We’ve said it before and we will say it again, its incredible to think that across the UK in many towns and cities there are relics of tramways past under the road surface which when their networks closed were just covered by tarmac. For most of the time we are all oblivious to it but occasionally during other works they are temporarily discovered once more. Recent weeks have seen two more places where that has happened Farnworth in Lancashire and Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
Its been over 80 years since trams last ran in Farnworth when the last of the lines which were taken over by South Lancashire Tramways in 1906 closed in 1944. This included the line which ran along Market Street in the town but rather than take up the tramlines it was decided to just cover them over, forgotten about – until now!
Roadworks are taking place on Market Street as part of the Farnworth Streets for All scheme which is seeing public realm and transport improvements. This has seen the rails exposed once more. They won’t be seen for long though as when the works are completed they will once again be hidden from view.
Meanwhile, a place which is no stranger to tram tracks (considering it has a fully operational modern tramway running in it!) is Sheffield but some first generation rails have recently been uncovered in Pinstone Street.
Trams last ran in Pinstone Street on the last night of the original trams, 8th October 1960 and after the official abandonment they remained in place and were once again just covered by tarmac. Pinstone Street is not on the Supertram network with the nearest tramstop probably being at Cathedral (which is around a 6 minute walk away).
Whilst sometimes you just see a little bit of tramtrack, in Pinstone Street its very much a case that it all remained in place as we see in these two images. (Both Photographs by Stuart Cooke, 2nd September 2025)