Tuesday 15 September 2020

Railway arches …… the neglected ones

An occasional series featuring the humble railway arch through the pictures of Andy Robertson.



Now I am the first to admit that the above picture is not a brick arch, but I like it and so it starts the first of the stories celebrating the railway arch, which continues to do the business of carrying railway lines into all our cities and towns which still have railway stations.

In my defense there is a brick railway arch in the distance, so accuracy is served.

Over the centuries the arches have been used for many things from car parks to lock up workshops, and artisan bakeries, and many of course offered some sort of shelter to the destitute.


At which point I could fall back on that famous song, Underneath the Arches.*

But I won’t, preferring just to leave links at the bottom to the song and its creation.**

Andy was in Castlefield where there are lots of these arches, and he couldn’t resist recording them.

I have written about their history elsewhere, so I shall concentrate on the pictures.

So here are two, and I will leave you with the promise of a mystery, which will appear tomorrow.

Location; Castlefield

Pictures; in Castlefield, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Underneath the Arches, Bud Flanagan, 1927, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggk8g_p-Thg

**Mr. Flanagan recalled  it was written in Derby in 1927, and referred to the arches of the  Friargate Railway Bridge and to the homeless men who slept there.  Underneath the Arches, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underneath_the_Arches_ (song)


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