![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pingot-from-drone2b.jpg\")
<\/a>This area of Lamberhead Green\u00a0is soon to be transformed by the construction of the M58 Link Road which will bypass it to the south. The road will pass many metres to the north of the Pingot site\u00a0and therefore will not affect it.<\/p>\n<\/a>Area affected by M58 Link Road with Monument Unique ID references<\/p><\/div>\n
The exception however is the remains of the lime kiln at the bottom of Brook Lane (MGM5614 – GM HER 4667.1.0), which could well be destroyed when the lane is re-routed. Its existence has been noted in the planning application so hopefully provision will be made for its recording. Date: March 29, 2015 Date: May 25, 2014 Date: September 4, 2013 \u2018A VERY SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN RAILWAY HISTORY\u2019 2013 marks the bicentennial of the first steam locomotive to operate in Lancashire and the third commercially successful one in the world – a very significant milestone in railway history<\/span>. It was built by Robert Daglish at Haigh Foundry for John Clarke who was a Liverpool banker and owner of Winstanley and Orrell colliery. That locomotive was known as The Yorkshire Horse<\/em>, or more accurately, The Walking Horse<\/em> – and it was used to transport coal from Winstanley Hall estate to the canal at Crooke a good 16 years before Stephenson built his Rocket.<\/p>\n For many years in the 18th<\/sup> century, wooden wagonways had been used in the Wigan area to transport coal via horse-drawn wagons from the various coal fields down to the River Douglas. Wagon-loads of coal were transported in controlled descents from the Orrell coalfield, first to the Douglas Navigation in the 1770s and then to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1784.\u00a0 Haulage of loaded wagons uphill was to be avoided because of the excessive strain it put on the horses.<\/p>\n In 1792, John Clarke and hisLiverpoolpartners expanded their operations by leased land from Squire William Bankes of Winstanley Hall and started to mine coal in the estate to the south of Smithy Brook. This brook runs in a valley to the south of Pemberton separating the Winstanley estate from Orrell.\u00a0 The only pathway to transport coal from Winstanley down to the canal at Crooke was to cross Smithy Brook, go uphill toOrrell Road, and then descend through Kitt Green to Crooke. The only way Clarke could achieve this was to build a stone viaduct across Smithy Brook at Pingot, known as The Arches. He was then able to build a horse-powered wagonway from Winstanley to connect with Berry\u2019s earlier wagonway near Oldham\u2019s Fold on Orrell Road, which he had already purchased.\u00a0 It took about 14 horses to pull loaded wagons of coal from The Arches Viaduct up toOldham\u2019s Fold, a distance of about 600 yards. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, the cost of horses and horse feed was high.<\/p>\n In about 1804, Lord Balcarres of Haigh hired Robert Daglish as engineer at Haigh Foundry and Daglish built stationary steam engines to pump water from increasingly deep coal mines. Steam locomotives began to be developed in the early 1800s and in 1812 two steam locomotives were operated successfully \u2500 on the level \u2500 at Middleton Colliery in Leeds. About 1810, Clarke planned to expand his coal mining operations in Winstanley and needed to extend his railway to near Longshaw. At this time, he hired Robert Daglish as his colliery manager and Daglish built The Walking Horse,<\/em> installed fish-belly rails on stone sleepers, and fitted a toothed driving wheel on the left side of the engine to engage with cogged rails. The age of steam locomotives had arrived in Winstanley and Orrell.<\/p>\n The locomotive has been described wrongly by historians as a Blenkinsop locomotive.\u00a0 John Blenkinsop was the manager at Middleton Colliery and he patented the rack system that provided traction for the Middleton locomotives and Daglish\u2019s locomotive. Blenkinsop did not, however, design or build the Middleton locomotives; these were built by the Leeds engine-makers and millwrights Fenton, Murray & Wood. The main reason for calling Daglish\u2019s locomotive The Yorkshire Horse <\/em>appears to have been the erroneous assumption by many that Daglish simply copied the Middleton locomotives. This assertion also seems to have led many chroniclers to ignore Daglish\u2019s locomotive and perhaps explains why The<\/em> Walking Horse<\/em> and the Winstanley-Orrell railway have not been accorded their due places in railway history.<\/p>\n From careful comparison of the Middleton and Daglish\u2019s locomotives and railways, the position of The Walking Horse<\/em> and Clarke\u2019s railway in early railway history can be established.