Bennerley rail viaduct opens for pedestrians and cyclists after half-century of disrepair

The 430m long viaduct, known as “The Iron Giant”, was built in 1877 to carry the Great Northern Railway (GNR) over the Erewash Valley. After the GNR was discontinued as part of the Beeching cuts in 1968, the viaduct was no longer used and the tracks and embankments were removed shortly after – but it is now back in use.

The viaduct has now undergone £1.7M of repairs, with £560,000 coming from the Railway Heritage Trust to reopen it for active travel. It opened to visitors yesterday, with an official opening ceremony set to take place later this year.

Getting the structure back into use has not been straightforward though – following closure, it fell into disrepair. The viaduct was registered as “Heritage at Risk” by Historic England in 1974 and British Rail applied to demolish the viaduct in 1975 and 1980, but was refused on both attempts. It was also the only UK structure on the 2020 World Monument Watch list that seeks to “discover, spotlight and take action on behalf of heritage places facing challenges or presenting opportunities of direct relevance to our global society”.

Local community groups suggested converting it to a walking and cycle path, but did not have the resources to bring it to fruition. The iron structure, one of only two of its kind in the UK, continued to attract visitors.

When the railway became privatised in 1998, the ownership of the viaduct was handed to Railway Paths, a sister organisation to the national walking and cycling charity Sustrans. The charity was given over 480km of disused rail trackbed to convert into paths for the growing National Cycle Network.

Bennerley Viaduct’s time did not come until Sustrans’ Heritage Lottery funded project “Rediscovering Bennerley Viaduct”, which ran from 2015 to 2017. The Friends of Bennerley Viaduct (FoBV) community group was created as part of the campaign. After an unsuccessful bid for £4.6M from the Heritage Lottery fund and Sustrans’ relinquishment of the project in 2018, FoBV carried the campaign forward.

With FoBV and Railway Paths working together, planning consent was granted in 2019 to bring the viaduct back into use as a walking and cycling trail.

Commenting on the opening of the structure for walking and cycling, Railway Heritage Trust executive director Andy Savage said: “It’s absolutely brilliant. I’ve been in this job for 12 years, I’m about to retire so it’s very much the crowning glory.

“We’ve been trying to find a use for Bennerley Viaduct since we started in 1985 and it has proved immensely difficult.

“Eventually Railway Paths and the local community have done that and we are delighted that we have been able to put, in the end, just over £500,000 into the project.”

Like what you've read? To receive New Civil Engineer's daily and weekly newsletters click here.