Conisbrough Viaduct is a former railway viaduct, near to Cadeby and

Conisbrough Conisbrough () is a town within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and is built alongside the River Don at . It has a ward population (Conisbrough and Denaby) of 14,333. ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, England. The viaduct consists of two sections of brick and stone on each bank, connected by a lattice girder section, some over the River Don. The height and space were required should shipping need to navigate along the river. The viaduct carried the

Dearne Valley Railway The Dearne Valley Railway (DVR) was a railway line which ran through the valley of the River Dearne in South Yorkshire, England. It was incorporated by an Act of Parliament on 6 August 1897, which authorised the building of a line between Brie ...

over the River Don between 1909 and 1966, after closure it was converted into a foot and cycle path. The structure is

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is notable for being one of the first bridges in Britain to be built using a rope system above the viaduct known as a "

Blondin Charles Blondin (born Jean François Gravelet, 28 February 182422 February 1897) was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. He toured the United States and was known for crossing the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope. During an event in Dublin in ...

". The viaduct was west of Edlington Halt, and south of Crofton Junction.

History

The viaduct connected the Dearne Valley Railway and its associated collieries with Black Carr and

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

in the south. The

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

was approved in 1897. The railway opened in stages, from 1902 onwards, with the final section of trackwork being completed in October 1908, although the viaduct took longer, and was finished in March 1909. The full length of the line was , with the viaduct being west of Edlington Halt, and south of Crofton Junction (the northern end). A passenger service operated as far as Edlington Halt on the south bank of the River Don between June 1912 and September 1951. Although the viaduct was built to carry two standard gauge lines, only one was laid across the structure which swapped sides along the viaduct, putting "an unusual kink" in the running line. The viaduct consists of 21 brick arches, each measuring in width, and a single span of

Warren truss Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...

lattice girder work of which straddles the River Don. There are 14 arches on the western side (also known as the "Cadeby Bank"), and seven on the eastern side (also known as the "Conisbrough Bank"), which differ between to in height. The viaduct is long, and made with over 12 million bricks, standing some above the river; which led to one reviewer to describe the viaduct as a "truly Goliath structure". Each pier is tapered at the bottom, with the foundations sunk into grey shale in the ground. Subsidence was avoided by the contractors purchasing the minerals rights to the land underneath the viaduct, so the coal measures in the vicinity were never worked. Double buttresses with projecting bedstones, were built at either end of the lattice span to help support it. The viaduct was constructed using an aerial ropeway suspended over the course of the works. The ropeway, known as a "Blondin", was held up by a tower at each end at a height of , being in length, and at its lowest point, it was above ground level. The section of track including the viaducts' construction, was the responsibility of Gates & Hogg. Timber used in the construction of the supporting frame, came from those used in the building of the High Level Bridge in Newcastle. After Conisbrough Viaduct was built the timbers, and the Blondin, were re-used for the construction of

Leighton Reservoir Leighton Reservoir is a reservoir which drains via the River Burn to the River Ure in North Yorkshire, England. It neighbours Roundhill Reservoir and is about west of Masham. It takes its name from the nearby village of Leighton. Work on t ...

in North Yorkshire. The viaduct was built at above the river in case

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

was to be turned into an inland port. The experiences of building the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

led to a review of bridge building over waterways at the turn of the 20th century. The main brick used on the viaduct was red brick, but

Staffordshire blue brick Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England. The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere ta ...

s were used to face the bridge. The central lattice girder span was engineered by John Butler at the

Stanningley Stanningley is a district of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Leeds city centre on the A647 road, the original main road from Leeds to Bradford. The appropriate Leeds Metropolitan Ward is Bramley, Leeds, Bra ...

ironworks near Leeds. The tender for building the viaduct was awarded in 1906 and cost £4,919 ().

Closure and re-use

The passenger service across the viaduct was withdrawn in September 1951 but the line over the viaduct remained open for freight until 1966. Whilst the collieries that the line served were still open, subsidence at the viaduct prompted its abandonment, and a new junction was built at the northern end of the line to allow traffic to operate from the northern end only. In April 1985, the disused viaduct was transferred to the British Railways Board (Residuary), and in 2010,

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United Kin ...

tarmacked the viaduct as part of the route becoming a long-distance walking and cycling path. The presence of dwarf elder trees in the brickwork led to the possibility of the viaduct being demolished in the 1980s. In 2015, the viaduct was the setting for a murder scene in the TV series ''

DCI Banks ''DCI Banks'' is a British television crime drama series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the ITV network. Originally broadcast over five series in 2010–2016, the series was based on Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks novels and sta ...

''.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links