<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the first steam locomotive to be built and operate inLancashire;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the firststeam locomotive in the world to cross a viaduct;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the first steam locomotive in the world to work successfully for four decades;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the first steam locomotive in the world to haul loaded wagons up a four percent incline;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the first commercially successful steam locomotive in the world to have a wrought-iron boiler and chimney and a feed pump;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the third commercially successful steam locomotive in the world;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it was two tons heavier and had more horsepower (8 hp) than the first two Middleton Colliery locomotives;<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the tracks had stronger rails (4 ft, fish belly), pedestals and sleepers with chairs fixed by through bolts.<\/p>\n – \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the Arches Viaduct was the first masonry railway viaduct (c.1790s) in the world and the first viaduct in the world to carry a steam locomotive (January 1813). [Risca Viaduct opened in 1805 and Laigh Milton Viaduct in 1811.] The previous earliest date I can find for a steam locomotive possibly crossing a viaduct is 1816\/7, when The Duke<\/em> was set on rails of the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway, part of which crossed the masonry Laigh Milton Viaduct].<\/p>\n Also, Haigh Foundry was the first foundry and Robert Daglish the first engineer and colliery manager in the world to construct a steam locomotive that operated successfully for four decades. Haigh was the second foundry in the world to construct a commercially successful steam locomotive.<\/p>\n The Walking Horse<\/em> and Clarke\u2019s railway demonstrated significant improvements in power, reliability, stability and stamina over the Middleton locomotives and railway. These and subsequent improvements in early railways led to the development of mainline railways by 1830. Robert Daglish and John Clarke surely deserve due recognition for their pioneering developments.<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Derek Winstanley, \u2018The evolution of early railways in Winstanley, Orrell and Pemberton, Lancashire, England, 1770s to 1870s\u2019, paper presented at the 5th<\/sup> International Early Railways Conference, Caernarfon, June 2012 [to be published in Conference Proceedings in 2014].<\/p>\n Donald Anderson, The Orrell Coalfield, Lancashire 1740-1850<\/em> (Moorland Publishing Co., Buxton, 1975).<\/p>\n Richard Daglish, ‘A YorkshireHorse’, J. Railway and Canal Hist. Soc<\/em>. 31(3), (1993), 123-31.<\/p>\n ————————————————————————<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Date: May 19, 2013<\/p>\n This site visit was arranged to establish what features can be recorded and select station positions for a plane table so that we can carry out a survey. Maps supplied by GMAS show that building survived on this site as late as 1955, however not much evidence of these are left on the ground (even the track leading to them could not be identified).\u00a0 Date: February 10, 2013<\/p>\n Web searching revealed these two images of the Arches viaduct. Date: November 18, 2012<\/p>\n Site visit arranged to evaluate potential for future work. After parking up at the bottom of Brook Lane\u00a0we soon spotted the stone arch protruding from the embankment. It is obvious that there is not much left of the old kiln but it was our opinion that it should be at least recorded. <\/p>\n It is shown as a Limekiln on the 1849 first ed 6\u2033 OS map \u2013 and it is also recorded in the SMR as being extant in 1785 (not sure on what evidence) \u2013 the SMR also says there are no visible remains. Date: 24th February 2019 Warm and sunny weather conditions are ideal for drone flying, particularly in the winter months when the vegetation is low. From the 1849 OS map we know Clarke’s wagonroad crossed Ormskirk road at Oldham\u2019s Farm \u00a0where … Continue reading <\/a>The wagonroad appears to go behind the present day Arches Lodge and follow the fence line. The owner has kindly offered to allow us to look for evidence in his back garden. This is an offer we may take up if the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n
\nThis weekend, at short notice, we managed to arrange a field trip to the\u00a0Pingot site \u00a0(apologies to those I didn\u2019t manage to contact). We had planned to do this visit at the end of last year but an opportunity never seemed to present itself. Our June Newsletter (No. 174<\/a>), set out our aims here, which was to find evidence for the Arches viaduct. This structure once carried the Clarkes wagon road over the Pingot valley and was taken down some time in the late 19th<\/sup> century. Our previous survey had enabled us to produce an accurate drawing which we could combine with the old maps. From this we have been able to predict the likely position of the structure\u2019s piers. However our visit in May last year, proved that effective work here could only be achieved when the vegetation was low (i.e. Autumn or early Spring). With time running out this year, we were determined to press on with this