[Closed] Interesting unknown engineering landmarks in the uk

No one has said Emly Moor transmitter. Or the dams on the derwent in derbyshire, Howden, Derwent and Lady Bower. Humber Bridge, Tinsley Viaduct.

North of Northampton on the Brampton valley cycle way there are two long old rail tunnels you can cycle through, unlit they are great. The phrase, can't see your hand infront of your face definately applies. Group rides in there no lights are manic fun. Ride untill your bars scrape the Walls then correct.

The Churchill barriers are impressive but are not built out of ships! They were built to replace the sunken ships which were proved to be ineffective.

They were constructed by Italian prisoners of war during world war 2 out of 10 ton concrete blocks to join some islands in Orkney together and to block entrances to Scapa Flow where the home fleet was moored. They are still used by residents today to travel between islands.

Not exactly unknown, but.....Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope......

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What a fascinating thread! I never cease to be amazed at the subjects discussed on here.

So ... how about a bike ride to visit these? Can it be done as a Forum Ride? Would be awesome 😀

Well I really like this:

[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2451136615_bdfb8910a7.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2451136615_bdfb8910a7.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

But I can't possibly tell you where it is . . .

I also find the things on [url= http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/ ]here[/url] fascinating sometimes. 🙂

Cant believe no one has mentioned the Welland viaduct http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Viaduct

It is three-quarters of a mile long and has 82 arches, each of which has a 40 ft span. It was completed in around 1878, and is the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in Britain.

Scotlands Secret Bunker near Anstruther (signposted for miles around...) [url= http://www.secretbunker.co.uk/explore_the_bunker.asp ]shhhhhhh[/url]

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A fascinating insight into the Cold War, loads of red telephones and big red buttons.. was going to be the seat of government if it all went off....

Best viewed with German relatives as I found out....

Actually I think I need to get out [s]off my bike[/s] a bit more 😉

Someone please stick a pic of the wooden structure on the tyne. Near blaydon? Its pretty impressive...............

Dunston Staiths!

The view from my front room 🙂

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So ... how about a bike ride to visit these? Can it be done as a Forum Ride? Would be awesome

Hampton Loade waterworks bridge. Unusual in that the pipes form the arches to support the deck. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1417969
Bridgnorth Cliff Railway. The UK's only inland funicular railway.
Most of the route is within sight of the Severn Valley Railway, so there'll be steam trains too. 🙂

Local to me (and not that well known) is the Millenium Walkway in New Mills, Derbyshire. The town sits on top of a deep gorge where 2 rivers join and there have been mills down there for years (derelict now) along with all the accompanying weirs and dams and 2 huge viaducts over the gorge.

In 2000 a bridge was finally built to connect the two ends of the footpath (previously walkers had had to go up into the town and round to the other side to continue their walk).

The bridge won a design award but the architect was killed in the London bombings of 7/7, there's a plaque on the bridge in his memory.

Stan Brewster was his name, he wasnt the architect but the Engineer that oversaw the construction. He was also immensly proud of the finished walkway
I worked with him on a job in Derby, it was my first job as a young Engineer straight out of university and Stan helped me alot and instilled in me alot of the values that I try and practise to this day. I only knew him for a relatively short 18 months but he made more of an impression on my education and career than anyone before or since
If I can have even a quarter of the life that man had then I will know I have done my best. In my eyes the man was a legend and for that reason the Millenium Walkway has a special place in my own personal list of Engineering greats

Winter Hill TV Transmitter
[IMG] [/IMG]
there are taller in the UK but none in quite such a demanding location
Its not called Winter Hill for no reason!

Blimey, just looked at the 28dayslater forum that paul4stones linked. And I thought us bikers were eccentric, they go down storm drains taking photos!
But, undeniably fascinating! Where's me wellies & torch........

The Severn Bridge.
The bridge itself is famous enough, but it's not so well known that there's a cycle path along both sides of the motorway.

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Barmouth Bridge is impressive... but well known.

One of the most impressive, and little known structures that I have come across is the County Adit / Great County Adit in Cornwall. A network of tunnels excavated in the 1700s to drain a large part of the mining area between Redruth and Truro - a massive feat of engineering, all driven to a grade to ensure gravity drainage, and still working today - albeit some collapse have rendered some branches inaccessible and less effective in draining workings....

