Crosses Markland Grips Gorge Closed 9 January 1967 Location Clowne | Design 6 stone arches Opened 16 November 1896 | |
Carries Ex-Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway Locale Between Clowne and Creswell, Derbyshire Width Twin Standard Gauge Rail Similar Doe Lea Viaduct, Creswell and Welbeck r, Attercliffe Road railway st, Killamarsh West railway st, Clowne South railway st | ||
Markland Grips Viaduct is a former railway viaduct south east of Clowne, Derbyshire, England.
Contents
Context
The viaduct carried the LD&ECR's double-track Langwith Junction to Sheffield Beighton Branch over a limestone gorge known as "Markland Grips".
It was situated midway between the former stations of Clowne South and Creswell and Welbeck.
Opened in 1896, it consisted of 6 equal stone arches.
Timetabled passenger services over the viaduct ended in September 1939, though Summer Weekend excursions from Manchester Central to Yarmouth Vauxhall and from Sheffield Victoria to Skegness continued until 1964.
The line's staple diet was not passenger traffic, but freight, and above all - coal. It served as a relief and diversionary route for Sheffield - Lincoln traffic and for Great Central Main Line traffic, but as they declined so did the need for the Beighton Branch. Coal from the branch itself was down to three collieries by the 1960s - Creswell and Langwith at its southern end and Westthorpe (Killamarsh) at its northern end. The north Nottinghamshire "superpits" sent most of their output straight to power stations which were mainly in the Trent valley to the east. By the mid-1960s the Great Central was in terminal decline and the volume of traffic over the Beighton Branch could be accommodated on what is now the Robin Hood Line. Furthermore, the M1 Motorway was being extended northwards and would require an expensive bridge to cross the Beighton Branch. The viaduct itself had required extensive strengthening for some time.
Over the four images the viaduct went from no reinforcing through cross members to cross members plus beams. These measures were to counteract the effects of mining subsidence. In the fourth image a concrete "tunnel" has been built for wheeled and foot users and the viaduct is being buried under spoil to turn it effectively into an embankment.
A Brand new connection across fields south of Creswell and Welbeck was built to connect the Beighton Branch to what is now the Robin Hood Line. The bulk of the Beighton Branch therefore became redundant and was closed on 9 January 1967 from that connection, across Markland Grips Viaduct, through Clowne to Spinkhill Tunnel. The tracks were soon lifted. Langwith Colliery's output continued to go south over the surviving southern section until 8 September 1969, after which it went via the now Robin Hood line. Westthorpe's went north over the surviving northern section until the colliery closed in 1984.
After closure railway land was sold to an individual who used the trackbed to access the viaduct site which he "mined" for materials, notably limestone. These operations finished about 1973. The concrete tunnel was still in place in 2012.
Modern Times
Clowne South station site is a community skate park and the railway trackbed from there southeastwards towards the site of Markland Grips Viaduct is the publicly accessible Clowne Linear Park. The trackbed south of the viaduct site to Creswell is used as a footpath, but its legal status is unclear.
Markland Grips is an SSSI managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, who list them as Hollinwell and Markland Grips. External links to relevant websites are given below.