Larpool Viaduct, also known as the Esk Valley Viaduct, is a 13-arch brick viaduct built to carry the
Scarborough & Whitby Railway over the
River Esk,
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...
, England.
History and description
The viaduct was constructed for the
Scarborough and Whitby Railway to carry a single track line over the
River Esk and valley near Whitby, as well as crossing the
Esk Valley Railway, and
Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway. Due to its situation close to the sea the design avoided the use of iron, using brick and cement construction; the design was based on the
Saltburn Viaduct. Construction began in October 1882 and was complete by October 1884; two men fell from the piers during construction, but recovered. The resident engineer was Charles Arthur Rowlandson, the contractors were
John Waddell and Sons.
The viaduct is a 13-arch structure, long, with the rail level reaching high. The foundations on land were excavated to the level of rock, and formed from slag based cement. The river foundations were excavated in brick lined wells. The river foundation excavations were complicated by large oak trees found embedded in the river that required divers for manual removal. Piers 5,7,8 and 9 had triple foundations, connected above the water level by two semicircular arches. Three of the piers in the river are skewed so as not to deflect the tidal flow (the River Esk is tidal as far as Ruswarp upstream).
The main arches are wide, and high, made of bricks seven deep, . The width between the parapets is on straight sections.
Services on the line ended in March 1965 as a result of the
Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. It is either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Sur ...
.
The viaduct became grade II listed in 1972.
In 2000 much of the former line and the viaduct were opened to the public. By 2006 parts of the brickwork had become unsafe due to
spalling
Spall are fragments of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. It can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ball ...
, and the parts of the outer layer were replaced.
As of 2012 the viaduct is part of the 'Scarborough to Whitby Rail Trail', also promoted as the "Scarborough to Whitby Cinder Track", a cycle route.
The viaduct is mentioned in
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...
's 1897 novel ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...
'':
See also
*
List of crossings of the River Esk, North Yorkshire
References
Sources
*
External links
{{Viaducts in Yorkshire
Railway viaducts in North Yorkshire
Deck arch bridges
Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire
Former railway bridges in the United Kingdom