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_County_Adit ][/url]

Amazingly, I can't find any representative photos on the net!

Ribblehead Viaduct, Yorks and Tiddy Viaduct

The M62 across the Pennines
Scammoden Bridge and Dam - largest rockfill dam in UK
The Pennine Way footbridge (actually two self supporting cantilevers, there was originally a small gap in the middle)
Ken Wildes Farm (popular belief has it he refused to sell up and move - not the case it sits in the middle of the two carrageways for Engineering reasons)
All built during the worst winters and wettest summers on the moors for years, even the dumptruck bodies had to be heated so the peat could be transported away from the site
A true understated Engineering marvel
http://www.motorwayarchive.ihtservices.co.uk/m62bounpole.htm

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It doesn't look like much now, but the idea of spending much of the early 1800's sailing to and fro to dump 4 million tonnes of rock out in the sea seems like quite an undertaking! It's a mile long and has a 1 in 5 gradient slooping into the water at the seaward side, so is far bigger under the water than it looks from the top.

Wind farms you cannot beat them.

And it's called...:?:

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Got turfed off that by the MoD Police when we were kids - out fishing and decided to have a look at the western light (pictured)

Managed to find a piccie of the Great County Adit in Cornwall (from my post above)

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Doesn't look much at surface - but it's effectively the biggest river in that part of Cornwall!

The Severn Tunnel and the remarkable story of The Great Spring and the divers.
http://www.divernet.com/other_diving_topics/160544/the_strong_man_the_rebreather_and_the_tunnel.html

Is that the Breakwater in Plymouth Sound? Used to kayak out there in the mid 80s when I was at Poly there. The rescue shelter on the other end holds 20 people or more...
[img] http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/images/pictures/08/55/the-eastern-beacon-plymouth-breakwater-83671.jp g" target="_blank">http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/images/pictures/08/55/the-eastern-beacon-plymouth-breakwater-83671.jp g"/> [/img]

the deep level shelters under the Northern Line are great...
[img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3134/3222003523_8bc9e7fc79.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3134/3222003523_8bc9e7fc79.jp g"/> %3Fv%3D0[/img]

...as are the Backbone transmitters (ie Stokenchurch)
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oh, the thing in the sea I posted earlier is called the Plymouth Sound Breakwater. It would have been helpful to have mentioned that, really.

Top thread and lost 4 hours last night on the 28 Days Later site!

If you like 28 Days Later site, then try this as well

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/

What a great thread!

I work in Corsham, so the Burlington bunkers link was fascinating. My office is only about 200m north of Box tunnel and right over tunnel quarry by the looks of things. I'm convinced you can hear noise coming up from the tunnel sometimes.

The tunnel entrances around Box are stunning

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There's a nice viaduct at Limpley Stoke just outside Bath as well

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The Treffry Viaduct in Cornwall
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[url] http://cornwallheritagetrust.org/downloads/schools/sectionone.pdf ][/url]

Lots of "generic" Victorian railway viaductsmentioned in the thread - but this one pre-dates steam powered railways...

On top was a granite slab deck carrying a horse powered tramway - with an aqueduct beneath carrying a leat to drive a water wheel for a rope powered incline...

+1 for the M62 - it's a thing of beauty.

It's such a shame that we've lost the confidence to build things in this country now.

It's such a shame that we've lost the confidence to build things in this country now.

[url= http://www.d.lane.btinternet.co.uk/canal.html ]The 40+ miles of underground canals in Greater Manchester[/url]

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llamafarmer - have you seen the WWII buildings around Farleigh Rise? Lots more underground stuff there. You'll find lots of info if you have a Google, I could do run some sight seeing tours if anyone's interested... surface only!

aP - I don't disagree with you, but I do think something has gone wrong in our culture and we can't see that we can improve things. The optimism that we had in the Victorian era, or in the 50s and 60s has gone. NIMBYism, vested interests, conservation, environmentalism - there are always reasons not to build things, and a lack of belief that something new could be better than what's there now, and that change can be good.

