A campaign group is urging Network Rail to reconsider its plan to replace period stonework with galvanised palisade fencing on the Cowran Group of structures on the Newcastle to Carlisle railway line.

The group consists of Cowran Bridge, Cowran Cutting and Skellion Bridge, which are located near How Mill to the east of Carlisle. Together, they were designated at Grade II in November last year.

The structures are survivors from engineering works undertaken during the first phase of railway development, on a line which was Britain’s first cross-country railway.

On 1 July 2023, one of the stone approach walls at Cowran Bridge collapsed. Three years on, the wall has still not been reconstructed, and much of its sandstone masonry is still on the embankment. In 2024, a proposal was made to remove the remaining historic approach walls and replace them with galvanised palisade fencing.

Network Rail claims that the walls are stable and will be examined annually. But the Cowran Group campaign wants Network Rail to reconsider the 2024 scheme completely, due to the statutory designation, Network Rail’s heritage policy, and Cumberland Council’s conservation advice.

The Cowran Group campaign argues that the Grade II listing of the structure means that the historic fabric of the structures must be preserved. Network Rail’s Buildings and Architecture Policy states that “Enhancing heritage is one of Network Rail’s 10 Principles of Good Design.”

Other listed structures on Britain’s railway network include a building at Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire built in 1874 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and a footbridge at Stroud in Gloucestershire.

Campaigners are asking Network Rail why it would proceed with a standard fencing solution when its own heritage policy and the conservation advice of the local planning authority both point towards a more sympathetic approach.

Network Rail seems to have lost sight of that on this occasion. For a company that has worked hard to build a reputation for careful historical stewardship, the proposal to erect ugly palisade fencing in an attractive rural setting alongside a 190-year-old structure represents an inexplicable mis-step that will likely inflict reputational damage beyond the negative landscape impacts.

Campaigner, historian and writer Graeme Bickerdike