Former Rolling Bridge Accumulator Tower, off North Lonsdale Road, Ulverston, Cumbria: Archaeological Building Recording

Prior to the submission of a planning application to construct a new dwelling, incorporating the extant remains of the former rolling bridge accumulator tower, off North Lonsdale Road, Ulverston, Cumbria, Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out an archaeological building recording. This took place in November 2025. The origins of the rolling bridge accumulator relate directly to the development of two major elements of local transport infrastructure: Ulverston Canal and the Furness Railway. The tower is located immediately on the south bank of the Ulverston Canal, which was constructed in the 1790s to improve better access for sea-going vessels to the town of Ulverston. It was completed in 1796 but was never financially successful. By the 1840s the arrival of the railway in the Furness Peninsula essentially marked the end of the era of canals, and in the town of Ulverston this is symbolically demonstrated by the railway that connected the area to the main network in the 1850s by cutting across the canal and preventing access to the top basin. A subsequent branch line to Conishead Priory, originally intended to continue to Bardsea and on to Barrow-in-Furness, was completed in 1883 and required the addition of a new bridge over the canal. This comprised a hydraulically-powered rolling bridge with an associated signal box, engine house, and hydraulic accumulator tower, with original drawings surviving that show the tower and engine house were designed by the architects Paley and Austin of Lancaster and built by William Gradwell of Barrow-in-Furness. The bridge and tower still remain and it is the latter that was subject to the building recording. The canal effectively went out of use in 1916 and the rolling bridge was left fixed in its open position, the branch line mostly falling out of use at the same time, although it did not officially close until 2000. The engine house is thought to have been demolished in 1952/3 and the signal box was apparently reduced in height and then also demolished, probably at about the same time. The building recording revealed that the core of the original structure survives; it was built from brick, with decorative details in red sandstone and a timber floor internally forming a first floor. Evidence for the fixings for the accumulator cylinder are still present and the original ventilation slots are now blocked internally. The building was clearly constructed essentially as proposed in the original drawings by Paley and Austin, but detached from the engine house, and after it went out of use it was stripped of any metal fittings, presumably for scrap. Later, it was subject to vandalism and structural damage. The tower forms part of a historically and architecturally important group of structures, of which just the rolling bridge and the tower itself remain. The bridge is considered to be the only remaining example left in the country and its significance is recognised in its recent listing, which includes the accumulator tower. It is now in urgent need of stabilisation.