Thornton Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct crossing Pinch Beck valley at Thornton, in the

City of Bradford The City of Bradford () is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a large area which includes the towns and v ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is long and has 20 arches. It was built in an S-shape to allow a smooth access to Thornton station. The viaduct was part of the GNR's

Queensbury Lines The Queensbury lines was the name given to a number of railway lines in West Yorkshire, England, that linked Bradford, Halifax and Keighley via Queensbury. All the lines were either solely owned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) or jointly ...

running between Queensbury and

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

. It stopped carrying passengers in 1955 but remained open to goods until the 1960s. At that time, the railway closed and the tracks were pulled up. The viaduct is now a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

. The viaduct was reopened in 2008 as part of the Great Northern Railway Trail between

Cullingworth Cullingworth is a village and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, it is west of Bradford and south of Keighley. The surrounding countryside is mainly u ...

and Queensbury along the track bed. This was the viaduct used in the episode of ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes foll ...

'' entitled "Three Men and a Mangle" where they hoisted the mangle up from the road.

References

External links

Great Northern Trail
* Buildings and structures in the City of Bradford Grade II listed buildings in West Yorkshire Grade II listed bridges Rail trails in England Railway viaducts in West Yorkshire Former railway bridges in the United Kingdom Rail trail bridges in the United Kingdom Viaducts in England {{UK-bridge-struct-stub

See also

References

External links