Ebbw Vale Big Arch
Region:
Red Wheel Site:
Transport Mode(s):
Address:
Steel Works Road, Ebbw Vale, N23
Postcode:
Visitor Centre:
Website:
Visit websiteThe original ashlar stone bridge was built in 1813 over a tramroad which connected the Monmouthshire Canal with the Beaufort ironworks. It is unclear what at this time was carried over the tramroad at this point and why such a massive and impressive structure was needed. Adjacent to the main arch was a second arch over a road which ran parallel to the tramroad up the valley. The tramroad was converted into a railway in 1855 and this was acquired by the GWR in 1875.
Meanwhile in about 1848 the level of the overbridge was raised and the part over the tramroad was carried on eight small round arches, coarsely made in stone. This more than doubled the height and provided a level path for a tramroad at right angles to the original, linking the Ebbw Vale ironworks to the works at Sirhowy in the next valley.
Today both tramroads have been replaced by roads.
By road: Steel Works Road, the B4486, passes beneath the bridge on the track of the old railway. It is crossed by Market Square, off the A4046.
Biddle, Gordon, Britain's Historic Railway Buildings, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0198662475 (2003)
Biddle, Gordon & Nock, O.S., The Railway Heritage of Britain : 150 years of railway architecture and engineering, Studio Editions, ISBN-10: 1851705953 (1990)
Biddle, Gordon and Simmons, J., The Oxford Companion to British Railway History, Oxford, ISBN 0 19 211697 5 (1997)
Bonavia, Michael, Historic Railway Sites in Britain, Hale, ISBN 0 7090 3156 4 (1987)
Conolly, W. Philip, British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN 0-7110-0320-3 (1958/97)
Jowett, Alan, Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland, Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0086-1. (March 1989)
Morgan, Bryan, Railways: Civil Engineering, Arrow, ISBN 0 09 908180 6 (1973)
Morgan, Bryan, Railway Relics, Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 0092 1 (1969)
Simmons, J., The Railways of Britain, Macmillan, ISBN 0 333 40766 0 (1961-86)
Simmons, J. The Victorian Railway, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0 500 25110X (1991)
Smith, Martin, British Railway Bridges and Viaducts, Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 2273 9 (1994)
Turnock, David, An Historical Geography of Railways, Ashgate, ISBN 1 85928 450 7 (1998)
Forgotten Relics - Listed Bridges and Viaducts