, as Smalewell comes from "small well" - the area is dotted with them.It was a stone quarry - some large dressed stones still litter the top of the cliff which the quarry is above. It's as if they stopped work there very suddenly. However, if you look up at the cliff face, there appears to be a very thin coal seam. When I was a kid, I used to live where those houses are in the background of the loco picture.Thanks again,Si.

[The Parksider]

When you go back far enough you'll find a greater fashion for laying down tram tracks or rails not just for mines and quarries as well.If you check Leodis for the building of the tunnel through the embankment to take the ring road through it between Lawnswood and Woodside you'll see a tramway built for doing that.The series of pictures are superb - worth a look if you know the tunnel - sorry Bridge"" they dug through the embankment supporting the railway then built the bridge under it - very interesting.

[rikj]

Absolutely Parksider. Little tramways seem to have been the equivalent of fork lift trucks on the construction sites then. They were just the easiest and cheapest way of moving materials around the site.On leodis there's a great picture of a railway underneath Brudenell Road in Hyde Park. Built for the construction of a relief sewer. It's things like that, that start urban myths!