from... BRIDGE IMPROVEMENTS ON THE MIDLAND IN THE 1880S. Pt 1 THE VIADUCTS
A rare glimpse of Brunel’s wooden viaduct at Stonehouse, on the Bristol & Gloucester Railway, built in 1843-4. It is showing signs of age and use in this 1883 photograph, as the piers of the replacement bridge take shape inside it. Brunel’s design, with each fan of five struts being incorporated into a larger girder arrangement running the full length of the viaduct, the whole being supported on ten wooden piers of three fans each, differs quite significantly from any of the viaducts he subsequently built in Devon and Cornwall. .
Also referred to locally as Beard’s Mill Viaduct, after a nearby mill of that name, the bridge was some 540 feet long, consisting of ten spans of 50 feet each, with smaller spans of 20 feet length burrowing into the embankments either end. It bridged a small stream and a minor road, and had a maximum height of 43 feet. With Stonehouse station sited immediately north of the viaduct, there was little scope for employing a deviation, so the construction method used was obviously designed to allow for as little disruption to services as possible on this busy line.
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