City’s station excavation finds are the rail thing

Experts from CFA Archaeology Limited, working with West Yorkshire Joint Service’s Archaeology Advisory Service, uncovered long-buried ironworks and foundations from the Georgian station, which was part of the Leeds to Selby Railway that once ran between Marsh Lane and a station on the River Ouse at Selby.

Spotting the chance to preserve an important piece of the city’s transport history, curators at Leeds Industrial Museum raced to secure some of the fascinating finds for their collection.

Now safely in storage at the museum are the remnants of one of the station’s huge cast iron pillars, which would once have held up the roof while passengers made their way around its platforms. The impressive iron columns also doubled as rainwater down pipes.

Also now at the museum are a pair of huge stone sleepers, used to secure tracks in the years before wooden sleepers were employed, and which still show the holes where railway spikes were driven into them.

John McGoldrick, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of industrial history, said: “Marsh Lane station played a huge part in establishing the rail network going in and out of Leeds, transporting both passengers and important freight for industries which helped the city thrive in the 19^th century.

“It’s always exciting to have the opportunity to see such a real, tangible part of the city’s past in front of you, and even more so when it’s been buried beneath our feet for more than a century.

“Discoveries like this are a fascinating reminder of the history that’s all around us and the foundations of industry and innovation that the city we know today is built on.”

With a station dating from the earliest days of railway construction, the first official train to leave Marsh Lane departed at around 6.30am on September 22, 1834.

But with no known artistic drawings or paintings of the station still existing today, there was little to indicate how it may have looked in its pioneering heyday.

Archaeologists were surprised to discover that the station had been built on two levels, with the train tracks on a high podium above Leeds and an entrance for passengers at ground level off Marsh Lane.

They also found the remains of a U-shaped workshop which would have stored, serviced and carried out everyday repairs on the railway’s vintage locomotives. A 15 metre deep well was also dug to supply the railway with water.

In the 1860s, the original station was demolished to make way for a grain warehouse, before a revamped station was constructed in its place. That station remained in place until its closure in 1958.

The only visible trace of the early station to survive today are a boundary wall and gate piers on Marsh Lane.

It is now hoped the recovered pieces of the station can go on display at Leeds Industrial Museum.

Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s executive member for adult social care, active lifestyles and culture, said:  “Leeds has evolved and transformed so much over the centuries, and the infrastructure of our modern city was built by those who literally laid the foundations of the urban landscape we know today.

“That history can be seen everywhere, but it’s important that we also preserve those parts of our city’s story which are no longer visible, so future generations can learn about how Leeds was built.”

Once the world’s largest woollen mill, Leeds Industrial Museum is home to models and machinery paying tribute to the city’s industrial heritage as well as its many inventors and engineers.

For more information on Leeds Industrial Museum, please visit: Leeds Industrial Museum - Leeds Museums & Galleries

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