The Stockport Heritage Trust have very kindly produced this local history feature for readers. Stay tuned for more!

By Gareth Evans

For many people Stockport viaduct is perhaps Stockport's most iconic structure. Perhaps some are not aware that Stockport viaduct is actually two viaducts built fifty years apart.

The first viaduct (on the East, closest to Mersey Square) was built in just one year and nine months from 1839 to 1840, despite the Mersey washing away the pillars two or three times during construction.

The viaduct is nearly 34m (around 111 feet) high and is over half a kilometre long (around 600 yards). It was built 3m (10 feet) higher than originally intended to reduce the depth of the cuttings on either side. This is supposed to have saved £50,000; the final cost was £72,000.

Around six hundred men were employed at the height of the building efforts and around eleven million bricks were used.

The viaduct was designed by George Watson Buck. Initially a canal engineer, he joined the London and Birmingham Railway in 1833. He also designed the Dane viaduct (near Bosley in Cheshire). The wooden centring of Stockport's arches were reused in its construction. Because of this, the two viaducts are strikingly similar.

A railway line was built from Manchester to Heaton Norris opening on 4 June 1839. The viaduct was completed on 21 December 1840, but the first train did not cross until July 1841. The line linking Manchester to Crewe was opened in May 1842.

The original Stockport station was at Heaton Norris, but this was deemed to be inconvenient. A station at Edgeley was trialled in February 1843. The trial was successful, and Edgeley became Stockport's principal station on this line in 1844.

By the late 1880s the volume of traffic using the viaduct was too great for the two tracks and a second viaduct was built to increase the track bed to four tracks. The second viaduct was designed by Francis Stephenson, chief engineer of the London and North Western Railway, which had taken over the line in 1846.

The second viaduct was built between 1887 and 1889 adjacent to, but not touching, the original viaduct which remained open during the building. Part of Wear Mill had to be demolished and the rebuilt to allow the viaduct to pass over it. When the second viaduct was completed, the track bed was placed across both viaducts.

The second viaduct used ten million bricks, giving a total for the complete viaduct of 21 million bricks.

Some sources state that Stockport viaduct is the largest brick-built structure in Western Europe. However, in the UK, St Pancras Station, Battersea Power Station and the Stanley Dock Tobacco warehouse have more bricks. The Goltzsch Viaduct in Germany has more than 26 million bricks and is the largest brick-built viaduct in the world.

On 30 November 1948, in thick fog, a Buxton train ran into the back of a Crewe-Disley train which was stopped on the viaduct awaiting a signal to enter Edgeley station. Despite the collision being at less than fifteen miles per hour, the eleventh carriage of the Buxton train was pushed into the tenth. Five people died and 27 people were seriously hurt.

It's commonly believed that the 1840 Act of Parliament that permitted the building of the viaduct mandates that all passenger trains crossing it must offer service at Edgeley station. However, this is not true. In 2007 when CrossCountry operated a number of Manchester to Birmingham trains which failed to stop at Stockport, the council challenged this, and the act was examined, and no such provision was found.

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Those interested in learning more about Stockport's heritage can visit the heritage centre Tuesday 11am – 2pm and Saturday 10.30 – 2pm. The centre is situated inside St. Mary's Parish Church, Market Place, on the left hand side past the cafe. 

The heritage trust also opens the former courthouse and dungeon to the public on the second Saturday of every month, from 10.30am until 3.30pm, or when the last visitor leaves.

The trust's website can be found HERE.