62-600: Bennerley Viaduct (originally Ilkeston Viaduct and known informally as the Iron Giant ) 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
124-560: A constant 1:100 gradient; the Awsworth end is 15 feet (4.6 metres) higher than the Ilkeston end. It was once the central (and longest) part of a roughly 2-mile (3.2-kilometre) section of raised line over the Erewash Valley. The valley was approached on embankments at each end. At the western (Ilkeston) end, another iron bridge, supported on Bennerley Viaduct's western pier, continues the line of
186-511: A lack of funding. The viaduct was listed on the Heritage at Risk Register in 2007 and the 2020 World Monuments Watch for its condition and lack of use. A detailed survey was undertaken in 2016 and funding for restoration work was secured in 2019. The work included rebuilding an embankment to allow step-free access. It opened to the public as part of a cycling and walking route in January 2022. Most of
248-419: A lath, Come at once then and try, the famed Ilkeston Bath,' was a well known advertising slogan. A mixture of a general decline in the popularity of spa bathing and, reportedly, contamination of the waters from mining activities led to the eventual closure of the baths just before 1900. The baths and the adjacent Rutland Hotel, which also enjoyed a revenue from tourism, no longer exist though they are remembered in
310-554: A local inquest accused him of negligence. Although strong in compression, cast iron was known to be brittle in tension or bending, yet the bridge deck was covered with track ballast on the day of the accident, to prevent the oak beams supporting the track from catching fire. Stephenson took that precaution because of a recent fire on the Great Western Railway at Hanwell , in which a bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel had caught fire and collapsed. The investigation
372-588: Is 60 feet (18 metres) high, 26 feet (8 metres) wide between the parapets , and over a quarter of a mile (400 metres) long. It was once part of a chain of bridges and embankments carrying the railway for around two miles (three kilometres) 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. The viaduct opened in January 1878. Its working life
434-646: Is a town located in the Borough of Erewash in Derbyshire , England, with a population of 40,953 at the 2021 census . Its major industries, coal mining , iron working and lace making / textiles , have now all but disappeared. Part of the Nottingham Urban Area , the town is located between the cities Derby and Nottingham , near the M1 motorway , and on the River Erewash . Its eastern boundary borders Nottinghamshire to
496-652: Is the site of a Charter fair . The fair celebrated its 772nd anniversary in 2024, the Charter being granted by King Henry III in 1252. This makes the fair older than Nottingham 's famous Goose Fair and it is one of the largest street fairs in the Country, indeed in Europe. The present fair developed from two separate fairs, as another 'agricultural hiring fair' or 'Statutes Fair' was traditionally held on Wakes week in October as well as
558-635: Is unmanned with automated ticket machines. Due to flood prevention work and the discovery of great crested newts, the opening was significantly delayed, the new station opened on 2 April 2017. Trentbarton operates the majority of buses around Ilkeston, including the Ilkeston Flyer into Derby, My15 into Long Eaton and East Midlands Airport , The Two into Nottingham, 31 into Kirk Hallam, 32 into Derby, 33 into Mansfield, and 34 into Hucknall. In addition, Notts + Derby and Littles Travel operate some Derbyshire County Council tendered routes around Ilkeston,
620-492: The 2020 World Monuments Watch , a list published by the World Monuments Fund to highlight heritage sites "in need of urgent action that demonstrate the potential to trigger social change through conservation". A detailed condition survey was undertaken in 2016, following volunteer work to clear vegetation from the bases of the piers. The survey revealed the viaduct to be in generally good condition. It noted corrosion to
682-583: The London Underground ), pipes and street furniture as well as bitumen, roadstone, chemicals and munition casings. The works gradually declined, the business being run from 1985 by the French Saint-Gobain Group. The last casting was an emotional event in 2007. The huge Stanton site has been partially given over to business park and the rest of the site is earmarked for redevelopment which is subject to local opposition. Ilkeston Market Place
SECTION 10
#1732876547210744-510: The Waltham TV transmitter, and the Nottingham relay transmitter. The town is served by both BBC Radio Nottingham on 103.8 FM and BBC Radio Derby on 104.5 FM. Other radio stations including Smooth East Midlands on 106.6 FM, Capital East Midlands on 96.2 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Midlands on 106.6 FM and Erewash Sound , a community based radio station on 96.8 FM. The town is served by
806-728: The Wootton bridge collapse and the Bull bridge accident . Similar failures occurred in the Inverythan crash and the Norwood Junction crash . All the structures used untrussed cast iron girders, and generally failed due to blowholes or other casting defects within the bulk material, which were often completely hidden from external view. The Norwood accident in 1891 led to a review of all similar structures by Sir John Fowler , who recommended their replacement. Cast iron had been used very successfully in
