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| A plaque for the Leeds Waterfront Heritage Trail |
Following on from my day out to Winster, which had involved a total of 7 bus journeys as with a previous trip to Birchover and Stanton-in-Peak, I next took the train to Leeds – firstly to explore the old industrial area of Holbeck, which the 1908 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows as occupied by textile mills, clothing factories, engineering works and back to back houses for the workers.
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| The 1908 OS map of Holbeck |
For as many years as I can remember, as the train loops around this area on the approach to Leeds station, it consisted mainly of derelict brick built industrial buildings and warehouses, with large open spaces where they have been demolished. In recent years, regeneration has been rapidly taking place with the industrial buildings and old housing being replaced with large apartment blocks, offices and industrial units in an area now known as the Temple District.
Having never visited this part of Leeds before, I entered a post code for the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge and, noting that there was a cluster of buildings around Granary Wharf on the Leeds and Liverpool and Leeds Canal and the Holbeck Urban Village – in an area dominated by very uninspiring modern architecture - I decided to have a quick look around before further exploring the area to the west of Park Row.
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| My Photo Challenge for Holbeck Urban Village |
Leaving Leeds station by the rear exit to Granary Wharf, where I had caught a Water Taxi when preparing a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to look at the building stones of Leeds in 2019, I stopped to photograph the Lock No. 1 and the Grade II* listed former Leeds and Liverpool Company warehouse (c.1776) beyond the River Lock.
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| Lock No. 1 and the Leeds and Liverpool Company warehouse |
Making my way past the Double Tree Hotel, the Grade II listed mid C19 crane is surrounded by sandstone paving that looks like it has been laid as part of the recent development, but the original setts at the edge of the dock have been retained.
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| Paving and setts outside the Double Tree Hotel |
I didn’t closely examine the sandstone used for the setts but, with this section of the canal being built 1770-1777, the source of the stone for these and the very large blocks of gritstone used for the canal walls is very likely to be the Bramley Fall Quarry in the Rough Rock, which operated next to the River Aire 6 km north-east of Granary Wharf as the crow flies.
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| Large blocks of Bramley Hall stone |
The very coarse grained gritstone from the original Bramley Hall Quarry developed a reputation for the size of blocks and the great strength and resistance to weathering, with these being widely used for engineering work. Although stone named Bramley Hall is quarried near Bramhope, the original quarry closed c.1839 and this should be considered as a generic trade name for pebbly gritstone obtained from certain quarries on the Rough Rock.
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| Bridge 226 |
Continuing west along the canal side, Bridge 226 was built 1770-1777 for road traffic, with vermiculated rustication decorating its voussoirs and buttresses, but Historic England (HE) suggest that the parapets with plain incised panels were rebuilt c.1819.
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| A detail of quartz pebbles in the Rough Rock (21 mm diameter coin) |
Getting very close to the east elevation of the bridge, beds of large quartz pebbles can be seen in the very coarse Rough Rock and, as explained by Bill Fraser of the Leeds Geological Association during a Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip to Roundhay Park, these were formed at the base of a large river channel. This formed a part of the vast deltaic system in which the very coarse grained sandstones of the Millstone Grit Group were deposited.
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| A quartz pebble in vermiculated masonry (21 mm diameter coin) |
The retaining wall next to the tow path is built with sandstone that has a completely different character to the Rough Rock, although occasional blocks of the latter are incorporated into it Its yellowish colour, relatively fine grain size and well defined plane bedding immediately made me think of the very many examples of the Elland Flags, from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation, which I had seen when exploring Headingley and Headingley Hill a few weeks earlier.
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| Elland Flags sandstone used in the retaining wall |
The Basin Lock to the west of Bridge 226 was also built 1770-1777 and the very massive blocks used for its walls are presumably further examples of the Rough Rock from the Bramley Fall Quarry, but I just took a few general photographs of it.
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| Basin Lock |
Crossing over the bridge, the former Canal Company Office is considered by HE to have been erected after the completion of the canal in 1816 and is built with a pale buff coloured stone that looks quite different to the Rough Rock and the Elland Flags.
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| The Canal Company Office |
I couldn’t get near enough to examine it with my hand lens, but I haven't seen this pattern of differential weathering of fine grained beds in any Upper Carboniferous sandstone and it reminds me of the ‘old leather texture’ of weathered White Mansfield stone - a variety of the Permian Cadeby Formation that is classified as a dolomitic sandstone.
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| A detail of weathered stone |
In 1819, the horse drawn Mansfield to Pinxton railway first connected to the Cromford Canal, which was opened in 1794 to link with the River Trent, and it is theoretically possible that White Mansfield stone could have been brought along the canal network to Leeds, but this would be very unusual given the abundance of good quality local stone and it needs further investigation when I next visit Leeds.
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| The south elevation of the Canal Company Office |
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