Description and History of Site:-
Western portal of Beacon Hill Railway Tunnel. Rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings. Neo-Norman style. Central round arched portal with two circular piers supporting a double arch. The inner arch has simplified dogtooth moulding and the outer arch simplified beakhead moulding. The outer walls are battered with hexagonal corner turrets with arrow slits, and a plain projecting parapet is supported on small round arches with plain corbels. Midway along the 1,105yd. tunnel is a 340ft. deep ventilation shaft that appears of the surface as a round stone built tower to the south of the ornate ventilation chimney of Walker Pit with which it forms a pair in the landscape to the south of Shibden Hall Road near the Hall. Near the Halifax end of the tunnel was an iron tube made of 3/8in. plates that carried a 'galloway gate' obliquely over the line for the coal workings of J.S. Rawson's Swan Bank and Bank Bottom Collieries which closed in 1875-6.

The West Riding Union Railway (WRUR) was formed in 1845 to take over several earlier scheme to build railway around the south of Bradford, that included a line from Milner Royd Junction, near Sowerby Bridge, through Halifax to Low Moor, near Bradford. They obtained Parliamentary approval for their various lines in 1846. John Hawksworth (later Sir John), engineer of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (LYR) was appointed engineer for the line from through Halifax and Beacon Hill Tunnel, with Richard Carter preparing the drawings. The contract was let to George Miller & Co., who part way through the project became Miller & Blackie, and work started in October 1847 when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, cut the first sod, by which time the WRUR had been absorbed into the LYR. Work was completed and the line opened in May 1850. The double track tunnel continued to be operated by the LYR until 1922 when it passed to the enlarged London & North Western Railway before becoming part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway the following year, which itself was nationalised in 1948 as part of British Railways. In the mid 1990s the tunnel passed to Railtrack when the railways were privatised and then to Network Rail in 2001. The tunnel was renovated around the turn of the millennium.

Further Reading and References:-
Listed building description.
John Marshall, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Volume 1, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969, pp. 245-253.

Help us improve this entry

The compilers welcome corrections or additional information on all sites.
Any information provided will be verified before appearing on the web site.

Email comments

Key Words :- railway tunnel

Viewing the Site :- The west portal can be viewed from the end of the platfrom of Halifax Railway Station and the ventilation tower can be seen to the south of

Address :- Baldwin Terrace, adjacent to, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 9XP
Grid Ref :- SE 09980 25164
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.722788 , Long -1.850234
Local Authority :- Calderdale Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1138787,
Site Condition :- Operational site, in use for original purpose
Site Dates :- 1850 - in use
Record Date :- 15 April 2017

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Peter Robinson