868-477: The British railway network, contrasting it in particular with Belah Viaduct. He believed that "in retrospect, it is a pity that the resources now to be devoted to Bennerley could not have been used to preserve Belah Viaduct. [...] Belah Viaduct closed in 1962, when we were less conscious of our railway heritage, and it was demolished not long after". Historic England calls Bennerley Viaduct "an outstanding survival of
930-489: The Erewash Valley and used it as a backdrop to many of his works. He references Bennerley Viaduct in several, most prominently in the novel Sons and Lovers , which includes the lines "There was a faint rattling noise. Away to the right the train, like a luminous caterpillar, was threading across the night. The rattling ceased. 'She's over the viaduct. You'll just do it.' " Ilkeston Ilkeston ( / ˈ ɪ l k ə s t ə n / ILL -kis-tun )
992-537: The Erewash valley just to the north east of Ilkeston. Once threatened with demolition, it is now a Grade 2 listed building, though the line and embankments have long since been removed. The Viaduct has been the subject of much renewed interest and has been reopened to the public as part of a cycleway and footpath. Following a long-running local campaign, in March 2013 Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that Ilkeston
1054-575: The GNR's resident engineer on the Derbyshire Extension, with input from Richard Johnson , the GNR's chief engineer. Abbot and Johnson were also responsible for Handyside Bridge and Friar Gate Bridge in Derby, further west on the same line. The contractor was Benton and Woodiwiss, and the wrought iron was supplied by Eastwood Swingler & Company of Derby. According to Graeme Bickerdike, writing in 2016 in
1116-513: The Ilkeston Advertiser and Ilkeston Life newspapers. Ilkeston is twinned with: Dee Bridge disaster The Dee Bridge disaster was a rail accident that occurred on 24 May 1847 in Chester , England, that resulted in five fatalities. It revealed the weakness of cast iron beam bridges reinforced by wrought iron tie bars, and brought criticism of its designer, Robert Stephenson ,
1178-484: The River Erewash and its wide, flat valley required a bespoke solution—the valley is boggy and undermined by extensive coal workings which were poorly mapped. The ground would not have been able to support a conventional brick or masonry structure. Thus, Bennerley Viaduct was designed to be lightweight to minimise the load on the foundations. The viaduct was designed by Samuel Abbott , a Nottinghamshire-born engineer and
1240-460: The United Kingdom is Meldon Viaduct , near Okehampton , in Devon. Meldon is significantly taller but less than half the length. The railway historians Gordon Biddle and O. S. Nock described Bennerley as "by far the more attractive" of the two. Meldon Viaduct has been significantly altered since it was built, whereas Bennerley is essentially unchanged. Belah Viaduct in Cumbria had a similar design but
1302-611: The area since Roman times, and the industry began blossoming into a huge industrial concern in the 1780s. By the mid-19th century there were several blast furnaces and the production rose from around 500 tons of pig iron per month to 7,000 at the end of the century. The Stanton Ironworks acquired a number of smaller ironstone quarrying and ironworks companies. These included the Wellingborough Iron Company in 1932. Steel pipe manufacturing began at Stanton after World War I and later concrete pipes were produced, Stanton being
SECTION 20
#17328765472101364-584: The corrugated surface provided by the troughs, the volume of track ballast required was half that of a traditional flat-decked bridge. The rails were not fixed to the bridge deck, instead lying directly on the ballast. The bridge deck is enclosed by low wrought-iron latticework parapets . The spans are supported on 15 evenly spaced piers of the same height, 56 feet (17 metres). The piers rest on concrete foundations but are not bolted down. They are held in place by blue brick and ashlar bases, which were built around them. The lack of fixity allows slight movement of
1426-466: The east and is only two miles from Nottingham's western edge. Ilkeston was likely founded during the 6th century, and gets its name from its supposed founder Elch or Elcha, who was an Anglian chieftain. The town appears as Tilchestune in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was owned principally by Gilbert de Ghent. Gilbert also controlled nearby Shipley , West Hallam and Stanton by Dale . Ilkeston
1488-578: The ends of the troughs on the bridge deck, damage to brickwork from frost weathering , and missing rivets among the minor defects. In 2017, the Heritage Lottery Fund gave an initial grant to promote engagement and interpretation, which led to the formation of the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct, a community group which works alongside Railway Paths on the restoration and preservation of the viaduct. An application for further Heritage Lottery funding to enable
1550-455: The far side of the bridge. Indeed, the driver raced on to the next station to warn of the accident and prevent any traffic using the line. He then came back on the other side and drove to Chester where he gave a similar warning. A subsequent Royal Commission (which reported in 1849) condemned the design and the use of trussed cast iron in railway bridges, but there were other failures of cast-iron railway underbridges in subsequent years, such as
