Stockport Viaduct

The Stockport Viaduct was built to carry the Manchester and Birmingham Railway across the River Mersey as well as the valley at Stockport. It was designed by George Watson Buck in consultation with the architect John Lowe.[1] Several contractors were employed in the viaduct's construction, including John Tomkinson and Samuel and John Holme.[1] The work was initially overseen by the resident engineer W. Adams, and later by W.H. Perkins.[1]

The viaduct stands at a height of 33.8 metres (111 ft) above the bed of the River Mersey, has a length of 546.2 metres (1,792 ft) and, when originally built, a width of 9.4 metres (31 ft).[1] It comprises 22 semi-circular arches with spans of 19.2 metres (63 ft) and is flanked by pair of abutment arches of 5.5-metre (18 ft) span. The arch rings are 900 millimetres (35 in) thick.[1] The line of the viaduct was partially occupied by the engine house of Wear Mill, which was built in 1831, thus the viaduct was built directly over the building by placing piers at either side of the engine house. It was historically known as Edgeley Viaduct.[1][4]

The arches and spandrels are built of red brick set in lime mortar with ashlar spring courses. The deck parapets are 2.2 metres (7 ft 3 in) high on either side. The distance between the arch crowns and the top of the parapets is 3.6 metres (12 ft).[1] The red-brick piers are 3 metres (9.8 ft) thick and 12.2 metres (40 ft) high.[1] They are solid up to 7.9 metres (26 ft) above the springings above which they have 685-millimetre (27 in) thick walls filled with ballast. The piers at the abutments have rusticated facings.[1] The original trackbed was 8.7 metres (29 ft) wide, ballasted with sandstone taken from cuttings along the railway. Track drainage was via 100-millimetre (3.9 in) diameter iron pipes through the piers.[1]

At the peak of construction activity, around 600 workers were employed in shifts – working day and night  to complete the structure. The viaduct was built of layer upon layer of common brick.[4] It took 21 months to construct at a cost of £72,000; around 11 million bricks and 11,300 cubic metres (400,000 cu ft) of stone were used.[1][3] The scaffolding and centring used to build the arches were both reused in the construction of the Dane Viaduct 15 miles to the south.[1]

An early illustration of the Stockport Viaduct, circa 1854

The Manchester to Stockport line was officially opened on 4 June 1840,[5] but the viaduct was not completed until 21 December 1840.[1] On 16 July 1841, the first train crossed the viaduct and it was fully opened to rail traffic on 10 August 1842, enabling through services to Crewe as well as facilitating travel to London.[1][6]

The first section of the Manchester & Birmingham line ran from a temporary station in Travis Street Manchester to a temporary station at Heaton Norris on the Lancashire side of the Stockport Viaduct. It opened for traffic on 4 June 1840 and carried nearly 2,000 passengers per day in the second half of that year. On 10 May 1842, train services were extended from Heaton Norris to Sandbach when Store Street in Manchester opened.

In the middle of Work to widen the viaduct, circa 1888

Between 1887 and 1889, the viaduct was widened by approximately 6.8 metres (22 ft) along one side in order to accommodate four tracks.[1] The London and North Western Railway, formed in 1846, had committed to this widening as it sought a continuous four-track configuration along the route, enabling slower trains to be overtaken by express services, but the viaduct's original deck was too narrow to accommodate so many tracks without the widening. The engineer Francis Stephenson opted to retain both the original dimensions and form of the viaduct for the additional work.[1] Additional tapered piers were built and another abutment arch at the Stockport end was added to carry the wider deck. Manual labour was largely used in this expansion.[1]

In 1929, the arch above Heaton Lane was repaired after several bricks fell from the soffit.[1] The degraded condition of the brickwork was attributed to unseasonably high temperatures in the summers of 1915–1917 which had caused raising in the viaduct's track and parapet. Areas of damaged brickwork were replaced with reinforced concrete, the arch was re-grouted and new steel rails were installed across the affected area.[1]

Street-level view of Stockport Viaduct. Note the presence of the overhead electrification gantries.

In the 1960s, overhead catenary lines were installed for the West Coast Main Line electrification scheme.[7] On 10 March 1975, the viaduct was granted Grade II* listed building status.[1] In 1989, the viaduct was restored at an estimated cost of £3 million. The brickwork was cleaned to improve its appearance,[1] while floodlights were installed to illuminate the structure at night time.[6]

In the second half of the twentieth century, the M60 motorway around Manchester was constructed over the course of several decades.[1] Its three-lane carriageways pass through two of the viaduct's arches between Junction 1 (A5145 road) and Junction 27 (Portwood Roundabout).[1]

In late 2007, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council objected to service changes by train operator CrossCountry, which had proposed to reduce the number of Manchester to Birmingham trains stopping at Stockport by 50 per cent. Councillor David White claimed that an 1840 Act of Parliament guaranteed that all trains passing over the viaduct had to stop at Stockport station.[8] In response, Labour MP Andrew Gwynne stated:

"Sadly no such Act of Parliament exists, although it is common currency in the town that it does. I made enquiries with the House of Commons Library and the Parliamentary Archives back at the time some intercity trains stopped using Stockport. It appears it is purely an urban myth."[9]

In 2011, the viaduct was refurbished by national rail infrastructure owner Network Rail. However, by 2018, its condition had declined, limestone staining (likely caused by failing waterproofing measures) and graffiti are present in multiple areas; local authorities were reportedly considering legal action to compel Network Rail to address its condition.[10][11]

The viaduct is mentioned in literature in the introduction to the Northern Mill Towns in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. In the creative arts, it has been portrayed in several separate works by the noted landscape artist L.S. Lowry.[1]