[Closed] Interesting unknown engineering landmarks in the uk

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.