Chappel Viaduct | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°55′15″N0°45′21″E / 51.9209°N 0.7557°E Coordinates: 51°55′15″N0°45′21″E / 51.9209°N 0.7557°E |
OS grid reference | TL896283 |
Carries | Gainsborough Line |
Crosses | River Colne |
Locale | Essex, England |
Maintained by | Network Rail |
Heritage status | Listed structure |
Characteristics | |
Design | Viaduct |
Material | Brick |
Total length | 1,060 feet (320 m) |
Height | 75 feet (23 m) |
History | |
Construction start | 1847 |
Construction end | 1849 |
Location | |
The Chappel Viaduct is a railway viaduct that crosses the River Colne in the Colne Valley in Essex, England. It carries the Gainsborough Line which now is a short branch linking Marks Tey in Essex to Sudbury in Suffolk. The line previously, however, extended to Shelford in Cambridgeshire.
It was completed in 1849 by the Eastern Union Railway, which was later absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway. It is the longest bridge in the East Anglia region at 1,060 feet (320 m), and one of the largest brick-built structures in the country. It was listed at Grade II in 1967.
The viaduct consists of 32 30-foot (9.1 m) semi-circular spans, with tapered piers; it is 1,060 feet (320 m) long and rises to a maximum height of 75 feet (23 m). The piers consist of two shafts, separated by a 6-foot (2 m) opening, joined at the top and bottom by arches. Each shaft contains a hollow void up to 4 feet (1.2 m) by 3 feet (1 m), partially filled with concrete to the level of the bottom arch. The running level of the viaduct has a gradient of 1 in 120. [1]
The seven million bricks used in the construction of the viaduct were made from clay excavated from the nearby village of Bures. It was built to carry a double-track railway but only a single track was laid. The bridge was built by Peter Bruff between 1847 and 1849 for the Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway, later part of the Great Eastern Railway. [1] [2] [3]
The railway initially planned to build the viaduct with laminated timber but Bruff opted for brick to reduce the cost. [4] He debated the cost benefits of brick compared to timber with the Great Western Railway's chief engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel after a lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1850, Brunel being strongly in favour of using timber. Bruff went on to commission a painting of the viaduct by Frederick Brett Russell, which is now held by Ipswich Museum. [5] Sources differ on the cost of construction; E. A. Labrum gives the cost as £21,000, while Historic England state a figure of £32,000 (both 1849). [1] [5]
A foundation stone in pier 21 was laid by the railway company's chairman and deputy chairman at the start of works in September 1847 and newly minted coins were placed inside as a souvenir. The stone and coins disappeared within a few hours of being placed and a bricklayer was later arrested, having tried to pay at a bar with a new half sovereign, [6] but was not convicted of the theft due to lack of evidence. [2]
The viaduct was designated a Grade II listed structure on 27 November 1967. [1] [2] It is the longest bridge in East Anglia, [5] [7] and was reported to have been built out of 7 million bricks, making it the third-largest brick-built structure in England after the Battersea Power Station in London, [4] although Stockport Viaduct and Ouse Valley Viaduct used approximately 11 million bricks each.
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732. An unusual clause in the enabling Act of Parliament stipulated that profits should be given to the County of Cheshire for the improvement of roads and bridges, but the navigation was not initially profitable, and it was 1775 before the first payments were made. Trade continued to rise, and by 1845, over £500,000 had been given to the county.
The Gainsborough line is the current marketing name of the Sudbury branch line, a railway branch line off the Great Eastern Main Line in the east of England, that links Marks Tey in Essex with Sudbury in Suffolk. It is 11 miles 53 chains (18.77 km) in length and single-track throughout. The line's Engineer's Line Reference is SUD.
The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. The businessman John Chevallier Cobbold and the engineer Peter Bruff were prominent in launching the company. The allied but nominally independent Ipswich and Bury Railway built a line onwards to Bury St Edmunds, also opening in 1846, and soon amalgamated with the EUR.
Peter Schuyler Bruff was an English civil engineer remembered primarily for his part in establishing the East Anglian railway networks between the 1840s and 1860s. His contribution to the region's infrastructure and development extended far beyond the railways, however, and included the renovation of the Colchester water supply (1851-1880) and the Ipswich sewerage system, the development of the town of Harwich and the Essex resorts of Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton on Sea, and the late Victorian revival of the Coalport porcelain factory in Shropshire, which he purchased in 1880.
Gatehampton Railway Bridge, otherwise referred to as Gatehampton Viaduct, is a railway bridge carrying the Great Western Main Line over the River Thames in Lower Basildon, Berkshire, England. It takes the line between the stations at Goring and Streatley and Pangbourne, and crosses the Thames on the reach between Whitchurch Lock and Goring Lock.
Bures railway station is on the Gainsborough Line, a branch off the Great Eastern Main Line to Sudbury, in the East of England, serving the village of Bures, which straddles the counties of Essex and Suffolk.
