3-021-559 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Knucklass Viaduct, Central Wales Railway, 1865. Railway bridge on the line between Knighton and Llandrindod in Radnorshire, '...bringing the midland counties of England into more direct communication with the mineral districts of South Wales, and making the pleasant watering-places and the picturesque scenery of South Wales more accessible than they have hitherto been...The contractors, Messrs. Hattersley and Morton, have had to perform some heavy works in deep cuttings and high embankments. Starting from Knighton, the line skirts round that town by the Teme valley route, which it follows to Knucklass, where it is carried over by a viaduct 70 ft. high, and consisting of thirteen arches of 36 ft. span each. This structure, which is massive and imposing, has at each approach small castellated columns...It has been built entirely of local stone. The scenery on this part of the line is very grand, with the Castle Hill (a very prominent object) and the Creig-don rocks, famed as the pleasant resort of picnic parties. After passing the viaduct, the line sweeps round the base of a lofty hill, and the traveller who looks back on the inner side of the segment of the circle gains a beautiful view of the lofty structure over which he has passed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.