After a week of rain I had a clear day to make this and a few other videos. Love the Dales; its Gods playground and despite the weather a great place to relax.
In the 1860s, the Midland Railway was eager to profit from the growth in rail traffic between England & Scotland & proposed building a line between Settle & Carlisle. The line was intended to join the Midland line between Skipton and Carnforth to the city of Carlisle. It was to pass through difficult terrain that necessitated building several substantial structures & the company’s chief engineer, John Sydney Crossley along with its general manager, James Joseph Allport, set about the design & construction of the line that included the Ribblehead Viaduct.
On 6 November 1869, a contract to construct the Settle Junction to Dent Head that included the Ribblehead Viaduct. The cost of construction was estimated at around £343,000 with a completion date of May 1873. The viaduct was built by a workforce of up to 2,300 men. They lived, often with their families, in temporary camps, and more than a hundred workers lost their lives during building-related accidents, fighting, or from outbreaks of smallpox. There are around 200 burials of men, women, & children in the graveyard at Chapel-le-Dale where the church has a memorial to those who lost their lives during construction. In 1872, the design for the Ribblehead Viaduct changed from 18 arches to 24, each spanning 45 feet (13.7 m). By August 1874, the arches had been keyed & the last stone was laid by the end of the year. On 3 August 1875, the viaduct was finally opened for freight traffic & by May 1876, the whole line opened for passenger services. The viaduct’s length is approximately 440 yards (400m) which makes it the longest structure on the Settle–Carlisle Railway. It is 104 feet (32 m) above the valley floor at its highest point & has 24 arches each with a 45 feet (14 m) span. Their foundations are 25 feet (7.6 m) deep & their piers are tapered, roughly 13 feet (4 m) across at the base & 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 m) thick near the arches & have loosely-packed rubble-filled cores. Every sixth pier is 50 per cent thicker, mitigating the risk of collapse should any of the piers fail & the north end of the viaduct is 13 feet (4 m) higher in elevation than its south end. The viaduct is faced with limestone masonry set in hydraulic lime mortar & the near-semicircular arches are made from red brick. In total, 1.5 million bricks were used & some of its limestone blocks weigh upwards of eight tons. Between 1981 & 1984, repairs were carried out at a cost of approximately £100,000. For safety reasons, the line was reduced to a single track across the viaduct to avoid the simultaneous loading from two trains crossing & a 20mph speed limit was imposed. During 1988, minor repairs were carried out & trial bores were made into several piers. In November 1988, Ribblehead Viaduct was Grade II* listed, & the surrounding land where the remains of its construction camps are located, have been recognised as a scheduled monument. Between 1990 & 1992, Ribblehead Viaduct underwent major restoration & more recently major restoration work was started in November 2020 as a £2.1 million project to re-point mortar joints & replace broken stones.
My YouTube Channel @DocColVideo
.
