Totley Tunnel Observatory
We asked for your help in answering a query from Stella McGuire who is archaeologist working on the Eastern Moors. If you read down to the end of the article, you will see that Stella has written again with some more information. Here's her original enquiry:
I am trying to find out more about the brick 'observatories' built as survey points to set out the line of the Totley Tunnel. I have a copy of Brian Edwards' book, 'Totley and the Tunnel', and I also have a copy of the article by Percy Rickard in the Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
I understand that the ruined brick structure just east of the ventilation shaft on Totley Moor is thought to be the remains of the 'summit ' observatory. I wondered whether the History Group had any photographs or drawings of this structure before it became so ruinous – or any information on the other survey points (built at Bradway and on Sir William Hill etc.).
Many thanks for any help.
Here is some background to the subject. In his book Totley and the Tunnel, first published in 1985, Brian Edwards wrote:
To survey the line, brick observatories were built on three high points: at Bradway above and beyond Dore Station, on the Sir William Hill at Grindleford and the main one on Totley Moss. Sightings were taken from the later using a 6 inch theodolite. This procedure established the line on which to build the railway. Percy Rickard, in his report to the Institute of Civil Engineers, describes in detail the interesting surveying techniques used with distances of over 3 miles in each direction from the instrument to the two terminal stations.
These techniques were reproduced by John Whitelaw, Junior in his book Surveying as Practised by Civil Engineers and Surveyors, published in 1902. Here is an extract referring to the location and physical construction of the observatories.
The profile was favourable to this work, distinct changes in the surface taking place at convenient distances, and high ground beyond each extremity of the tunnel accommodated terminal stations which could be seen from the summit observatory; there was no need to reverse the transit instrument except at that point. The line having been fixed with as much accuracy as could be obtained with a 6 in. theodolite, brick observatories were built at the extreme stations (Bradway and Sir William), and at each end of the changes of the ground surface over the tunnel. In addition to these, an observatory (No. 3 west) was also built beyond the entrance at Padley, at a level to command the heading on the 1 in 1,000 gradient; and a station was fixed at the foot of the hill beyond (No. 4 west), to enable these two points to be seen from within the heading whenever necessary. The observatories were built hollow of brickwork in cement and capped with stone. A large flat cast-iron plate, having a hole 6 in. wide in the centre, was let into the cap and run with cement. Upon this the transit instrument rested.
Brian Edwards implied that the main observatory was still visible in 1985 when he ended his book with these words:
No. 5 [airshaft] high up on the moors continues as it was, rising like a conning tower od some submarine near the Owler Bar to Fox House Road. Up there, little has changed for thousands of years, the shaft is in remarkably good condition considering the extremes of climate; nearby lies a tip of discarded bricks. In another hundred years that will become uneven bumps under the tough grass and bracken as will the remains of the brick observatory from which sightings were taken for the original survey. That's where the work began.
At the time of the 100th anniversary of the tunnel's opening, short accounts of the surveying methods appeared in Dore to Door and Bradway Bugle but apart from refering to the Bradway observatory as Bradway Summit gave no further indication of their location. A search of Totley Independent has revealed nothing.
Airshaft number 5, Totley Moor
Stella believes that the ruins of the Totley Moor observatory lie close to Airshaft Number 5, which was constructed for ventilation after the tunnel was built. But in his book Walks Around Totley, published in 1995, John Campion Barrows (aka Campy) had this to say in Walk 4:
Turn right along a well-defined track towards the Stony Ridge Road (note the gaunt ruins of a plate-layers hut used by the railway workers in the last century and just beyond [i.e. to the west] is the air shaft from the Totley tunnel).
Campy said much the same in Walk 20:
Note the air shaft that dominates the skyline. Over to the right and the gaunt ruins of a railway maintenance hut.
There is a reference to the Bradway Summit observatory in Fiona Wainwright's book Greenhill: A History of Greenhill and the Surrounding Area:
The Observation Tower
This was an observation point for taking readings connected to the Totley tunnel. It was a brick tower that stood until the 1930s. It was approximately where the back gardens at the end of Elwood Road now are.
Fiona's book is full of old photographs but, sadly, none of the observatory.
Updates
Brick ruin near airshaft number 5, Totley Moor (photo: Stella McGuire)
Stella is now pretty convinced that the ruined brick structure on the moor (see above) is not in fact the summit observatory as she first thought but a small brick structure of unknown purpose about 50 metres to its NNE. Both are shown on a 1922 map with the observatory being on the line of the tunnel.