1612-405: The final structures, but they were anchored on the cast iron girders themselves, and so deformed with any strain on the bridge. Stephenson maintained that the locomotive derailed whilst crossing the bridge, and the impact force against the girder caused it to fracture. However, eyewitnesses said that they saw the girder break first, and that the locomotive and tender were still on the track at
1674-561: The first in the UK to develop the 'spun pipe' process. In the mid-19th century the works produced 20,000 tons of iron castings per year, 2.5 millions by 1905. Up to 12,500 people were employed during the period when the works were part of British Steel Corporation, of which 7,000 worked at the Stanton works. During its long existence the works produced huge quantities of a variety of products, including pig iron, tunnel castings, (used in projects such as
1736-620: The former Woodside Colliery adjoining Shipley Country Park . NatWest 's Ilkeston branch gained much media interest when a hole in a neighbouring wall received an influx of reviews on Tripadvisor , causing them to suspend reviews in February 2020. One of the biggest and most important local employers was the Stanton Ironworks, later known as Stanton and Staveley – the continuation of a long-standing tradition of iron working in this area. There has been evidence of iron working and quarrying in
1798-455: The genius of British engineering". The work included repairs to the ironwork, the bases of the piers, and abutments and partial reconstruction of the parapets at the eastern end. The embankment at the western end was rebuilt to provide ramped access from the Erewash Canal towpath and steps were built from the eastern end with a wheel trough alongside for bicycles. The viaduct twice featured on
1860-582: The latter operating the 14A and 14B routes into Stanton by Dale and Sandiacre . First-Class County games Every season between 1925 and 1994, the Derbyshire County Cricket Club played up to a couple of first-class cricket matches on the Rutland Recreation Ground , and one-day matches between 1970 and 1994. Local news and television programmes are BBC East Midlands and ITV Central . Television signals are received from
1922-500: The length. It was finished in September 1846, and opened for local traffic after approval by the first Railway Inspector, General Charles Pasley . On 24 May 1847, the carriages of a local passenger train to Ruabon fell through the bridge into the river. The accident resulted in five deaths (three passengers, the train guard and the locomotive fireman ) and nine serious injuries. The bridge had been designed by Robert Stephenson , and
Bennerley Viaduct - Misplaced Pages Continue
1984-491: The magazine Rail Engineer , the design was based on the Viaduc de Busseau [ fr ] , opened in 1864, in central France. The bridge deck consists of 16 spans, each 77 feet (23 metres) long and formed from four 8-foot (2.4-metre) deep wrought-iron Warren lattice truss girders braced together horizontally and vertically. The trusses support a series of transverse iron troughs at 2-foot-4-inch (0.71-metre) centres. Because of
2046-525: The mature phase of development of the railway network in England, demonstrating the confidence of railway engineers in seeking solutions to specific engineering challenges". The journalist Matthew Parris (formerly a Derbyshire MP) visited during restoration work in 2021, and wrote in a column for The Times : "It is, on one view, a hideous thing; and on another a precious and remarkable monument to early railway engineering". The author D. H. Lawrence grew up in
2108-433: The most obvious paths and so the GNR had to take a more difficult route, which required multiple bridges, tunnels, and viaducts. Among several branches from the main route, one diverged just east of Awsworth and continued north up the Erewash Valley; another served Bennerley Ironworks (since demolished). Bennerley Viaduct was built immediately south of the ironworks site, which is roughly mid-way between Nottingham and Derby. It
2170-771: The name of 'Bath Street'. Ilkeston did not have a railway station from 1967 to 2017, despite its substantial population and the fact that the Erewash Valley Line (formerly part of the Midland Railway , later the LMS ) skirts the eastern edge of the town. Ilkeston once had three railway stations. Ilkeston Junction station , also known as "Ilkeston Junction & Cossall" was on the former Midland Railway and later LMS Erewash Valley Main Line: this station closed in January 1967. A short branch led from this station to Ilkeston Town station , at
2232-452: The north end of Bath Street, which closed to passengers in June 1947. Ilkeston's third station was Ilkeston North , on the former Great Northern Railway (later LNER ) line from Nottingham to Derby Friargate station , closed in September 1964. A major feature of this line was Bennerley Viaduct , a 1,452-foot (443 m) long, 61-foot (19 m) high, wrought iron structure which still crosses
2294-733: The original Charter Fair which was held on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15 August). The two fairs were combined in 1888 and the one Charter Fair has been held in October ever since. Since 1931 the fair has been officially opened by the Mayor - first of Ilkeston and since 1974 of Erewash - on the Fair Thursday at noon with the Town Clerk (Chief Executive) reading the Charter from