project, despite the predicted bad weather. <\/a>The rain however couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm, as we could see that the reduced vegetation would give us the best chance of acquiring our sight lines through the undergrowth. It still took a certain amount of pruning before we managed to get a line of ranging poles on the predicted alignment. By studying the maps we could see that the best place to look for surviving pier footings would be at the south end near to the current railway line, as there didn’t seem to be any later development in this area. After some more selective pruning, we could detect a low mound at the right location. <\/a>Just beyond the railway fence line we spotted this metal object (not sure what it is\u00a0but got us quite exited for a while as its upturned shape had our imaginations running riot).\u00a0Probing in this area showed that there was something at about a spade\u2019s depth. However we realised that only an excavation could settle the matter. The land is owned by Tim Bankes who also owns the Winstanley estate but it is not certain whether he would give his permission.\u00a0<\/a>Whilst on site we decided to have a look at the foot bridge over the railway which is locate behind Duke\u2019s Barn, the farm next to the current road bridge. According to Donald Anderson (The Orrell Coalfield), it was originally part of the viaduct, constructed in 1848 when the Liverpool Bury line was put through. When the viaduct was taken down the bridge was relocated onto its current site. It\u2019s constructed of cast iron, including the parapet, and shows two spans, although it is thought that only the span nearest the camera was used for the viaduct.<\/a>The parapet is bolted on using square nuts which must testify to its antiquity (could it have been used on the viaduct itself).<\/a>This later edition of the 6 inch OS map shows the viaduct still in place when the Liverpool – Bury railway line was put through in 1848. At that time it was just\u00a0a single track. The iron bridge was installed to carry\u00a0Clarke’s wagon road over the railway at the southern end of the viaduct but it shows the foot bridge has also been built over the line. This probably means that the far span in the photo is the original foot bridge span (or even\u00a0vice versa).\u00a0 <\/a>This view from Bing Maps is looking east and shows the foot bridge (bottom of the picture) as well as the current bridge. Just the other side of it is where Clarke’s wagon road crossed the railway. the maps seem to suggest it went round the back of Arches Lodge (the building on the south side of the current bridge). Donald Anderson’s book shows the wagon road going straight across the field on the right. If you look closely you can see a green line where it ran. He dates his map 1818 but on the 1st edition 6 inch map the track\u00a0is depicted as a tree-lined road going under a wooden bridge carrying the wagon road. The later edition 6 inch map shows it as just a field boundary and on later maps it disappears altogether.<\/p>\n
\nThis was our first return to the site in over twelve months. Our purpose was to see if we could find evidence for this structure, which Derek Winstanley described as the earliest viaduct in the world to have carried a steam locomotive. If this is true, it would be a very significant find indeed. Derek had said at our meeting in September that the masonry viaduct (know locally as the Arches) was built by John Clarke in 1792. Clarke, a local mine owner, want to expand mining operations onto the Winstanley Estate.\u00a0 According to Derek’s research, there is no earlier example of a steam engine crossing a stone-built viaduct.\u00a0Early maps show that viaduct was still in existence when the Liverpool Bury railway line was built in 1848 (a later edition of the 6 inch OS map has the viaduct crossing this line at it southern end). Studying later maps we also discovered that a small community lived in the Pingot Valley for many years, up until the 1950’s when the last buildings were demolished. Our last site visit enabled us to complete a plane table survey of the features still visible (see\u00a0Newsletter 164<\/a>). From this we’ve been able to create a detailed drawing combined with maps from the various periods. <\/a>Our only image of the viaduct is the sketch looking south east (see February 10, 2013). From it we’ve been able to speculate where its piers would have been located. With this information last month we ventured into the undergrowth. We began by looking at the north embankment near to where the lime kiln is located. Probing indicated that there was stonework just below the surface. However, scraping away the turf in a couple of areas, suggested that this was just loose stones (a gate on the embankment suggested a track had been built here to access the field beyond). We then decided to look at the southern section making our way through dense vegetation. <\/a>Conditions were difficult (Indiana Jones springs to mind) but we did manage to get a tape across from the present day bridge to relevant area. There was no obvious stonework and probing produced nothing significant. It was felt the test-pitting would be the only option but this would require permission before proceeding. Before we left the site we were able to have another look at the area around the brook and the Pingot Well. The culvert doglegs south for some reason coming out near to where the Manor Farm was. Could there once have been a mill here? It was decided that this area had potential for further study.<\/p>\n
