Bennerley Viaduct

A railway viaduct designed to carry the Great Northern Railway’s Derbyshire and Staffordshire line over the River Erewash on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border. Completed in 1877, it was designed by Samuel Abbott, resident engineer to the Great Northern Railway Company (GNR), with the involvement of the company’s chief engineer, Richard Johnson.

MATERIALS Wrought iron, with concrete, blue brick and stone foundations and red and blue brick pier and abutment structures.

PLAN The viaduct forms the largest, and the central, component of a raised section of the line, which included approach embankments at both ends of the viaduct and a railway bridge at the western end wrought-iron spans. Stubs of the embankments and the railway bridge structure survive, but are not included in the designation.

EXTERIOR The viaduct is formed of sixteen lattice deck spans, carried on fifteen evenly-spaced latticework piers. The ends of the spans at each end of the wrought-iron viaduct are supported on brick support structures. These form or formed parts of structures attached to the viaduct, and to embankments forming sections of the raised railway spanning the Erewash valley. The west end of the viaduct is supported by a tall blue brick pier with battered outer walls and brick parapets (the pier also forms part of the east end of the railway bridge to the west of the iron viaduct, which is not included in the designation). The east end of the viaduct is carried on a red-brick abutment. This was originally attached to an embanked section of the line, the stub of which survives (not included in the designation).

Each viaduct iron pier is formed of four parallel, diagonally-braced tapered frames linked by vertical cross bracing and four parallel horizontal braced frames. The uppermost level of the pier supports the viaduct deck which is carried on its outer edges by long lattice girders linking the individual piers. The viaduct deck is enclosed by low latticework parapet screens.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26 October 2023 to amend the description.