2356-537: The piers and falling off. As a result of the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s, the viaduct became part of the Historical Railways Estate (or Burdensome Estate), managed by BRB (Residuary) Limited . By that time, there were advanced plans for a conservation group to take ownership of it. In 2001, Railway Paths Ltd, a sister charity of Sustrans formed to conserve redundant railway structures and convert them into walking and cycling paths, purchased
2418-418: The remaining girders by driving a locomotive across them, and found that they deflected by several inches under the moving load. His conclusion was that the design was basically flawed, and that the wrought iron trusses fixed to the girders did not reinforce the girders at all. The same conclusion was reached by the jury at the inquest. Stephenson's design had depended on the wrought iron trusses to strengthen
2480-550: The son of George Stephenson . A new bridge across the River Dee was needed for the Chester and Holyhead Railway , a project planned in the 1840s for the expanding British railway system . It was built using cast iron girders produced by the Horseley Ironworks , each of which was made of three large castings dovetailed together and bolted to a raised reinforcing piece. Each girder was strengthened by wrought iron bars along
2542-537: The steps of the Town Hall. From early in the 19th century the existence of natural mineral waters was noted here and exploited. A local businessman Thomas Potter built, in 1831, the famous Ilkeston Bath at the bottom of Town Street attached to the Rutland Hotel. For over 60 years the baths helped tourism to the town at a time when spa towns like Bath and Harrogate enjoyed popularity. 'If you're doubled in pain and thin as
Bennerley Viaduct - Misplaced Pages Continue
2604-431: The structure to compensate for the ground conditions. Any misalignment of the tracks could be rectified by repacking the ballast. The piers are formed of 12 wrought-iron tubular columns, each constructed from four quadrant pieces riveted together. The tubes are arranged in four groups of three. The centre-most two groups consist of a central vertical column with a slightly inclined column either side of it longitudinally; in
2666-594: The television series The Architecture the Railways Built , once in the inaugural episode in 2020 and once during the restoration work. It opened to walkers and cyclists on 13 January 2022 after the completion of work costing £1.7 million, which was contributed by Railway Paths, the Railway Heritage Trust, and others. In January 2023, funding was awarded towards creating ramped access from the Awsworth end. The only other surviving wrought-iron lattice viaduct in
2728-454: The two outermost groups the central columns are offset transversely as raking columns to provide lateral support. The tube groups are braced together horizontally and vertically at four stages. The viaduct is 1,421 feet (433 metres) long (over a quarter of a mile), 60 feet (18 metres) above the valley floor in the centre, and 26 feet (8 metres) wide between the parapets. Both ends of the viaduct are supported on brick piers. The structure provides
2790-670: The viaduct across the Erewash Valley line (built by the Midland Railway and still in use); that bridge is a plate girder structure at a 15-degree skew . A brick bridge continued the line over the Erewash Canal towards Derby but this was demolished after the railway's closure. The terminating brick pier at the eastern (Awsworth) end was built into an embankment on which the line continued towards Nottingham. The embankments were also demolished, though stubs remain at both ends and between
2852-465: The viaduct and the canal. Aside from the demolition of its surrounding structures, the viaduct survives in a largely unaltered state. The Erewash Valley is largely flat, making Bennerley Viaduct the dominant feature in the landscape. The only nearby patch of high ground is Ilkeston town centre, around two miles (three kilometres) to the south. Construction on the viaduct began with the foundations in May 1876 and
2914-513: The viaduct from BRB (Residuary). The viaduct was designated a Grade II listed building in 1974, later upgraded to Grade II*. It is listed for its architectural interest, rarity, constructional interest, and completeness. Listed status provides legal protection from demolition or unsympathetic modification. British Rail applied for planning permission to demolish the viaduct in 1975 and 1980, partly due to persistent trespass—there were several incidents of people injuring themselves after falling from
2976-537: The viaduct is in Awsworth , Nottinghamshire, but the western end is just north of Ilkeston in Derbyshire; the River Erewash forms the boundary between the two counties. The viaduct was built for the Great Northern Railway 's (GNR) Derbyshire Extension , which opened in 1878. The company's stronghold was previously the eastern side of England between London and York , though it had lines as far west as Nottingham , and it
3038-400: The viaduct to be opened to the public was rejected at the end of 2017, leaving it with an uncertain future. In 2019 Historic England offered £120,000 to cover a funding shortfall, allowing restoration work to begin the following year. Ben Robinson, Historic England's Principal Advisor for Heritage at Risk, said "The importance of this viaduct cannot be underplayed. [It is] a stunning example of
