Wicker Arches

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wicker Arches form a 660 yards long railway viaduct across the Don Valley in the City of Sheffield, England. They take their name from the thoroughfare The Wicker, which passes through the main arch (72 feet wide) of the viaduct and was, until the completion of the Sheffield Parkway, the main route eastwards from the city to the M1.

The viaduct was built in 1848 by Sir John Fowler (engineer; designer of the Forth Bridge) and Weightman & Hadfield (architects) to extend the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway from its previous terminus at Bridgehouses. Later a part of the Great Central Railway, the viaduct supported Sheffield Victoria Station. Main line rail passenger services crossing the Wicker Arches ceased in January 1970 with the closure of Sheffield Victoria and its service to Manchester, however the viaduct still carried the local services to Huddersfield via Penistone until they too were diverted, via Barnsley, in the 1980s. The only other passenger services to cross the bridge thereafter were football excursion trains to Wadsley Bridge for matches played at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough ground. This traffic ceased in 1996. The Victoria station buildings and platforms were demolished in 1989, however freight services continue to use the, now single, line across the viaduct to reach the Stocksbridge Steel works. The arches were restored in 1990 and are a Grade II* listed building. They were added to the Buildings at Risk Register in 2007.

In 2002, the Cobweb Bridge was suspended underneath the viaduct to allow the construction of the Five Weirs Walk.

In Spring 2006, the two western-most arches and the bridge over Brunswick Street were removed and replaced by a single steel span in connection to the building of the final phase of Sheffield's Inner Ring Road.

The Sheffield University Rag Magazine Twikker is named after The Wicker and its 1991 cover featured the Wicker Arches.