The last commercial gravity ropeway in the UK

Dating from the 1924, this gravity operated ropeway, with a 300ton/day capacity, is thought to be the last of it's breed in the UK (Claughton, LANCS) still in operation. With the supply (to the brick making industry) expected to become exhausted in a decade, this lone survivor will lose it's raison d'être and (given it's location, crossing at least one public road) looks set for oblivion at that point. It would appear to be a system worthy of preservation and with effectively a decade's notice, now seems a good time to see if anyone is willing and able to offer it a home.

This clip is 5'27" long:



I'll be contacting CAT* (Esgairgeliog) and Chalk Pits** (Amberly), neither of which is geographically close, so if anyone is aware of a more promising or suitable location, please do pitch in. As a unique survivor from our industrial past, it'd be a shame if no-one made so much as an effort to secure it's future.

Best mention, the video makes clear Claughton isn't a tourist site and asks any photography be confined to the public road.

*CAT may be interested because of the gravity power
** Chalk Pits covers rural industries, amomg which brick making looms large

 

I had a most interesting visit there a few years ago now...

Yikes, just noticed it was 8 years now - eek!

Anyway, after that the company donated one of the trestles from their disused ropeway that's located adjacent to the working one to form a memorial to one of the long gone aerial ropeways that spanned the South Shropshire ore field:


[Edit: One problem with preserving it - at least in operation - is the fact it works on gravity, so for it to operate you need something heavy to put on at the top and take off at the bottom. If you don't actually have a limitless supply of "something" you want moved, then clearly you'll need some other means of moving the load back from the bottom to the top again for operation to continue]

 

Used to drive under this regularly when I was a resident of Lancaster!

 

Valid point when it comes to demonstrating such an operation to the public. Merely an observation, but water weighs in at 1kg/ltr (give or take), if it's the gravity working of interest. Handling clods of clay (probably not the correct term), where that's the intention, may be do-able on the day by filling 1:5 1:10 of the gondolas (that probably isn't the correct term either), or demonstrating clay handling 'on the hour', or some such depending on spectator numbers.

Just thinking out loud ....

 

Would a suitable future kocation be Beamish or similar?

 

It could be a money spinner to store energy for the National grid. Lift a weight at the bottom and dump it at the top when electricity is cheap. Pick up the same weights at the top and use it to power back into the grid and drop it at the bottom…when the price is high. They are being built right now around the world. There’s a railway in the states doing this with a load of stone.

russ

 

Or, if loaders are not available, have a lightweight or inflatable thing that looks like a load of clay plonked on top of the water tank on the downward run

 

Mass is required for gravity operation (or what's the point?). Looking at either the Lynton Cliff Lift, or the installation at CAT, pumping water around would allow the system to be seen operating and "clean" generation of the power needed to do so would be a statement in itself. Nor would it preclude any opportunities for full demonstration of the system as currently used.

This is all getting a long way ahead of ourselves (and for all I know, the owners may already be developing, or actually have some future arrangement in mind), but would nonetheless seem to be a discussion worth having ... if only to provide food for thought, come any definite preservation proposal. How often does a ten year (plus) window of opportunity present itself?

 

I don't think the throughput would be enough to make that worthwhile - they're usually done using huge amounts of water, such as Dinorwig (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station) - 100,000 gallons per second peak.