Pod Gill Viaduct

Pod Gill Viaduct is a railway viaduct built in 1861 and widened in 1889 for the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway, part of the North-Eastern Railway. It spans the valley of the Ladthwaite Beck and was engineered by Thomas Bouch, with construction carried out by contractors Chambers and Hilton. The viaduct opened as a single line structure in August 1861 and was later doubled in width in 1889.

The structure is made of snecked and coursed squared rubble sandstone, featuring rusticated voussoirs and finely jointed ashlar soffits. The south-east line uses larger blocks than the north-west line. The viaduct is straight, measuring 466 feet in length and includes 11 semi-circular headed arches, each 30 feet wide. At its tallest point, the viaduct reaches 84 feet high and is supported by tall, tapered rectangular piers. These piers have two rows of corbels at their tops, which were originally used to support the construction formwork for the arches.

Above the arch heads, the parapets rise from moulded courses and end in plain ashlar parapets. The side walls feature splayed abutments with shallow pilasters, which terminate in rectangular upstands topped with shallow pyramidal caps. During the widening, unique refuges were created within the thickness of the walls, protected on the outside by cast-iron plates shaped to match the profile of the copings. There are four refuges on the south-east side and three on the north-east side. This viaduct is notably positioned and is of particular interest as an example of a widened structure, showcasing different construction characteristics from its two phases.