Disused railway viaduct piers near Fawley tunnel - geograph

Ballingham Railway Bridge (also known as Fawley Viaduct) was a railway bridge over the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

, built by the

Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway (also known as the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway), was a railway which ran for linking Hereford and Gloucester, England, via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a broad gauge line, it ...

. It was built in 1855 and was closed and dismantled in 1965. The bridge was located just south of

Ballingham railway station Ballingham railway station is a disused stone built railway station that served the villages of Ballingham and Carey in Herefordshire on the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. It was situated between Ballingham Railway Bridge and Ballingh ...

History

Construction of the railway started in 1851, but it didn't open until 1855, due to the complexity and cost of building four river bridges and four tunnels. The railway was worked from the start by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

and was converted to

mixed-gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ca ...

in 1866 and later to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

. The bridge had five masonry piers, which originally carried six timber spans. The timber spans were later replaced with plate girders. The line was closed in 1965, as part of the Beeching cuts, and the spans were removed from the bridge

Today

The masonry piers remain in place. A riverside right-of-way runs upstream from Hoarwithy Bridge to the remains of Ballingham Railway Bridge, where it swings away from the river to meet the Ballingham to Carey Road.

References

{{Coord, 51.9726, -2.6275, type:landmark_region:GB-HEF, display=title History of Herefordshire Rail transport in Herefordshire Bridges completed in 1855 Railway bridges in Herefordshire Bridges across the River Wye