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Digswell viaduct, hertfordshire. I was told as a kid the people who died while building it are buried in the piers.

TBF docks, rail, canals all astound me. all built without modern hydraulics. Mad.

What about the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme:

65MW hydro electric plant build in 1929, to power the huge aluminium smelter, and apparently had the longest water carrying pipe in the world until 1970!

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst10538.html

Or of course the 400MW Ben Cruachan hydro electric power station, built inside the mountain:

http://www.scotland.org/about/entertainment-and-sport/features/business/ben-cruachan.html

Severnshed Bar in Bristol - the outside an old Brunel-designed boathouse with a great cast iron internal structure. The rather more modern bar itself is actually a hovercraft.

llamafarmer - have you seen the WWII buildings around Farleigh Rise? Lots more underground stuff there. You'll find lots of info if you have a Google, I could do run some sight seeing tours if anyone's interested... surface only!

No I had no idea there was stuff there as well. Can you see much above ground?

Yeah, the Hydro schemes are impressive. Not exactly unknown but my vote would go with the West Highland Line and the Blackwater dam - largest in Europe at the time and effectively built by hand. Also, there can't be many construction sites in the UK with their own graveyards?

WHL famous for it's pioneering use of concrete. The famous 'horse in the viaduct story' (WHL) has now been confirmed as fact.

More here:

No I had no idea there was stuff there as well. Can you see much above ground?

28DL is a great time waste - some stunning photographs to be found.

[url= http://www.fhc.co.uk/electric_mountain.htm ]Electric Mountain[/url] at Llanberis is a very interesting trip.

Can we go international? I got the train from Nice to Monte Carlo earlier this month and thought Monte Carlo railway station was very impressive.

For fans of military and spook stuff, this site is brilliant. All sorts of weird and wonderful stuff, very big on cold war infrastructure. Caution: many hours to be lost here, but has added lots of places to go peeking through hedges at on road rides.

[url= http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/ ]http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/[/url]

i quite like balcombe vidacut, theres a walk near there that goes underneath. when you look through the middle it looks like one of those infinity mirrors

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I like Clay Mills pumping station in Burton
One of the 2 engine houses has been restored and steams certain times in the year - (next steaming is 4th and 5th april)

[img] http://www.archivist.plus.com/website/tour/cd.html [/img]

Also - working in the electricty industry, we have some great building/former power stations that are great to have a look round

EDIT - if the picture link doesn't work, check out thier website

[url= http://www.archivist.plus.com/website/tour/tour.html ]clicky here[/url]

cxi - I like electric mountain

If we go international - Hoover Dam!

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Before it was decommissioned I got to go into Lotts Road power station in Chelsea - my that was an industrial cathedral if ever there was one.

I used to know an elderly gent who had commissioned Bankside Power station in the 50s, I think he told me it had only been used about a dozen times before it was removed from service.

+1 for the Severn Bridge. It's on LEJOG though so does get a fair bit of traffic and it's worth crossing on a bike simply for the fact you get a great view of SSC, and when you get off in the middle the whole thing moves about.

It's a very eerie feeling, but very memorable.

Remember not to drop your nuclear submarine. The Faslane Shiplift.

But handy for repairs when you drive into the French, or the sea bed.

On the small scale, The old ROC posts are interesting, yet concerning.

Corsham is where the English government were supposed to go in the event of the big one - it's all inside the tunnels, I believe.

My ancestors worked on the Plymouth breakwater!

As C-G says, it would be good to do bike rides in different parts of the country and visit some of these!

Crofton Beam Engines on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire.
One of the engines there is just short of 200 years old and can still do its original job! It lifts lifts about 12 tonnes of water a minute to supply the canal summit.

cool thread! ONe of the few where I have followed every link and read every post

my favourite engineering landmark is an old one:

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taken in conjunction with its neighboring sites:

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and

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These sites are perhaps not in the same vein as many of the contributions but I think they show a civilisation engaging in massive civil works (something like 4 million man hours to dig the ditch around Avebury) and using materials to venerate and interpret their landscape. I particulary like the theories that the sites developed over several thousand years and were modified and altered to reflect the changes in beliefs and culture.

