Manchester and Leeds Railway

Work began on the Manchester and Leeds Railway on 18 August 1837 and it was opened to Littleborough on 4 July 1839. The resident engineer was Thomas Longridge Gooch the elder brother of Daniel Gooch, who had also been involved in the preparation of drawings for the Manchester-Liverpool Railway. In 1837, during the construction of the  section of the line which passed through the Hopwood estates at Middleton, C E Cawley was invited by George Stephenson and T L Gooch to supervise the construction of several miles of the railway at the Manchester end.

Reference           Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume 10