Unearthing the past for the future in Huddersfield
THE remains of the former Hillhouse shed in Huddersfield have been rediscovered as the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) project progresses. In preparation for capacity enhancement, which will see the route past the site four tracked in the coming years, a team of staff working on behalf of Network Rail has been carefully uncovering the historic site, near Alder Street, over the last three months. A Network Rail spokesman told The RM that the area will be used as a compound for civil engineers to base themselves as improvements are carried out between Huddersfield and Dewsbury as part of the TRU scheme. A programme of survey work was carried out with support from the archaeological services WYAS. The results confirmed that the foundations of Hillhouse depot, which opened in 1849 and closed on January 2, 1967, were buried just below the surface. Delicately extracted samples of the brick and mortar will now help the team of experts to learn as much as they can about the site. Kevin Moon, project manager at ASWYAS said: “As part of the planned development of Hillhouse sidings, ASWYAS investigated the remains of the mid-19th century railway sidings underlying the modern industrial buildings on the site. “During the project, the team of archaeologists uncovered two train turntables and a series of brick-built engine sheds.” Hannah Lomas, principal programme sponsor at Network Rail said: “Working closely with ASWYAS has allowed us to carefully excavate the site at a much faster speed while also providing useful information about the origin of the materials used.”