3100-402: The viaduct—but both applications were rejected. The viaduct received little maintenance after 1986 and fell into disrepair. Repair and conservation schemes were mooted but with little progress. In 2007, the viaduct was added to the Heritage at Risk Register as its condition had deteriorated to the point that it was in danger of irreparable damage, and it was the only site in the United Kingdom on
3162-473: The vicinity of Bennerley Viaduct. One landed just to the north of the viaduct on the Midland Railway line at Bennerley Junction, destroying a signal box on the Midland line. One pier of the viaduct was hit by shrapnel, causing superficial damage; the marks are still visible on one of the piers. In the 1960s, the British railway industry, which had been nationalised in 1948, was in decline and the Derbyshire Extension
SECTION 50
#17328765472103224-646: The work was completed 18 months later in November 1877. The railway line opened in January 1878. The viaduct's operational life was largely uneventful. On 31 January 1916, nine Zeppelin airships of the German Airship Naval Division conducted a bombing raid over the English Midlands known as the Great Midlands Raid. One of these airships, the L.20 (LZ 59) , dropped seven high-explosive bombs in
3286-412: 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
3348-537: Was considered unnecessarily duplicative. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1964 and Bennerley Viaduct closed altogether, along with the rest of the line, in 1968 as a result of the Beeching cuts . Most of the other structures carrying the line across the valley were demolished. A contractor was appointed to demolish Bennerley Viaduct but wrought iron cannot be cut up using conventional metal-cutting equipment and it would therefore have to be dismantled piece by piece. The cost
3410-415: Was created a borough by Queen Victoria in 1887. Ilkeston is one of several places where the distinctive dialect of East Midlands English is extensively spoken. Ilkeston is referred to as 'Ilson' in this dialect. Generally the name is pronounced with three syllables, Ilkisstun , not Ilk's tun . The American Adventure , a large theme park which closed in 2007, was located on the outskirts of Ilkeston on
3472-428: Was deemed prohibitive and the viaduct remained in situ. Bennerley Viaduct became part of the closed-line estate, a group of redundant railway structures maintained by the railway authorities to ensure they did not pose a risk to the public. The derelict land around the bridge became a wildlife haven, though the area also attracted anti-social behaviour and there were several incidents involving people attempting to climb
3534-605: Was demolished shortly after its closure in 1962. Another wrought-iron bridge was Crumlin Viaduct , once Britain's tallest, in South Wales. This too was demolished in the 1960s despite efforts to preserve it. Gregory Beecroft, a senior project surveyor for the British Rail Property Board, described Bennerley Viaduct in a contribution for a 1997 book as "among the least impressive" of several metal viaducts that once stood on
3596-417: Was keen to expand westwards to access the coal fields of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire , an area which had previously been monopolised by the Midland Railway . The main line of the extension ran from Nottingham Victoria railway station to Burton upon Trent railway station via Derby Friargate railway station . The route involved significant civil engineering works. The Midland Railway already occupied
3658-508: Was one of the first major inquiries conducted by the newly formed Railway Inspectorate . The lead investigator was Captain Simmons of the Royal Engineers , and his report suggested that repeated flexing of the girder weakened it substantially. He examined the broken parts of the main girder, and confirmed that it had broken in two places, with the first break occurring at the centre. He tested
3720-499: Was one of three sites 'most likely' to get a new station as part of the 'New Stations Fund', costing £5 million and sited close to the old Ilkeston Junction station . On 15 May 2013 it was announced this new station would be built, which would be named Ilkeston station . It has two platforms, which can take six trains per hour with up to six passenger cars and includes waiting shelters. A 150 space car park, cycle storage, bus stop, drop off point and taxi rank are also on site. The station
3782-499: Was the second-largest engineering work on the GNR's East Midlands routes after the Giltbrook Viaduct on the Awsworth branch, which was a more traditional brick viaduct and demolished after the line's closure. Bennerley was one of several wrought iron viaducts built in the period after cast iron fell out of favour for bridge building following the 1847 Dee Bridge disaster , but before steel became commonplace. The crossing of
SECTION 60
#17328765472103844-480: Was uneventful except for minor damage inflicted by a Zeppelin bombing raid during the First World War. Plans to demolish the viaduct failed because of the cost of dismantling the ironwork and it became a listed building in 1974. After closure, the viaduct received little maintenance and fell into disrepair. Railway Paths, a walking and cycling charity, acquired it for preservation in 2001 but work faltered due to
#209790