January 2025
I'd managed to earn some good partner points the night before by sitting through Wicked with Mrs GRONK, as a reward I managed to slip out for a few hours and knock this one off my list. I’d been eager to tick this one off for a while not only because Crewe is my home town but also because I fell in love with these old railway culverts that direct the town during my visit to Bridgin’ The Gap last summer.
Crewe, being a significant railway town, saw many of its brooks and streams culverted in the 19th century to make way for railway expansion, and of course this includes the Basford brook which is the subject of this report. This culvert takes the brook on a 1km journey beneath the Carriage Sidings and Basford Hall marshalling yard, these yards were constructed in order to manage the large number of freight and passenger trains that passed through Crewe on a daily basis. Basford Hall quickly became invaluable, and by 1937, it was recorded that over 47,000 wagons passed through in just one week. At that time, Crewe Basford Hall was the busiest marshalling yard in Europe, featuring more than 48 km of tracks for sidings and access.
The brook itself begins its life in the hills surrounding the nearby town of Audley, it makes its way through the Cheshire countryside joined along the way by various tributaries until it eventually reaches the hamlet of Basford to the south of Crewe. After exiting the culvert the brook makes its way through Crewe and eventually joins up with the Valley Brook which is the waterway that passes through Bridgin’ The Gap before making its way onto the River Weaver. The culvert appears to be a mash up of sections built at different times, at the infall you will find that the structure is built from engineering brick which was very common on the railway at the time, as you progress through there are a few more modern concrete sections that look to the the result of possible collapses or due to works going on above ground, and the final 100m of the culvert is a bland concrete section which will be the newest part of the culvert.
[1] - Infall
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[3] - Looking back at the infall
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Fujifilm X-T2, 10-24mm f4 R OIS WR
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