The Huckford Viaduct spans the River Frome just north of Winterbourne Down in

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming ...

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 presently forms part of the Badminton line from Bristol Parkway to

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

. The viaduct was constructed during 1902 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 ...

as part of the

Wootton Bassett Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...

Patchway Patchway is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north-north west of central Bristol. The town has become an overflow settlement for Bristol and is contiguous with Bristol's urban area, along with the nearby towns of Filton and Bra ...

railway line. Its construction was driven by the desire to deliver a more direct route for traffic over the somewhat circuitous route that had been previously necessitated. The viaduct has a height of roughly 100 feet above the level of the River Frome, which passes through one of its arches. The

Frome Valley Walkway The Frome Valley Walkway is an 18-mile (29 km) footpath which follows the River Frome from the River Avon in the centre of Bristol to the Cotswold Hills in South Gloucestershire. The path also links the Cotswold Way National Trail at o ...

also runs through another of the viaduct's arches.

History

The original route of the

was less than optimal for long-distance traffic between

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, having involved a relatively circuitous route in the vicinity of

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and

Chepstow Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the western ...

. Following the opening of the

Severn Tunnel The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...

during 1886, there was both the desire and opportunity to develop a more direct route to South Wales via

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. Accordingly, one of the last pieces of the Great Western Railway to be constructed was a 33-mile stretch of track, which has since become known as the Badminton line; the Huckford Viaduct was built so that the line could successfully traverse the Frome valley. During 1897, work commenced on building the Badminton line. The construction of the line's viaducts was prioritised over several other civil engineering works of the project, as it had been recognised that they would be needed for transporting excavated

spoil Spoil or spoils: *Plunder taken from an enemy or victim *Material (such as rock, earth or other overburden) removed during: **excavation **mining **dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons f ...

from several cuttings and embankments being driven around

. To assist the construction effort, a

trestle ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...

supporting a movable

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

was assembled alongside to move payloads between either end of the viaduct. Conventional methods were dominant in the viaduct's construction, which saw

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

bases established along with

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

staging to support the brick arches until the structure's completion. To better facilitate the viaduct's construction, a new

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

was established at

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the northern suburbs of Bristol. It had around 11,000 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 15,494 at the 2011 census. It is home to Bristol Parkway station an ...

, capable of firing 250,000 bricks per week. Furthermore, the majority of the stone of which it is composed was sourced from the adjacent Huckford Quarry. Several decades following the viaduct's completion, this quarry was abandoned; since 1993, it has been designated as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

located alongside the viaduct.

Citations

External links

Bristol Parkway to Wootton Bassett Junction via cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk

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Grid Reference: {{commons category, Huckford Viaduct Civil Parish of Winterbourne Railway viaducts in Gloucestershire Bridges completed in 1902