Valley Vista

A River of Black Mud

This wonderful panoramic view of Copprashouse, dated around 1900, amply demonstrates the incredible difficulties encountered by engineers building the Manchester and Leeds Railway 70 years earlier.

Faced with deep valleys and an impossibly narrow terrain on the approach to Todmorden, road, rail, river and canal converged between the hillsides, resulting in the construction of a series of tunnels, viaducts, cuttings and bridges, which taxed the skills of the railwaymen to the utmost. 


Read the full story in Milltown Memories, issue 4. If this or other stories stirs a memory, we'd be happy to know - send us your memories and comments.