Bridging the gap with some awe-inspiring structures
» REMARKABLE feats of civil engineering and eye pleasing in shape and form, viaducts are structures that inspire awe and admiration. Gloucestershire boasts fine examples, though sadly others that once tip-toed majestically across the county’s dips and dells have fallen victim to the demolition man’s hammer.
An impressive example that can be seen to this day is Capel’s Mill viaduct in Stroud. It’s one of seven that the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel installed between Chalford and Cainscross to carry the GWR (that’s the Great Western Railway, or God’s Wonderful Railway as it was known by some) along the Frome Valley.
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a viaduct and a bridge, by the way, umpteen attempts at a definition can be found, none very satisfactory. Let’s just say it boils down to size and say a viaduct is a big bridge.
We’ll leave it there.
A mill dating back to the 15 century operated on the Frome at this point and it was owned by the Capel family. The family seat, incidentally, was demolished in 1964 and Waitrose now occupies the site.
The first version of the viaduct was timber built and must have looked something like the one Alec Guinness and a host of 1950s British actors put together in “The Bridge over the River Kwai”. Brunel’s lasted a bit longer, but wasn’t up to the job of carrying heavily laden steam hauled trains. Consequently the wooden framed viaduct was replaced with the splendid construction of 22 spans in indigo engineering brick that can be seen today.
A vast number of bricks too. The best vantage point from which to view Capel’s Mill Viaduct is the tow path on the Thames and Severn canal. If you walk alongside this stretch of navigation from the Dr Newton’s Way end in the direction of Brimscombe you’ll pass a number of locks. Read the information boards and you’ll learn that each of the locks required a million bricks in its making. So Capel’s Mill Viaduct must have kept the brickworks busy round the clock for a lengthy period.
Catch the train from Gloucester to South Wales and you’ll leave the city via St Catherine’s viaduct. These seven brick built arches wade the Severn’s east channel and have done so since Queen Victoria’s time. Houses in London Road, Hare Lane and St Catherine’s Street were demolished to make way for the viaduct, which was built using bricks made from local clay.
Removing clay in such quantity created an artificial lake, known as Tabby Pitt’s Pool after a man of the same name who had the misfortune to fall into it and drown. The pool was filled in and Gouda Way now occupies the location.
Extensive works following a £1.5million appeal to raise funds for the restoration of Stanway viaduct by the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway appear to be in their final stages. This magnificent 15 arch structure collapsed while under construction in 1903, as you can see from the report reproduced here that appeared in the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire Graphic.
Perhaps the most dramatic viaduct in the county was found at Lower Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean. Carried on stone piers, an iron lattice work cradled coal and ore filled train across the 80 feet high gorge on the Severn and Wye Railway. A photographer from the Citizen took the picture of the viaduct being dismantled in 1966.
If you travelled along the railway line from Cheltenham to Kingham before its closure in 1962, you’ll remember the anticipation of approaching Dowdeswell with the reservoir in view from the left side carriage windows.
Then excitement mounted as you approached the viaduct where your carriage took to the air as the train trundled over the high stepping bridge across the valley. On the steam hauled train swept through Sandywell Park tunnel, a pause at Andoversford station, another at Andoversford Junction, on to Notgrove station and eventually Bourton on the Water. The viaduct was built from bricks made on site from clay dug at Lower Woodlands Farm.
Arguably the most famous railway viaduct in the country is the Forth Bridge (which bring us back to the viaduct/bridge debate). It was designed by Benjamin Baker, who was a pupil at Cheltenham Grammar School.