The Monmouth viaduct

The Monmouth viaduct is a 20 arch, 600 feet (183 metres) stone and concrete structure built to carry the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway across the flood-prone Chippenham Meadows next to the River Wye at Monmouth. It opened in 1861 after 10 months work and needed 9,000 cubic yards of masonry and 3,000 cubic yards of concrete. The river was spanned by a steel bridge with 150 feet long girders. This is no longer in place. Like many such structures it has a very Roman appearance as the ravages of weather, time and shrubs soften its outline. I photographed these structures during a circular walk from the town. The image below shows the nearness of the viaduct to the Duke of Beaufort bridge.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The Duke of Beaufort bridge

The Duke of Beaufort bridge is a disused railway bridge over the River Wye at Monmouth. It was opened in 1874 as part of the Ross and Monmouth Railway that had begun operating in 1873. The design is three spans of steel lattice girders on pairs of steel tubular piers between stone abutments. Today the bridge is part of a public footpath. It is hoped that bridge can be re-decked to also serve bicycle traffic.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The confluence of Monnow and Wye

The Welsh name of the Welsh town of Monmouth is Trefynwy which in English translates as "town on the River Monnow". The English name of the town derives from "Monnow mouth" and refers to the confluence of the smaller Monnow and the larger River Wye at the edge of the town. On a recent sunny day we walked down to this meeting of waters and reflected how benign it all looked; a strong contrast with the floods of earlier in the year. The Wye is on the left of the spit of land, the Monnow on the right. In the distance is the Duke of Beaufort Railway Bridge dating from 1874. It has been disused by rail since 1964 but now serves as part of a long distance footpath.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2