St. Levan Road Viaduct, Plymouth

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The St. Levan Road Viaduct during demolition in late 1986. Images (C) Rod Ormston 1986.

The St. Levan Road or Ford Viaduct was built in 1890 as part of the LSWR's independent route into Plymouth and crossed a valley in the Ford area of the city. The viaduct has been stated to be notable for the first use of concrete in a railway bridging structure [presumably excluding the use of concrete for abutments]. The pillars were made of blocks of concrete with liquid concrete filling the gaps between them. As the original design had specified stone, limestone facing blocks were added. Concrete had been used for a road bridge in 1875 and for the Sway Tower in Hampshire, completed in 1885, and these developments had come to the attention of W.R.Galbraith, the LSWR's civil engineer. He also specified concrete for the Hockley Viaduct near Winchester, still visible today from the M3 motorway: in plans drawn up in 1890, mass concrete with chalk infill was to be used for the pillars, with an outer layer of brickwork for consistent appearance. A core sample taken in 1996 confirmed that this construction had been used. In the later years, the line from St. Budeaux to Devonport Kings Road was seen as a direct duplicate for the former Great Western line a short distance to the west and the passenger service was withdrawn in September 1964. The future of the remaining route to Penzance was itself uncertain owing to the omission of lines west of Plymouth in the original draft of Dr. Beeching's trunk routes report, the sequel to the original 1963 Reshaping report. Two photos of the viaduct can be found on the Geograph site; one from 1979 and another from just before demolition. A recent bird's eye view of the site is available from Multimap. A general description and photos of the line over the viaduct can be found here.

A view of the demolition work from between the rows of houses. This picture shows the precautions needed to protect nearby dwellings from falling debris. Sources for this page include: Course E. (Southampton University Archaeological Society), web article, 1996.