Gatehampton Viaduct (MLN14402)

MATERIALS: red brick, laid in English bond, with Bramley Fall gritstone dressings. Some patching in similar red engineering brick.

DESCRIPTION: the viaduct is slightly skewed, c.120 m long and 18m wide. The west elevation (1838-40) has four low semi-elliptical arches springing from water level, with a square span of 62ft (19m). Round cutwaters boldly moulded in ashlar. Plain, shallow stepped string-course. Several tie plates across the elevation. Parapets have stone coping with rounded edge, broken for open steel refuges over every pier that were inserted in the C20 along with steel railings along the top of the parapet. The arch voussoirs, originally stone, replaced in brick. On each bank, a step-out to raked and slightly splayed abutments. These retain the bold, stepped roll mouldings which originally continued across the central spans. The east elevation (1890-3) is similar, but with stone roll moulding around the arch rings and no refuges or railings.

The viaduct is prominent in the landscape of the River Thames as it flows through the Goring Gap, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.