[i]cool thread! ONe of the few where I have followed every link and read every post[/i]

+1, great thread, fascinating.
It never ceases to amaze me, the depth of knowledge and interest of people on STW!

Agree - Great thread

This is one of our older Substation building
It is in Selly Oak and used to be a pumping station. It now houses 2 sections of GEC 11kV switchgear

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There is still an air raid siren in the roof space

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India Mill in Darwen. Really nice old brick chimney on the front of it that can be seen from the m65 as you pass.

http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?pageid=378&language=eng

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The chalk tower near Flamborough Head. Built in 1674, this is the oldest surviving complete lighthouse in England.

Lighthouses generally are very impressive mainly due to the location.

can I add trig points and maps - very early 'engineering' that I still use
http://www.haroldstreet.org.uk/trigpoints/download.php?waypoints=28

This is a great thread - i think someone has mentoned Poncysyllte Aqueduct already - but it is truely amazing, and an engineering first.
The amount of work Telford designed/built was truely awe inspiring.
http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/engineers/telford1.html

Roof of York Railway Station is lovelier than any Cathedral.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11478010

Again, I'm totally amazed at what's been posted... I feel ignorant.

Polite request: We really do need a thread from volunteers that can show us these incredible structures. Can anyone step up to the mark please?

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an FLR-9 high frequency signals interception antenna array which, at the height of the Cold War, was used to intercept Soviet and Warsaw Pact communications as well as non-US Diplomatic messages at Chicksands - dismantled in 96.

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St Margaret's Bodelwyddan AKA The Marble Church, Built out of lime stone, still looks as clean as the day it was built, just hasn't weathered.

The newish bridge on the Dee at Shotton, is quite special.

and the Conwy Tunnel on the A55 - built with submerged tunnel sections each 120m long.

[i]We really do need a thread from volunteers that can show us these incredible structures.[/i]

Consider it done. 😉

I only 'properly' discovered this the other day having walked/riden/driven past either end of it most weeks for 15 years!

http://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/

well Manchester Confidential are organizing some tours of Underground Manchester over the coming weeks see [url= http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/Events-and-Listings/Confidential-Tours_693_p10.asp ]here[/url]

The Bell Rock Lighthouse:

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/bell_rock_01.shtml ]mental![/url]

The dedication and willpower that went into building it was amazing.

not that unknown, but, awesome nonetheless.. High Level Bridge in Newcastle

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Pont De Normandie.. Rather impressive structure.

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I know pont aint uk.. but it is beautiful 😛

It's very well known of course, but I couldn't resist posting it. I took this photo a few years ago from my hang glider over the middle of the Severn:
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The Union chain bridge over the Tweed just up from Berwick, the oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic & It's on the Sustrans route.
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Not many know about this one... one of the longest single tunnels in the UK... the cemex chalk slurry pipeline dunstable to rugby

goes from Kensworth Quarry:

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92km away to rugby. The quarry is impressive.. deep... Sorry no photos of the pipe tho. I spent over a month in this place logging chalk. Swamped a tractor in a massive puddle... must have been 9-10ft deep, water came in the cab. oops.

while we talking about tunnels then mention to Liverpool for a number of firsts / bests / oldests -

1. Crown Street Station, Liverpool, 1829. Built by George Stephenson, a single track tunnel 291 yards long was bored from Edge Hill to Crown Street to serve the world's first passenger railway station. The station was abandoned in 1836 being too far from Liverpool city centre, with the area converted for freight use. Closed down in 1972, the tunnel is disused. However it is the oldest rail tunnel running under streets in the world

2. The 1.26 mile (2.03 km) 1829 Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, England, was the first rail tunnel bored under a metropolis. Currently disused since 1972. Having two tracks, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the south end Liverpool docks being used only for freight. The tunnel is still in excellent condition and is being considered for reuse by Merseyrail rapid transit rail system, with maybe an underground station cut into the tunnel. The river portal is opposite the new Liverpool Arena being ideal for a serving station. If reused it will be the oldest used underground rail tunnel in the world and oldest part of any underground metro system.

