Alston Arches Viaduct

The bridge was built for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (NCR) Company to carry its Alston line, a branch line which linked Haltwhistle in Northumberland and Alston in Cumbria. The branch diverged from the Tyne Valley line (the NCR's main line) at Haltwhistle railway station and the Alston Arches was the first significant engineering work on the line. The viaduct was designed by Sir George Barclay Bruce. The line opened in 1851 and began full operation on 17 November 1852 when the viaduct was completed. It closed in 1976. The viaduct was the last major work of the NCR Company before the company was amalgamated into the North Eastern Railway in 1862. The viaduct is now owned by the North…

The viaduct crosses the River South Tyne just east of Haltwhistle. It consists of six arches (four over the river flanked by two land arches) in rusticated, rock-faced sandstone quarried at Fourstones, further east along the South Tyne. It is on a gradient of 1:100 (climbing from the Haltwhistle direction) and is approached on an embankment. The river spans are skewed, segmental arches, each with a span of 53 ft. The land arches are narrower and straight. The piers in the water and on the riverbanks have large, angled buttresses on the outside, which terminate in moulded caps below the parapet level. They rest on high semi-circular cutwaters. The parapet is low and marked with a string…