Hockley Railway Viaduct

The Hockley Railway Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct to the south of Winchester in Hampshire, England. HistoryThe viaduct, originally called the Shawford Viaduct, was built in the late 1880s by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). It provided a link over the River Itchen and water meadows, from the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DNSR), to the LSWR's main line. The DNSR was originally intended to continue down the east side of the Itchen to Southampton, but had stalled at Winchester due to lack of funds. The viaduct crossed the valley to link the DNSR to the LSWR, which ran (and still runs) down the west side of the valley. The viaduct was last used by the railway in the 1960s. It "fell" a few years before the Beeching Axe, although all of it, with the exception of a few bricks on the walls, is still standing as of February 2014 and open to walkers and cyclists and also forms part of the National Cycle Network. ConstructionThe structure has 33 spans. Although it appears to be a brick structure, the viaduct in fact has a solid concrete core in its pillars, with the bricks simply performing an aesthetic function. The bricks came from the Poole Brickworks in Wellington, Somerset, and the blue engineering capping bricks from Blanchards at Bishop's Waltham. It was long suspected that the viaduct's structure contained concrete, but not until recent borings into the structure were made was it realised that the majority of the bridge was made of the material. This makes it amongst the earliest modern structures to have a solid concrete core.

The Hockley Railway Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct to the south of Winchester in Hampshire, England. HistoryThe viaduct, originally called the Shawford Viaduct, was built in the late 1880s by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). It provided a link over the River Itchen and water meadows, from the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DNSR), to the LSWR's main line. The DNSR was originally intended to continue down the east side of the Itchen to Southampton, but had stalled at Winchester due to lack of funds. The viaduct crossed the valley to link the DNSR to the LSWR, which ran (and still runs) down the west side of the valley. The viaduct was last used by the railway in the 1960s. It "fell" a few years before the Beeching Axe, although all of it, with the exception of a few bricks on the walls, is still standing as of February 2014 and open to walkers and cyclists and also forms part of the National Cycle Network. ConstructionThe structure has 33 spans. Although it appears to be a brick structure, the viaduct in fact has a solid concrete core in its pillars, with the bricks simply performing an aesthetic function. The bricks came from the Poole Brickworks in Wellington, Somerset, and the blue engineering capping bricks from Blanchards at Bishop's Waltham. It was long suspected that the viaduct's structure contained concrete, but not until recent borings into the structure were made was it realised that the majority of the bridge was made of the material. This makes it amongst the earliest modern structures to have a solid concrete core.