Angarrack Viaduct
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Angarrack railway viaduct crosses the valley of the Angarrack River at Angarrack in west
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, England, United Kingdom.


Geography

The eleven-arch granite-built viaduct carries the
Cornish Main Line The Cornish Main Line is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. It directly serves Truro, St Austell, Bodmin (by ...
railway across the steep-sided valley of the Angarrack River, a tributary of the
River Hayle The River Hayle (, meaning ''estuary'') is a small river in West Cornwall, England, United Kingdom which issues into St Ives Bay at Hayle on Cornwall's Atlantic coast. The River Hayle is approximately long and it rises south-west of Crowan v ...
, between the present day stations of and . The village extends up the valley and under the viaduct.


History

The original viaduct at Angarrack was designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...
for the
West Cornwall Railway The West Cornwall Railway was a railway company in Cornwall, Great Britain, formed in 1846 to construct a railway between Penzance and Truro. It purchased the existing Hayle Railway, and improved its main line, and built new sections between Pen ...
and was "... ''built wholly of timber on stone footings''". It was nearly long and high. The stone from the original Brunel footings was re-used to construct the sea wall on the approach to
Penzance railway station Penzance railway station () serves the town of Penzance in west Cornwall, England. It is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line and the southernmost railway station in Great Britain, situated at milepost from . The station is owned by Network Ra ...
. Today, no evidence remains of Brunel's original structure. Building of the replacement commenced in January 1883 by Mr H Stevens of Ashburton, who also built the replacement viaducts at
Redruth Redruth ( , ) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, the population of Redruth was 14,018 In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, ...
and Guildford (west of Angarrack). A tram-road of a few hundred yards was laid to a nearby quarry owned by Mr Gregor to provide infill for the granite viaduct. The foundations were expected to be at least deep and the work would take two to three years. It was opened by the
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
in 1888 and its eleven granite arches each have a span of . It is a
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
.


See also

* Angarrack railway station *
Cornwall Railway viaducts The Cornwall Railway company constructed a railway line between Plymouth and Truro in the United Kingdom, opening in 1859, and extended it to Falmouth in 1863. The topography of Cornwall is such that the route, which is generally east–west, ...


References


Source

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Angarrack Viaduct Bridges completed in 1885 Bridges by Isambard Kingdom Brunel Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Industrial archaeological sites in Cornwall Rail transport in Cornwall Railway bridges in Cornwall Railway viaducts in Cornwall Hayle