Chelfham Viaduct

Chelfham Viaduct
Chelfham Viaduct (2010)
Coordinates	51°06′14″N 3°59′13″W / 51.10388°N 3.98690°W / 51.10388; -3.98690
Crosses	Stoke Rivers Valley
Locale	Chelfham, North Devon
Heritage status	Grade II listed structure
Characteristics
Material	Brick
Total length	400 feet (120 m)
Height	70 feet (21 m)
History
Designer	F. W. Chanter
Opened	1898
Closed	1935

Chelfham Viaduct is a railway viaduct built in 1896-97 to carry the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) across the Stoke Rivers valley. Designed by L&B engineer, FW Chanter, and containing over a quarter of a million Marland bricks, its eight arches - each 42 feet (13 m) wide and 70 feet (21 m) high - meaning that the 132-yard (121 m)-long viaduct is the largest narrow gauge railway structure in England. Chelfham Viaduct was Bridge number 22 of the 80 that carried or spanned the railway over its 19-mile (31 km) length. It is a Grade II listed structure.

After the L&B closed in 1935, the rest of the trackbed, buildings and land from the line was sold at auction in 1938. The viaduct, however, was not sold. In 1943, it featured as a location in the war-time film The Flemish Farm, representing the Franco-Belgian border. It is probable that such a redundant structure would normally have been dismantled, either then, or shortly afterwards during the Second World War, as happened to the smaller viaduct at Lancey Brook, which was destroyed as a demolition training exercise by the Army. However, a school and other buildings at its base made it uneconomical to dismantle, so it remained in Southern Railway ownership, passing to British Railways on the nationalisation of the railways in Britain in 1948, and in 2001, to BRB (Residuary) Ltd, formally a wholly owned subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority (now Network Rail). The residuary company was still owned by the UK Government, reporting to the Department for Transport. until, on 30 September 2013, The Highways Agency took over properties held and managed by BRB(R) prior to it being wound up.