The Colne Viaduct, also known as Five Arches Viaduct, carries the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

railway over the River Colne near

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

in Hertfordshire, Eastern England, just north-west of London. It was built in 1837 for the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...

Design

The

crosses the area around Watford on a series of viaducts and embankments. The Colne Viaduct carries the railway over River Colne in a break between embankments on five round-headed arches. It is built in yellow brick, which is continued on the

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

s (the tops of the arches). In the

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

s on either side are three

blind arch A blind arch is an arch found in the wall of a building that has been infilled with solid construction and so cannot serve as a passageway, door or window.''A Dictionary of Architecture''; Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966) ...

es, the outermost of which is buried in the adjoining embankment. At the top of the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

level the arch heads are projecting courses of stonework. The design is similar to that of Bushey Arches Viaduct, the previous major structure on the line in the Birmingham direction. The arches are roughly wide and have a maximum rise of above the river. The total length is .Biddle, p. 119. In the 1990s, the A4008 was built through two arches of the viaduct and named Stephenson Way. The road connects Watford town centre with the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

History

Work on the viaduct was started in 1836 and completed in 1837. It was built by

, chief engineer of the

, which fully opened in 1838. A second bridge was built alongside to the east in 1858 and 1875 to allow the railway line to be quadruple-tracked; unlike at Bushey, the widening here was in brick and in a style sympathetic to the original. The viaduct is the subject of a

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

and features in another of the adjoining embankment, both by

John Cooke Bourne John Cooke Bourne (1 September 1814 – February 1896) was a British artist, engraver and photographer,John Hannavy (2013) ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.''. p. 196. best known for his lithographs showing the construction of th ...

in his account of the building of the London and Birmingham Railway. Matt Thompson of the

Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is an industrial heritage organisation which runs ten museums and manages multiple historic sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site in Shropshire, England, widely considered as the birthplace of t ...

described the viaduct's appearance in the lithographs as "almost like a Roman aqueduct" and yet a "clean, white modern structure" that blends in with the landscape, which includes grazing livestock—the area was open countryside when the railway was built. The viaduct 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, Hi ...

, a legal status which provides protection from unauthorised demolition or modification, first listed in 1983. In front of the viaduct is a Coal-tax post, a stone obelisk marking the point at which duty was payable on coal destined for London; the post is also Grade II listed.

References

Bibliography

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Footnotes

{{Reflist Five Arches, Railway Viaduct 200 Metres North of Water Lane Buildings and structures in Watford Bridges completed in 1837 Railway viaducts in Hertfordshire