Stour Valley Viaduct Over Birmingham Canal (Mainline) - Wolverhampton, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 52° 35.983 W 002° 07.567
30U E 559187 N 5828102
This railway viaduct carries the Stour Valley Line over the canal.
Waymark Code: WMZ1RE
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/27/2018
Views: 2
The Birmingham Canal (Main Line)
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (Main Line) is a narrow canal and is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It runs for 16 miles and ¾ furlongs through 24 locks from Worcester Bar (where it joins the Worcester and Birmingham Canal (Birmingham to King's Norton)) to Aldersley Junction (where it joins the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (Main Line: Stourton to Aldersley) and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (Main Line: Aldersley to Autherley)).
Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK and in a central location grew rapidly in the industrial revolution and a large network of canals developed for transport, of which the mainline is a small part with many connections to the rest of the system.
The Stour Valley Line
"The Stour Valley Line is the historic and colloquial name for the line of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway Company between Birmingham and Bushbury, just north of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England. It now forms part of the "Birmingham Loop" or "Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line" of the West Coast Main Line. The "Stour Valley" was a branch which was never built, yet it gives its name to the whole section.
The creation of the line was bound up with the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company which owned the BCN Main Line Canal whose route it closely followed between Birmingham and Wolverhampton."
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The Viaduct
The viaduct is a Historic England Grade II Listed Building.
"Viaduct on Stour Valley Line. 1849-51. By Robert Stephenson and William Baker, for London and North Western Railway. Blue brick with ashlar dressings. 22 segmental arches with ashlar impost bands and platt band over; stone-coped brick parapet; 3rd arch from south is skew arch over the Birmingham Canal Navigation (q.v.). The line was built to connect Wolverhampton High Level Station with the L & NWR's main line at Bushbury. An impressive and early example. (Collins P: Notes on buildings of interest in Wolverhampton: 1990-)."
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