Basford Brook Culvert

My interest in this culvert was sparked after visiting Bridgin’ The Gap the previous summer. Crewe, being a significant railway town, saw many of its brooks and streams covered up in the 19th century to make way for railway expansion, including the Basford brook. This brook flows beneath Basford Hall marshalling yard, built in 1901 by the London and North Western Railway Company. The yard was necessary to manage the heavy traffic of freight trains passing through Crewe railway station. It quickly became essential, and by 1937, it was recorded that over 47,000 wagons passed through in just one week. At that time, Crewe Basford Hall was the busiest marshalling yard in Europe, featuring more than 48 km of tracks for sidings and access.

It is under this yard that the waterway known as Basford Brook passes, the brook begins its life in the hills around the near by town of Audley, it makes its way through the Cheshire countryside joined along the way by various tributaries until it eventually reaches the hamlet of Basford to the south of Crewe. It is here that the brook passes through a 500 metre culvert that was constructed at the same time as the marshalling yard. After exiting the culvert the brook makes its way through Crewe and eventually joins up with the Valley Brook which is the waterway that passes through Bridgin’ The Gap before making its way onto the River Weaver.

The culvert appears to be a mash up of sections built at different times, at the infall you will find that the structure is built from engineering brick which was very common on the railway at the time, as you progress through there are a few more modern concrete sections that look to the the result of possible collapses or due to works going on above ground, and the final 100m of the culvert is a bland concrete section which will be the newest part of the culvert.