Chappel & Wakes Colne railway station is on the Gainsborough Line, a branch to Sudbury off the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the village of Wakes Colne and the neighbouring Chappel. It is 3 miles 49 chains (5.81 km) down the line from Marks Tey and 50 miles 18 chains (80.83 km) measured from London Liverpool Street. It is situated between Marks Tey and Bures. Its three-letter station code is CWC. Platform 1 has an operational length for five-coach trains. Platforms 2 and 3 are used by the East Anglian Railway Museum.
The Cornwall Railway company constructed a railway line between Plymouth and Truro in the United Kingdom, opening in 1859, and extended it to Falmouth in 1863. The topography of Cornwall is such that the route, which is generally east–west, cuts across numerous deep river valleys that generally run north–south. At the time of construction of the line, money was in short supply due to the collapse in confidence following the railway mania, and the company sought ways of reducing expenditure.
Hythe railway station in Essex is on the Sunshine Coast Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving Hythe and other eastern areas of Colchester. It is 53 miles 49 chains (86.3 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street. Its three-letter station code is HYH.
The Landore viaduct is a railway viaduct over the Swansea valley and the River Tawe at Landore in south Wales. It provides a link between Swansea city center and the West Wales Line to the South Wales Main Line. The valley crossing provides a panoramic view of Landore, Kilvey Hill, the Liberty Stadium and the Swansea Enterprise Park.
Windsor Railway Bridge is a wrought iron 'bow and string' bridge in Windsor, Berkshire, crossing the River Thames on the reach between Romney Lock and Boveney Lock. It carries the branch line between Slough and Windsor.
Bennerley Viaduct, is a former railway bridge, now a foot and cycle bridge, between Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and Awsworth, Nottinghamshire, in central England. It was completed in 1877 and carried the Great Northern Railway's (GNR) Derbyshire Extension over the River Erewash, which forms the county boundary, and its wide, flat valley. The engineer was Samuel Abbott, who worked under Richard Johnson, the GNR's chief engineer. The site required a bespoke design as the ground would not support a traditional masonry viaduct due to extensive coal mining. The viaduct consists of 16 spans of wrought iron, lattice truss girders, carried on 15 wrought iron piers which are not fixed to the ground but are supported by brick and ashlar bases. The viaduct is 60 feet high, 26 feet wide between the parapets, and over a quarter of a mile long. It was once part of a chain of bridges and embankments carrying the railway for around two miles across the valley but most of its supporting structures were demolished when the line closed in 1968. The only similar surviving bridge in the United Kingdom is Meldon Viaduct in Devon.
Chappel is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Colchester, Essex which sits on the River Colne. It is significant for its Victorian viaduct, which crosses the Colne valley.
The Colne Valley and Halstead Railway (CVHR) is a closed railway between Haverhill, Suffolk and Chappel and Wakes Colne, Essex, in England.
The Stour Valley Railway is a partially closed railway line that ran between Shelford, near Cambridge and Marks Tey in Essex, England. The line opened in sections between 1849 and 1865. The route from Shelford to Sudbury closed on 6 March 1967 leaving only the section from Sudbury to Marks Tey, known as the Gainsborough Line, in operation.
The Carnon viaduct carries a railway line from Truro to Falmouth – now branded the Maritime Line – over the valley of the Carnon River in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. The viaduct is situated half-a-mile northeast of Perranwell station which is five miles (8 km) from the line's terminus at Falmouth and three miles (5 km) from its junction with the Cornish main line at Truro.
Dinting Viaduct is a 19th-century railway viaduct in Glossopdale in Derbyshire, England, that carries the Glossop Line over a valley at the village of Dinting. It crosses the Glossop Brook and the A57 road between Manchester and Sheffield.
Conisbrough Viaduct is a former railway viaduct, near to Cadeby and Conisbrough in South Yorkshire, England. The viaduct consists of two sections of brick and stone on each bank, connected by a lattice girder section, some 113–116 feet (34–35 m) over the River Don. The height and space were required should shipping need to navigate along the river. The viaduct carried the Dearne Valley Railway over the River Don between 1909 and 1966, after closure it was converted into a foot and cycle path. The structure is grade II listed, and is notable for being one of the first bridges in Britain to be built using a rope system above the viaduct known as a "Blondin".
Brandon Viaduct is a railway viaduct crossing the River Avon between the villages of Brandon and Wolston in Warwickshire. It carries the Birmingham Loop line and is roughly half way between Rugby and Coventry. The bridge was built in around 1835 for the London and Birmingham Railway and is now a grade II listed building.
Wolverton Viaduct is a railway bridge carrying the West Coast Main Line over the River Great Ouse to the north of Wolverton, part of the City of Milton Keynes, in south-eastern England. Built in 1837 for the London and Birmingham Railway under the supervision of Robert Stephenson, it is one of the largest and most notable structures on the route and is a grade II listed building.
Media related to Chappel Viaduct at Wikimedia Commons