Giltbrook Viaduct was a railway viaduct built in the

Erewash Valley The Erewash Valley is the valley of the River Erewash (pronounced ) on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as far as the River Trent. It runs along the boundary of the southern end of the Derbyshire hills and the more rolling Nottinghamsh ...

between

Awsworth Awsworth is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England. Its population of 2,577 in the 2001 Census and 2,517 in that of 2011 was estimated at 2,551 in 2019. It lies near the edge of the Greater Nottingham are ...

and

Giltbrook Giltbrook is a village in England situated approximately northwest of Nottingham and within close reach of junction 26 of the M1 motorway. It is part of Greasley (Giltbrook and Newthorpe) ward, which had a population of 6,076 in 2001, increasi ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. It was demolished in 1973 to make way for the

A610 A610 may refer to: * Renault Alpine GTA/A610, an automobile produced by the Renault-owned French manufacturer Alpine * A610 road (England), a road connecting Nottingham and Ambergate * Quebec Autoroute 610, a short spur road located in Sherbrook ...

bypass.

Origins

The viaduct was built between May 1873 and November 1875 and forms part of the Great Northern Railway Derbyshire Extension which was built in part to exploit the coalfields in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and

. The contract was given by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) to Joseph Firbank with the line laid out by, and the viaduct designed by Richard Johnson (Chief Civil Engineer of the GNR); Samuel Abbott was the resident engineer. At Awsworth Junction the railway branched, one line passed over the

Bennerley Viaduct The Bennerley Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct spanning the Erewash Valley between Awsworth (Nottinghamshire) and Ilkeston (Derbyshire) in central England. It was built in 1877 but closed to rail traffic in 1968, as part of the Beeching cuts ...

, the other turned North towards Pinxton crossing the Giltbrook Viaduct (or Kimberley Viaduct but known locally as Forty Bridges). This viaduct was built of red bricks used to create 43 arched spans with a total length of and a height of . The viaduct was S-shaped and built in four sections. The first section consisted of a single long skew span arch crossing Awsworth Lane followed by 13 arches each spanning . The second section consisted of one skew span arch over the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

's Bulwell to Bennerley branch line followed by 15 arches each spanning . The third section started with a long skew span arch, skewed in the opposite direction, crossing the Midland Railway's line to Digby Colliery which was immediately to the East of the viaduct followed by 3 arched spans of . The fourth section started with a long segmental arch which crossed the

Greasley Greasley is a civil parish north west of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. Although it is thought there was once a village called Greasley, there is no settlement of that name today as it was destroyed by the Earl of Rutland. The built up ...

arm of the

Nottingham Canal The Nottingham Canal is a canal in the English counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. As built, it comprised a long main line between the River Trent just downstream of Trent Bridge in Nottingham and Langley Mill in Derbyshire. At the sam ...

followed by 8 arched spans long. Each section was separated by stop piers. To the South West of the viaduct next to the Nottingham Canal arm was a Nottingham Gas Light and Coke Company chemical works of which

Thomas Hawksley Thomas Hawksley ( – ) was an English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with early water supply and coal gas engineering projects. Hawksley was, with John Frederick Bateman, the leading British water engineer of the ...

was once the managing engineer.

Great Midlands Raid

Houses were built into arches 8 and 23 counting from the Awsworth end. These dwellings were used as makeshift air raid shelters by school children from Awsworth during a

First World war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

German

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

Airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

bombing raid which dropped bombs at Bennerley Junction. This bombing raid was part of what became known as the Great Midlands Raid.

References

External links

* *{{cite web, title=RCTS Mystery Photographs: Giltbrook Viaduct, author=Courtney Haydon, J, publisher=The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, url=http://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/show.htm?img=B-74-28, access-date=14 August 2011, archive-date=28 September 2011, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928025105/http://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/show.htm?img=B-74-28, url-status=dead Railway viaducts in Nottinghamshire Arch bridges Skew bridges Brick bridges Demolished bridges in England Bridges completed in 1875 Buildings and structures demolished in 1973 Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)

Origins

Great Midlands Raid

References

Further reading

External links