Moulsford Railway Bridge, also known locally as "Four Arches" bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges located a little to the north of

Moulsford Moulsford is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. Before 1974 it was in the county of Berkshire, in Wallingford Rural District, but following the Berkshire boundary changes of that year it became a part of Oxfordshire. Moulsford is ...

and South Stoke in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

, UK. It carries the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the o ...

from

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and the West across the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. The bridge lies between the stations at Goring & Streatley and

Cholsey Cholsey is a village and civil parish south of Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded Cho ...

, and crosses the Thames at an oblique angle on the reach between

Cleeve Lock Cleeve Lock is a lock on the River Thames, in Oxfordshire, England. It is located just upstream of Goring and Streatley villages, on the eastern side of the river within the village of Goring. There was a hamlet of Cleeve, after which th ...

and

Benson Lock Benson Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England, close to Benson, Oxfordshire but on the opposite bank of the river. The first pound lock here was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1788 and it was replaced by the present mas ...

. The original Moulsford Railway Bridge was built between 1838 and 1840, having been designed by

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...

for the main trunk route of 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 ...

. Built to carry a pair of

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union ( C ...

tracks across the Thames, it consists of four low semi-elliptical arches spanning the Thames at a considerably skewed angle of 60 degrees. During the 1890s, a second bridge was built immediately parallel to the original structure, enabling the railway to be expanded to a quadruple track configuration. The bridge was subsequently recognised as a

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 I ...

structure. During the 2010s, the lines across the structure were

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

Construction

First bridge

The original Moulsford Railway Bridge was built to carry the main line of the

(GWR) over the

. Construction of this truck line between

and

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

had been authorised by an

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

in 1835, with construction commencing during the following year. The bridge, along with many of the railway's engineering features, was designed by the accomplished engineer

, who was the leading figure in the GWR's engineering and management. The bridge, which was built to carry a pair of

tracks, was a relatively ambitious design, consisting of four elliptical

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its ...

es of span and a headway height of . Consisting primarily of red brick with

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

quoins, it is skewed at an angle of 60 degrees to the river. The structure has often been regarded as being of an exceptional size for the era; to better accommodate such dimensions, Brunel incorporated a series of internal longitudinal walls and voids to lighten the superstructure, which also reduced the cost and time needed to construct it. It has been alleged that the GWR had promised the

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

to aesthetically embellish the bridge to mollify his doubts of the scheme.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

has observed the bridge to be one of the most impressive structures along the whole length of the railway. Construction of the Moulsford Railway Bridge occurred between 1838 and 1840, having been built at the same time as several other railway bridges on the line, including those at

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

and Gatehampton; furthermore, design features are shared between these three bridges. Relatively little alterations have been performed to the structure since its original opening to traffic, even the construction of a second bridge alongside did not result in significant changes to the original bridge, the two structures remaining distinct separate identities. Since the building of the second bridge, the first has been often referred to as the 'west' or 'fast' bridge.

Second bridge

By the 1870s, capacity along the railway was becoming noticeably constrained by a lack of capacity, leading to pressure to widen the line wherever possible. During 1892, the section of the line around the bridge was expanded to a quadruple track arrangement; to accommodate this, the construction of a second bridge was necessary. It was built alongside the upstream side of the original, being connected to it by a series of

girder A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizin ...

s and brick bridgelets. The two bridges are also joined together at the deck level by a series of vaulted brick footbridges. The design of the second bridge was, like many other structures built for the expansion, was intentionally designed to be sympathetic to Brunel's original bridge; thus, it shares many similarities, such as identical profile and dimensions, to the first bridge. It also has several differences, such as the lack of stone quoins, while the plain uncut bricks form a jagged pattern where they meet the faces of the bridge. The second bridge is also somewhat narrower than the first, having been built to carry a pair of

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 E ...

tracks. In relation to the original bridge, it is often referred to as the 'east' or 'relief' bridge. The second bridge has typically been regarded as possessing less intrinsic merit than the first one.

Alterations

During the 1970s, the Great Western Mail Line was subject to extensive reengineering work to enable 125 MPH running for the newly introduced

Intercity 125 The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125New trai ...

services; accordingly, some changes were made to Moulsford Railway Bridge. Work on constructing safety refuges commenced, despite protection from preservation orders and objections filed by

council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

authorities;

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

's chief engineering at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

was allegedly unhappy with the work, resulting in alternative plans being filed and subsequently enacted. Between March and July 2016, national rail infrastructure owner

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

commissioned contractors to perform repairs and cleaning activities to the two bridges; this involved the temporary staged closure of each arch to river traffic. During the 2010s, the railway lines crossing the bridge were

, requiring the installation of

OHLE An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipment ...

across the structure. Members of the public voiced concerns over the aesthetic impact of such modifications to the structure; for its part, Network Rail commissioned studies into minimising the visual impact of the electrification effort.

References

External links