That said she would still like to see any old photographs of the structure when it was in a better state of repair and would like to know what function it served. It would seem that it was connected to the construction of the tunnel.
Stella also found map evidence for the sites of the western (Sir William Hill) and eastern (Bradway) survey points. On the 1923 map there is an 'old observatory' marked at approximately SK23057830, just west of Newfoundland Nursery, and precisely in line with the tunnel. At the eastern end of the sightline, on the 1922 map there is an 'old observatory' marked just south of the Beauchief golf course at approx SK33258075, again in line with the tunnel, and now under the end of Elwood Road, thus confirming Fiona Wainwright's location above.
Stella McGuire has further updated us on the work that she and colleagues have been doing in connection with the Totley Tunnel observatories. The probable footings of four of the towers have now been located: one on Sir William Hill, one in Padley Woods, one close to the summit ventilation shaft (No. 5), one on Wimble Holme Hill. One or two locations still remain to be checked. Photographs of a surviving sighting tower or towers in North Yorkshire have been found, which look to be of similar design to the one shown by Percy Rickard, the resident engineer at Totley, in his account of building the tunnel. One of Stella's colleagues has also produced an initial measured plan of the brick ruins close to No. 5 airshaft, which appear to be the remains of a narrow, arched building, probably an explosives house, although this needs to be proved. Stella and her colleagues have been asked to produce a short article on the sighting towers for the January 2015 edition of ACID (Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire) which we look forward to seeing.
The Search for the Totley Towers
Carlesmoor sighting tower, (c) John Kelly
In Issue 12 of ACID (Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire), Stella McGuire and Stuart Nunn, of the Eastern Moors Partnership, describe their search for the missing sighting towers built in the late 1880s to enable Percy Rickard and his team of surveyors to set out the line of the Totley Tunnel.
In his paper The Tunnels of the Dore and Chinley Railway, published posthumously by the The Institute of Civil Engineers in January 1894. Rickard described the towers as being of varying heights, built of brickwork and capped with stone with a flat cast-iron plate let into the cap to secure the survey instruments.
There were three sighting points to the west of the Summit Observatory, high on Totley Moor, and four to the east. Approximate locations were described by Rickard and the authors first tried to find an observatory on Wimble Holme Hill. They referred to old Ordnance Survey maps, the archives of the Sheffield Clarion Ramblers and a database established by ArcHeritage in their survey of the Eastern Moors. Having been allowed to conduct a small scale excavation, the authors now suggest that the remains of a brick structure, in line with the tunnel, and which had hitherto been thought to be a possible chimney base, is in fact the footings of Observatory No. 1 East.
Stella and Stuart then noticed that at some of the sighting points on Rickard's plan, no tower symbol is shown and surmised that at these points there was no need to raise the survey instruments to any great height. They investigated three such points: No 4 West on the western edge of the Grindleford to Hathersage Road; No 1. West just north of the Wooden Pole and No. 2 East, on the eastern edge of Bole Hill; and found no trace of bases for survey equipment. Presumably the structures were smaller and less durable.
The search for the rest of the sighting towers met with mixed success, the authors finding some physical and some map evidence. The Sir William Hill Observatory (No. 2 West) appears to have been marked as an "old observatory" on the 1898 OS map. No brickwork was found but there is a mound of loose stone, some dressed, which might imply the sighting tower was built from local material rather than from brick. The 1898 map also marks an unnamed structure at the eastern edge of Yarncliff Wood, at the approximate site of No. 2 West observation point, where there is some broken brick and dressed stone among the dense brambles. This may be the remains of a sighting tower.
The 1923 OS map shows the eastern terminal as an "old observatory" in Lower Bradway, at a spot which now lies in a back garden in Elwood Road. In her history of Greenhill, Fiona Wainwright stated that this was a brick tunnel observation tower which stood until the 1930s. Other possible locations have been thus far either inaccessible being on private land or devoid of any remains.
No photographs of the Totley towers have been so far been located but Stella and Stuart have published a spectacular photograph of a surviving sighting tower at Carlesmoor in North Yorkshire, which looks to be of a similar design to the one drawn by Percy Rickard. That photograph is copyrighted by ACID; the ones at the top of this article are reproduced with the kind permission of the photographer, John Kelly, at http://happyhiker.co.uk.