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The Iron Giant (Bennerley Viaduct near Ilkeston)

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zaax

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/21/geeks_guide_to_britain_bennerley_viadict/

Iron giant: Crossing Bennerley's Victorian infrastructure marvel
Myth, legend and the lucky escape of a sole survivor

Geek's Guide to Britain The pell-mell expansion of Britain's railways in the 19th century has bequeathed some impressive feats of engineering. Great stone viaducts like those at Calstock in Cornwall and Harringworth near Melton Mowbray get the glory, but for my money it's the iron bridges that are the real marvels.

Many centuries earlier the Romans were knocking out perfectly good stone viaducts, but a delicate iron latticework bridge that looks far too insubstantial to carry a thundering locomotive and its string of carriages and wagons? That's something only the great engineers of the industrial revolution attempted.


Bennerley Viaduct's post-industrial repose. Photo: Paul Atherley

The finest wrought-iron viaduct in England is to be found straddling the Erewash Valley at Bennerley, midway between Derby and Nottingham. Remarkably for all that industrial expansion, it's one of just two remaining such viaducts in England and a grade-II listed structure.

Why wrought iron? Wasn't this material some kind of a Victorian obsession? No. In Bennerley's case it was a practical answer to building a structure light enough to cross a valley floor riddled with earlier unmapped coal and iron workings ready to suck a heavy structure to a subsidence-ridden doom.

The resulting delicate, 16-span lattice structure is as much a unique engineering marvel as a thing of beauty.

Bennerley is some 440m (1,444ft) long and 18m (59ft) tall. Not as imposing as its Scottish counterparts the 1887 Tay and 1890 Forth railway bridges, which were built to withstand harsh estuary weather and provide ample clearance to shipping, but Bennerley was by some margin the longest of its type.

OK, let's clarify that a little. Yes, the Tay and Forth are longer, but unlike Bennerley they are not traditional Warren-style lattice spans.

Bennerley is, therefore, the longest traditional wrought-iron bridge with Warren piers and lattice or truss girder spans in Britain, rather than the longest iron bridge per se.

And while lattice-girder bridges were indeed once quite common, the only other of the type of its kind still in existence is the much shorter, at a piffling 164.8m (541ft), Meldon Viaduct in Devon.

The Crumlin Viaduct, the first of the breed, was dismantled in 1967 (its final days recorded in the closing scenes of the 1966 Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren film Arabesque) as were two other fine examples at Belah in Westmorland and Deepdale in County Durham.

That Bennerley still stands is as much down to its size as luck. That grade-II listing in 1974 granted it some statutory protection and helped put the kibosh on the nationalised British Rail's 1975 demolition plans.

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In the thick of it: Bennerley Viaduct going strong into the 20th century. Photo: Sustrans

Nearly half a century on, Bennerley promises to rise again. It's subject of a multimillion-pound renovation and revitalisation project from cycling charity Sustrans that planned to repurpose the viaduct as part of the National Cycle Network.

Curiously for such a large structure, Bennerley Viaduct is rather easy to miss – as I found out on a visit. It was a crisp winter's day and I had expected something as long and built for industry to be instantly visible from the main road. Had I not been given instructions where to park I would have driven right past. And so might you.

Parking up in a small layby on the A6096 I took a stroll along the bank of the nearby Nottingham Canal as far as the viaduct information board, a spot that affords the best panoramic view of the structure.

From there I backtracked to a public footpath that connects to a road that leads to the site of the abandoned Bennerley Coal Concentration Depot. This road also serves the nearby Severn Trent water treatment plant so is closed to public traffic. Cross the depot site and you find yourself at the foot of the viaduct's iron piers.

Given the bucolic isolation of the Erewash Valley – I only encountered some local wildlife and a solitary drone enthusiast – it is difficult to imagine that throughout the 1970s and 80s the area around the viaduct was the site of intense industrial activity.

It was during this time that first the eastern and then western approach ramps were dug away resulting in the steep and rugged ascent needed to get onto the viaduct itself today.

Despite the removal of the ramps and the structure not being technically open to the public it is still easy enough to scramble up onto the railway bed from either end and walk the full length of the viaduct. Care is needed, though, because the rail bed ballast is long since gone, a reality that necessitates stepping across the now empty troughs from girder to girder. If you cross the viaduct, you do so at your own risk.

Much of the undergrowth beneath has been cleared, especially at the western end. So, while there's no path to speak of, you can make your way without too much trouble. And make your way you should as your perseverance will be rewarded by close-up views of the wrought iron pillars and their Staffordshire blue brick and Derbyshire gritstone-encased footings.

It is this opportunity to get up close to a structure of this magnitude that has remained largely untouched for well over a century and explore it without let or hindrance that is one of the main reasons to visit the site.

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Big picture on the industrial Erewash Valley. Photo: Sustrans

I spent three hours at Bennerley and covered about three miles from the canal side to the western end of the viaduct, along the underside, up onto the eastern end, across the railway deck then back down the far end and then back to the car with a detour for lunch in the middle.

If the weather is clement the top of the viaduct makes a good place for picnic, offering spectacular views up and down the line of the Erewash Valley. As it was a bit chilly on the day of my trip, I retired to the nearby Bridge Inn in Ilkeston for sustenance...

see link for the rest of the piece http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/21/geeks_guide_to_britain_bennerley_viadict/
 
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CaptainHaddock

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Dr_Paul

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I think it's near Ilkeston, in the top left-hand corner of this 25" map, on the Derbyshire and Staffordshire line, just east of where it crosses the Midland line, and in square 470430 of this 2.5" map.
 

STANDISH

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Can confirm the walking route over the viaduct will be going ahead, but cycle route will be some time off . Costs
 
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