Cornbrook Viaduct – Manchester, UK - Railroad Bridges on Waymarking.com

The Castlefield area of the City of Manchester.
This area is so named because of the remains of a Roman fort in the area.

Manchester was one of the world’s first industrial cities and indeed claims to have started the industrial revolution with the building of the Bridgewater Canal. This canal was the first canal in Britain that did not make use of any existing waterways. It was built by the Duke of Bridgewater to connect his coal mines at Worsley with Manchester and terminated at Castlefield near to the River Medlock. The canal boats were able to carry around ten times more coal than was previously possible by cart. In fact, the canal was so effective that the price of coal in Manchester fell by over half within a year of its opening. This meant that the use of steam power in factories became economically viable.

The Bridgewater canal reached Manchester in 1761 at the Castlefield Basin. It was later extended to provide a link to Liverpool on the west coast. Many factories were built around Castlefield and so the canal started to carry many other goods as well as coal.

In 1799 The Rochdale Canal was joined onto the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield and connected Manchester to Rochdale. By 1804 the Rochdale Canal was extended to Sowerby Bridge and became the first canal that crossed the Pennine Hills. From Sowerby Bridge it was possible to reach Hull on the East coast by use of a number of other linked canals and rivers.

The next stage of Manchester’s development was the arrival of railways in 1830 and there are four separate railway viaducts that cross the Bridgewater Canal and wharves in Castlefield.

During the 20th Century canals and railways declined in use and Castlefield became largely derelict. However in 1982 the area became the first Urban Heritage Park and large parts of the area have now been restored. Apartments, pubs and restaurants have been built on the site and it is now a popular and interesting area to visit and explore.

The Cornbrook viaduct
At this spot is one of the four railway viaducts that cross the area. Three of the viaducts stand very close together and this is the middle one of the three. It is a high-level red brick arch and iron truss girder viaduct built in 1877 for the Cheshire Lines Committee by the Midland Railway. It's known as Cornbrook Viaduct. The viaduct is a red brick and wrought iron truss girder construction. When it opened in 1877, it carried trains coming from a temporary station to Irlam and Warrington, and Chorlton via a branch line. The temporary station was replaced by Sir John Fowler's Manchester Central Station in 1880, which operated until 1969 and is now used as an exhibition centre (G-MEX). The central part of the viaduct that crosses the Bridgewater Canal is in the form of an iron girder truss bridge, but at the eastern end is supported by brick arches.

Although Manchester was served well by train lines to all parts of the country there was no easy route across the centre of Manchester. There had been many plans to try and improve this situation including proposals for a short underground section. However in the end it was decided that a light rail tram system would be developed. The trams coming into the city made use of existing train lines, but then descend to ground level and use tracks embedded in the road to cross the city centre and link together a number of unconnected train stations and rail lines.

This Cornbrook viaduct and the Great Northern viaduct next to it stood disused for many years. When the route for the Metrolink trams was investigated, the Cornbrook Viaduct was found to be in much better condition than the other one. It was chosen for refurbishment (1990–1991) and in 1992 started to be used by Metrolink trams going to Altrincham. A spur line was later constructed and from 2000 the viaduct also carries trams to Eccles via Salford Quays. In 2011 a further extension means that the trams now also go to Chorlton.

See this Wikipedia page for a fuller description of both Castlefield and all the bridges in the area.

Bridge Type: Girder Bridge Usage: Railroad Moving Bridge: This bridge is static (has no moving pieces)

Visit Instructions:
Please provide a photo taken at the time of visit.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.