That iconic viaduct at Stockport ………

The railway viaduct over the Mersey at Stockport is an impressive structure and despite travelling over it and under it for over 56 years I never tire of looking at it.

That viaduct in 1979

My Wikipedia tells me that the “Stockport Viaduct carries the West Coast Main Line across the valley of the River Mersey in Stockport …. It is one of the largest brick structures in the United Kingdom and a major structure of the early railway age. It is immediately north of Stockport railway station.

That viaduct, 2023

The viaduct was designed by George Watson Buck in consultation with the architect John Lowe for the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. 

Work began in March 1839 and despite its scale and flooding from the Mersey, the viaduct was completed in December 1840 and services commenced the same month. 

Roughly 11 million bricks were used in its construction; at the time of its completion, it was the world's largest viaduct and a major feat of engineering. 

The viaduct is 33.85 metres (111.1 ft) high.

Since March 1975, Stockport Viaduct has been a Grade II* listed structure ; it remains one of the world's biggest brick structures”.*

2021

I first travelled over it in September 1969 when I came to Manchester as a student.

It would be a full decade later that I took my first pictures of the viaduct, and I have been drawn back heaps of times.

Of course for any one from Greater Manchester this great sweep of brick will be very familiar but given that the blog is read on every continent save the one where the penguins live, I think it’s fair to show it off.

1979

Stockport Railway Station, 1979

And for those who are curious ..... if you travel across it from Manchester and after crossing the valley the train pulls into Stockport Railway Station, which is just as  it should be.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; the Viaduct, 1979, 2021,&  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Andy Robertson, 2021

*Stockport Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Viaduct