Cowran Bridge, Skellion Bridge and revetment walls to the Cowran cutting on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway

Summary

Two over bridges and revetment walls of the Cowran Cutting, constructed in 1836 for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, to designs of Francis Giles, engineer.

Reasons for Designation

Skellion and Cowran bridges, with parallel cutting revettment walls, of 1836 by Francis Giles for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* designed by Francis Giles, engineer and former pupil of John Rennie, who constructed the line with double track beds and distinctive, single-span overbridges with vertical wing walls;
* the bridges demonstrate a high level of craftsmanship in their construction, detailing and surface dressing;
* both bridges are good examples of the form of bridge designed for this line, and are largely unaltered from their original state;
* the Cowran Cutting presented the largest and boldest engineering challenge of the line, and from where almost a million cubic yards of sand and clay was removed.

Historic interest:

* the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, opened in 1836 during the pioneering phase of railway construction in England, is one of the earliest railway lines in the world and the first cross-country railway in Britain.

Group value:

* the bridges and cutting walls share a functional, spatial, and historic group value with other listed structures on the railway, notably with Gelt Bridge (Grade II*), Corby Viaduct (Grade II) and Corby Bridge/Wetheral Viaduct (Grade I), also to the designs of Francis Giles.

History

The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway is one of the earliest in the world, and the first cross-country railway in Britain, connecting Newcastle on the east coast with Carlisle on the west. Its opening in 1836, during the pioneering phase of railway construction, reduced the travel time for passengers and goods from three days to three hours.

Until 1756, when General Wade began building a military road, these two most northern cities in England were connected only by a bridle way. By 1776 the first serious suggestion of an improved connection using a canal linking the Tyne with the Solway was put forward by civil engineer Ralph Dodd. Other routes were proposed as the century drew to a close by John Sutcliffe, William Chapman, Robert Whitworth, and Thomas Telford. However, the time of canals came and went, and a further series of reports by Chapman, Benjamin Thompson and Josias Jessop tipped the balance in favour of a railway when it was also shown to be cheaper than the canal alternative. In 1825, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Carlisle Railroad Company was formed, less than a year after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, which would build the world’s first inter-city line. The question of a route occupied many minds, and the valleys of the River Irthington and Eden featured prominently as a way to reach the west. An alternative approach, passing to the south of Brampton, was surveyed by John Studholme of Carlisle, and this was supported by the most influential landowner the railway company would have to deal with, the Earl of Carlisle. The Earl saw an opportunity to reach a wider market for coal from his reserves in the North Pennines, and a more southerly route could connect with his wagonway from the fells to the Brampton Staithes. But Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, a resident of Hayton, strongly objected to the railway passing within sight of his house, demanding £8,000 in compensation, so a final southerly deviation was made to avoid the village. It was this move which led to the need for Cowran cutting.

Initially, the route through the Cowran Hills was planned as a tunnel. But the waterlogged sand repeatedly collapsed, and the plan was adapted to become a cutting. The engineer in charge was Francis Giles, originally a canal engineer and later a railway engineer. Giles was also responsible for Gelt Bridge (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1335587; Grade II*), Corby Viaduct (NHLE entry 1087711; Grade II) and Corby Bridge/Wetheral Viaduct (NHLE entry 1987690; Grade I). In his Second Report on the Line of Railway from Newcastle to Carlisle (August 1829) he annotates Cowran Bridge over a Road at Cowran Poor House – an arch for double Railroad. Giles’ 1848 obituary describes how the building of the Newcastle and Carlisle encompassed some of the boldest engineering challenges of the time. Cowran Cutting was the largest of them, and teams of workers toiled continuously in constantly rotating shifts, moving nearly a million cubic yards of sand and clay.

The masonry overbridges spanning the railway fall into two types: the standard overbridge, and an extended version. The two bridges described here are the distinctive standard version, but Skellion Bridge has minor modifications to its design, and Cowran Bridge to its surface treatment. Cowran Bridge has attached walls on the road approaches. These were in place by 1863, when the first edition 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map was surveyed. John William Carmichael's drawing of the cutting in 1837 depicts only fences at the approaches to Skellion Bridge.

Details

Revetment walls of a railway cutting and two overbridges of 1836, to designs of Francis Giles, engineer.

MATERIALS: local red sandstone.

DESCRIPTION:

The Cowran Cutting has revetment walls that extend along either side of the railway track for 725m. They comprise about 15 courses of coursed, rectangular blocks, stand to a height of 4.3m, and terminate in a pair of low stone pillars.

Skellion Bridge is attached to the east end of the revetment walls and carries a bridleway. Springing from an impost band is an almost semi-circular arch reflecting the deepness of the cutting at this point.This is different from the standard shallow segmental arch generally seen on bridges on this line.The rock-faced voussoirs are treated as a conventional arch ring. The arch sits between a pair of abutments with wing walls parallel to the track bed, with a coping course of narrow, flat-topped rectangular stone blocks. Each of the four wing walls terminate in a low pillar with shallow pyramidal caps. The parapet upon a stone band is of three monolithic rectangular courses with a similar, chamfered top course, all delicately tooled. The surface treatment of the plinth is another modification to the standard design, and it has bold horizontal joints and rock-facing.

Cowran Bridge, west of the cutting, carries a public road across its narrow deck. This bridge has a shallow segmental arch springing from a plain impost band, whose jointed voussoirs continue across the shallow spandrels, as used in this period in the overbridges of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. The arch sits between a pair of abutments with wing walls parallel to the track bed, with a coping course of narrow, flat-topped rectangular stone blocks. Each of the four wing walls terminate in a low pillar with a stone capped head. The parapet above a stone band is of three monolithic rectangular courses with a similar, chamfered top course, all delicately tooled. Attached to each parapet on the road approaches are low stone walls of roughly-coursed rubble sandstone standing about eight courses high with semi-circular coping stones.

Sources

Books and journals
Whittle, G, The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (1979), 30 & 24
Fawcett, Bill, A History of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway 1824 to 1870 (2008),

Other
Summary of the history of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway 2025 I Fisher

End of official list entry