gallery

M. L. P 19th Century
Corby Bridge, the Wetheral Railway Viaduct, Cumbria, 1872

inscribed and dated in the margin " The Viaduct, Wetheral, Cumberland, August 1872"

pencil and watercolour
23 x 32 cm.
Notes

The viaduct at Wetheral was built between 1830 and 1834 to carry the Carlisle to Newcastle railway. It has five arches, and at 100 feet high above the River Eden, has beautiful views downstream, and as far as the Scottish Hills. A footpath goes across the railway viaduct between Wetheral station and Great Corby.

Corby Bridge (popularly known as Wetheral Viaduct) is a railway viaduct adjacent to and immediately East of Wetheral railway station at Wetheral, near Carlisle, in north-west England, begun in 1830 and completed in 1834. It is 660 feet (200 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) high, and has been Grade I listed since 1 April 1957.

Built for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company, it still carries the double-track Tyne Valley Line over the River Eden, and includes a cast iron footpath connecting Wetheral with Great Corby. This was added to the north face in 1851, because so many people were trespassing on the trackbed, in order to cross. Initially, a half-penny toll, each way, was charged, having risen to a penny by the time the station closed in 1956 (train services resumed in 1981). Pedestrian passage is now free.

The bridge has five 89 feet (27 m) spans faced with red sandstone from Newbiggin Quarry near Carlisle.and filled with sandstone rubble from Wetheral and Corby Beck Quarries. It has two piers on either bank and two in the river.

The nearby Corby Bridge Inn, opened in the same year, was named for the viaduct. It closed early in 2015 after being sold to a property developer.

Wetheral railway station is on the Newcastle-Carlisle Tyne Valley Line in northern England, situated some seven minutes from Carlisle. The station serves Wetheral and Great Corby.

Access to the station is by a dead-end road from Wetheral village green, or by a footpath from the B6263 opposite Plains Road. A footbridge links the two platforms. Corby Bridge (popularly known as 'Wetheral Viaduct'), over which trains pass when leaving the station towards Newcastle, has a footpath that links the station with the nearby village of Great Corby.

The station has a roughly hourly service in each direction on weekdays since the 2019 summer timetable change, with a reduced service (approximately two-hourly) on Sundays. Other faster passenger trains and goods trains pass through without stopping. Trains that stop at Wetheral also stop at all other stations west of Hexham on the Tyne Valley line. Passengers for stations between Hexham and Newcastle usually have to change at Hexham.

The station was originally staffed, and the old stationmaster's house still stands, as a private residence. The boarded up ticket windows are still visible. The station was closed during the Beeching cuts (in 1967) but reopened by British Rail in January 1981.

Great Corby is a village in northern Cumbria, England, above the eastern bank of a wooded gorge on the River Eden. Directly across the river from Great Corby is the village of Wetheral. The two villages are linked by a railway viaduct (Corby Bridge, popularly known as 'Wetheral Viaduct'). This is on the Tyne Valley Line from Newcastle to Carlisle, which passes to the north of the village. The railway station at Wetheral is accessible to residents of Great Corby by a pedestrian footpath attached to the railway viaduct.

Administratively Great Corby lies within the civil parish and electoral ward of Great Corby and Geltsdale. It thus forms part of the district administered as the City of Carlisle. Women in the ward had the highest life expectancy at birth, 97.2 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.

The village pub/restaurant, the Queen Inn, is next to the upper village green in the heart of the village.

Early in 2015, the Corby Bridge Inn, beside the level crossing on the railway at the northern entrance to the village, closed after being sold to a property developer. The pub, a Grade II Listed Building, was built in the 1830s to serve the needs of travellers on the new railway, and was thought to be the oldest 'railway' pub in the world.

Cumberland Breweries, a local microbrewery, operates from the Old Forge, opposite the Queen Inn.

There is also a primary school. There is no church, the village forming part of Wetheral parish. The village's Methodist chapel closed in the mid 80's, and the building is now a private house.

Great Corby is notable for Corby Castle, a historic home of the Howard family on the south-western edge of the village overlooking the river. Corby Castle is now owned by the family of Northern Irish businessman Edward Haughey.

In 1836 one of the very earliest railway accidents happened in Corby Bridge, close to the railway viaduct.

Within the village many sporting events occur largely due to the effort of the Great Corby Cricket Club. They recently merged forces with Scotby CC meaning the sides altogether now have two senior teams and two junior sides. There are around 50 junior and 40 senior members within the club which is run by enthusiastic members who are looking to improve facilities and opportunities for the local cricket side.