Wharncliffe Viaduct

The Great Western Railway was established in 1835 to build a line from London in the east to Bristol in the west. Its chief engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who personally supervised all major civil engineering works on the route. The River Brent was the first significant obstacle on the route and the Wharncliffe Viaduct was the first major engineering work.

Constructed of engineering brick, the 270 m viaduct has eight semi-elliptical arches, each spanning 70 ft and rising 5.3 m. It is 17 m wide. The supporting piers are hollow and tapered, rising to projecting stone cornices that held up the arch centring during construction. When built, the viaduct was designed to carry two broad gauge tracks: the piers were 9.1 m wide at ground level and 10 m at deck level. The contractor was the partnership of Thomas Grissell and Samuel Morton Peto. The cost was £40,000. The foundation works were carried out by William Brotherhood and his son Rowland. The young Charles Richardson also worked here under Brunel, as one of his first works for the Great…