Bennerley viaduct reopens following £1.7m refurbishment
GRADE II* listed GNR Bennerley viaduct, which links Ilkeston in Derbyshire with Awsworth in Nottinghamshire, has opened to walkers and cyclists following a £1.7 million refurbishment.
At over a quarter of a mile long, the 1877-built structure above the valley of the River Erewash is the longest wrought iron viaduct in the country.
Part of the GNR’s Derbyshire Extension, built to exploit the coalfields in both counties, it was closed in the Beeching cuts of 1968, and had been in disrepair ever since.
BR tried on several occasions to have it demolished, but the cost was said to be too high. Known as the ‘Iron Giant’, it was sold to conservation group Railway Paths Ltd in 2001.
The only UK structure on the 2020 World Monuments Watch list – compiled by the New York-based private non-profit organisation World Monuments Fund which calls international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict, or disaster – the viaduct is also is on the Heritage at Risk register published by Historic England.
Small stages of restoration began in mid-2014, and restoration work to create a public walkway with new decking to join into a network of existing public paths started in 2020.
The Railway Heritage Trust provided £560,000 towards the project, backed by the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct group.
Trust director Andy Savage said: “We’ve been trying to find a use for Bennerley viaduct since we started in 1985 and it has proved immensely difficult. Eventually Railway Paths Ltd and the local community have done that. It’s absolutely brilliant.”
The viaduct reopened on January 13.