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Arches


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This Photograph looking over towards Wicker Arches was taken from the big wheel when it was on Fargate in 2009.

Top left in front of the white building there appears to be a set of Arches, can any one enlighten me to what they are? also the Arches near the bottom of Spital Hill.

 

Wicker Arches.jpg

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I think that the arches towards the top of your photo are the retaining wall holding back Brunswick Road. I don't think the arches ever went right through under the road but were used instead of buttresses to strengthen the wall. When the extension to Saville Street from Derek Dooley Way was made, the arches were infilled with modern blue brick.

I think perhaps the arches above Spital Hill were probably something similar.

When you were building a road that traversed across a steep incline it would be less costly in stone requirements to use blind arches than to fill in the space beneath the road with solid stonework.

Our Victorian relatives were very fond of arches and were very good at building them I think.

HD

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Hilldweller is right. The white house is at the very bottom of Brunswick road and the arches are constructed to hold the hillside back. See attached screen shot

spital hill roads.jpg

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On 03/12/2015, 13:35:58, SteveHB said:

Extension to Derek Dooley Way and Savile Street under construction.

5660451f69740_dkdoolway.thumb.jpg.6bd752

 

Very interesting that photo SteveHB. I had assumed that the arches had been there since Brunswick Road was built but now I'm not so sure.

The photo appears to show the top bit of the wall with the strange rectangular holes at intervals, it appears newly built with pale masonry but the lower part of the wall is obscured by an earth banking which appears to be in the process of removal.

Obviously you cannot build a wall like that from the top down 'so the new bit must have been built on some existing retaining wall.

Looking on Google Streetview it seems possible that the stone part of the wall has been cleaned up when the arches were bricked in.

Discuss  :huh:

HD

Arches.JPG

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9 minutes ago, hilldweller said:

Very interesting that photo SteveHB. I had assumed that the arches had been there since Brunswick Road was built but now I'm not so sure.

The photo appears to show the top bit of the wall with the strange rectangular holes at intervals, it appears newly built with pale masonry but the lower part of the wall is obscured by an earth banking which appears to be in the process of removal.

Obviously you cannot build a wall like that from the top down 'so the new bit must have been built on some existing retaining wall.

Looking on Google Streetview it seems possible that the stone part of the wall has been cleaned up when the arches were bricked in.

Discuss  :huh:

HD

Arches.JPG

I worked in the yard there (old Dewires building), bottom of Spital Hill, back in 1975.

All I recall is they were warehouses, no idea what was at the back of them.

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1 hour ago, SteveHB said:

No.10.thumb.jpg.e71be22f1d1589490b4d40e2

The building that is marked as Star Corn Mills was I believe used by Henry Wigfall in the seventies. We used to make weekly trips from a village near Bawtry to our then home in Crookes and we drove through Burngreave and straight across onto Brunswick Road, down under the railway, along on to Nursery Street and so to home. As you came down the hill to the "Dark Arch" there were big "Wiggies" signs on the building over the wall.

HD

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10 minutes ago, SteveHB said:

You rang my bell hilldweller, seems like we now have an audio alert to replies :-)

It's been many years since I rang anybody's bell. I shall have a small scotch to celebrate.  lol

HD

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8 minutes ago, hilldweller said:

It's been many years since I rang anybody's bell. I shall have a small scotch to celebrate.  lol

HD

Looks like the 'emoticons' (smileys) are working again, things are looking up. I'll drink to that :o

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From memory, the arches were originally a part of the long rail viduct which took the old MS&LR  from Wadsley Bridge into Victoria Station. I imagine when the roadworks and up-grading was completed it was decided to give them a substantial face lift as they were now a key feature in the "landscaping".

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On ‎15‎/‎12‎/‎2015‎ ‎15‎:‎27‎:‎19, lysander said:

From memory, the arches were originally a part of the long rail viduct which took the old MS&LR  from Wadsley Bridge into Victoria Station. I imagine when the roadworks and up-grading was completed it was decided to give them a substantial face lift as they were now a key feature in the "landscaping".

The old Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire arches are still there carrying the now single track that has been kept for the steel works at Stocksbridge. The arches in question are

behind the railway line.

My father always said that MS&L stood for Mucky Slow and Lazy!

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On 12/5/2015, 6:35:17, SteveHB said:

I worked in the yard there (old Dewires building), bottom of Spital Hill, back in 1975.

All I recall is they were warehouses, no idea what was at the back of them.

So those arches appear to be holding up Brunswick Road, or at least the slope down which it runs. As do these baby ones, which I've driven past hundreds of times but never noticed til I was looking at Streetview just now

https://goo.gl/maps/xvK4mrrHar72

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