\nSociety meeting –\u00a0talk by Derek Winstanley on the\u00a0The Daglish\/Clarke Railway. Here is a summary:<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>The<\/em> story of the Walking Horse<\/em> and Clarke\u2019s Railway <\/strong>(by Derek Winstanley)<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>This wall runs on the north side of the brook roughly parallel to it. On the maps, the Pingot well is marked between this and the brook.<\/a>However the culvert under the track is well defined. While we were there the estate warden came to check who we were and to tell us more information about the site. His neighbour, who lives at Duke’s Barn joined us and was able to add more details.Clearing the undergrowth\u00a0<\/a>in the area where the well is marked<\/a>\u00a0this large stone slab appeared<\/a>.\u00a0It appeared to have been moved and underneath was a deep, brick-lined sump with the sound of running water coming from it.<\/a>\u00a0Could this be the famous Pingot well? It’s in the right place and the water, running towards the brook, is clear.<\/a>A sluice on the far side of the sump looks like it could have been used to control the flow (a cast iron pipe can be seen in the bank of the brook where the water is discharged.<\/a>Afterwards we set up the plane table near the entrance to the site. This, we perceived, gave us the best view of significant features which could be identified on the OS maps. The following features where then recorded: the north side of the point where the well wall meets the bridge, the culvert entrance, the centre of the culvert exit, the well wall, the west corner of the fence on the embankment. We also recorded the position of the kiln and the north edge of the road in front of it.<\/p>\n<\/a>Judging from the 1849 OS map, the sketch is looking east with cottages on the south bank of the brook – a large building behind the viaduct which is probably Arches Farm. The well would have been on the left in front of the viaduct on the north bank. A cart is shown ready to load up with water from the well – also notice the cart on the the bridge loaded with coal from the Winstanley estate being pulled by a horse (and an empty one going back).<\/a>This image, seemingly taken from the other side, is a famous composite photo showing the Yorkshire Horse (or a model of it) on the viaduct. This early steam engine, which predated Stephenson’s Rocket, was built by a Scottish engineer called Robert Dalgleish who work at\u00a0Haigh Foundry.\u00a0What is interesting about this photo, however, is that it shows the kiln tucked away on the right hand side – also the first 3 arches seem to be walled up for some reason (it turns out that even the viaduct is probably fake).<\/p>\n<\/a>It is also at this spot\u00a0on the old map where an old colliery line is shown\u00a0crossing the Pingot Valley. It was supported on a viaduct know as The Arches. This line was\u00a0famous\u00a0for carrying the Yorkshire Horse \u2013 a steam engine dating to the early 1800\u2032s which transported coal from the Winstanley estate down to the River Douglas.<\/a>With this in mind we entered the undergrowth on the other side of the lane to see if we could spot any remains of the viaduct in this area. There is stonework which is on the right alignment where the Smithy Brook enters a short culvert. There are also large lumps of concrete and a low wall where a well is indicated on the OS map.<\/a>Census records indicate that there was a small\u00a0community living\u00a0here in varies cottages in the mid 19th century (nine households with a total of forty-six people listed). The Pingot Well is also said to have been the only decent supply of water in Pemberton and there was a near riot when the council closed it 1880 (more details of this was available on the Wiganman website but for some reason this website, which was extensive and quite useful,\u00a0was taken down in March 2013<\/em>). Our trip proved that the the site has good potential for further investigation and worth setting up a project here to see if we can identify and record some of the feature which date back at least \u00a0to the late 18th century.<\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The Pingot valley is very interesting from an industrial archaeological point of view. It would be interesting to discovery if it is really a lime kiln \u2013 the only way to find out would be to excavate (but would need to find out who it belongs to first).<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![in the area where the well is marked<\/a>\u00a0](\"https:\/\/www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Well-close-up.jpg\"){kind=link}