3. 1836, Lime St Station tunnel, Liverpool. A two track rail tunnel, 1.13 miles (1,811 m) long was bored under a metropolis from Edge Hill in the east of the city to Lime Street. In the 1880s the tunnel was converted to a deep cutting four tracks wide. The only occurrence of a tunnel being removed. A very short section of the original tunnel still exists at Edge Hill station making this the oldest rail tunnel in the world still in use, and the oldest in use under a street, albeit only one street and one building

4. The 2.07 miles (3.34 km) Victoria Tunnel in Liverpool, opened in 1848, was bored under a metropolis. Initially used only for rail freight and later freight and passengers serving the Liverpool ship liner terminal, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the north end Liverpool docks. Used until 1972 it is still in excellent condition, being considered for reuse by the Merseyrail rapid transit rail system. Stations being cut into the tunnel are being considered. Also, reuse by a monorail system from the proposed Liverpool Waters redevelopment of Liverpool's Central Docks has been proposed.

5. The Mersey Railway tunnel opened in 1886 running from Liverpool to Birkenhead under the River Mersey. The Mersey Railway was the world's first deep-level underground railway. By 1892 the extensions on land from Birkenhead Park station to Liverpool Central Low level station gave a tunnel 3.12 miles (5029 m) in length. The under river section is 0.75 miles in length, being the longest underwater tunnel in world in January 1886. In 1903, the railway was electrified, becoming the first railway in the world to change over completely from steam to electric power. It was originally electrified with a fourth rail system, which was later replaced by a third rail system.

6. Williamson's tunnels in Liverpool, built by a wealthy eccentric are probably the largest underground folly in the world.

7. Queensway Road tunnel under the Mersey 'Birkenhead Tunnel'
The tunnel is 3240m (2 miles) long
In the nine years that it took to build the Queensway Tunnel, 1,700 men worked on the project, of whom 17 were killed.
At the time of its construction it was the longest sub-aqueous tunnel in the world, and held that title for 24 years.

8. The Kingsway (or Wallasey) tunnel entrance is used as the basis of a tunnel entrance in the video game Grand Theft Auto III — during the 1990s, several members of the game's development team had worked for the Merseyside-based development company Psygnosis.

[url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=longbridge+birmingham&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=16.366507,33.793945&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Longbridge,+Birmingham,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.386035,-1.988633&spn=0.002059,0.004125&t=h&z=18 ]The flight shed[/url]

Part of the old Rover works at Longbridge, was at one time the largest unsupported roof in the country.

I have a thing for towers.

Heaton Park

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Beetham Tower

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Agecroft Power Station

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Beetham tower is ugly as - looks like two Jenga kits stacked ontop of each other
Still I guess its an improvement on the rest of Manchester 😛

It may be ugly you cheeky monkey, but you can't deny that it is impressive.

Yep, not a fan of Beetham Tower. its a pointless souless building if ever there was one.

Not as ugly as the Manchester Civil Justice Centre.

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It looks like a knackered filing cabinet.

What a fantastic thread! So many fascinating sites, and so many hidden gems. Amazing what we just don't see, really, because we're looking for all the glamorous things.

The London Underground, in it's entirety, is just mindblowingly spectacular in it's creation. Most of it is of course invisible, but the sheer scale of it all, and all the different parts of it, are incredible. And many stations are architectural gems in their own right. It really is a constantly evolving, almost organic 'living' museum.

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Iconic. Even the map is a work of art!

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(Harry Spider; love that picture of the cooling towers!)

Sorry, the Underground is hardly unknown, but much of it is unseen or overlooked/ignored. Taken for granted.

Crossness Pumping Station in South East London is a wonderful hidden treasure.

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Houses (I believe) the World's largest beam engine:

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This thread cannot die, resurrection is a must to show respect, although I have nothing of worth to add, sorry.
Reading this I felt like I was a small child again, 'finding' those barely hidden WW2 shelters at Mill Hill public school, & seeing that they were just a dump for old rubbish, still cool managing to slide the concrete covers off the entrances & getting in though! Half the playing field was a shelter with connecting rooms, & tunnels, & hidden porn stashes of course 😉
Best thread of 2010, so far...

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or rather. it is getting progressively more and more awesome.