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Ribblehead viaduct
A couple of people were asking about the Ribblehead viaduct shown in the photo I posted the other day, so I thought I’d dig out a bit of info about it.
Ribblehead viaduct from the slopes of Whernside
The viaduct isn’t a Roman construction; it was actually built in Victorian times to take the Settle-Carlisle railway across a stretch of moor.
The Settle-Carlisle line was the last to be built entirely by hand, built by the ‘navvies’ (‘navvy’ comes from the word ‘navigator’, the men who first dug the canals and then went on to work on constructing the railways). The names of the navvy camps in the Dales are fascinating: Batty Moss, Jericho, Sebastopol, and Salt Lake.
The following extracts are from comedian Mike Harding’s book, Walking the Dales:
"At one time as many as 3000 people were living on Batty Moss [the camp on the moor the Ribblehead Viaduct crosses] in a vast navvy camp of shanties, rough shelters and tents. Life was tough and hard. A hundred and eight men died building the viaduct alone... Cattle were driven here on the hoof from Hawes and slaughtered and roasted on the spot to feed the navvies... four pounds of beef and fourteen pints of ale a day was the navvies’ ration. There were camp followers too, women who followed the work-gangs from job to job... Many more men died than were accounted for and were buried rough on the moor. Those that were identified often had no names other than their ‘navvy names’, Banjo-Jack, Wheelbarrow-Charlie and One-eyed-Dick being just some of the colourful names that they sported. It was probably the worst job any of these navvies had ever worked on. What should have taken three or four years took seven. The boulder clay that much of north Ribblesdale and beyond is composed of was turned by the rains of winter into a glutinous mass that stuck in the tip-up trucks and caused them, when they were tipped on end, to be dragged down the embankment. In winter, or after hard frosts, that same boulder clay would become rock hard and had to blown apart with dynamite. Even when it wasn’t frozen, the boulders in the clay deflected blows from picks and shovels, often causing men to throw their tools down and ‘jack’ in disgust...."
"The Settle to Carlisle line runs through some of the most spectacular scenery in England... [it] is one of the finest, if not the finest, monuments to the skill of Victorian engineering and the labour of nameless navvies still standing in the country..."
It’s a fascinating bit of history, especially when you consider how bleak and unpopulated the moor is nowadays.
And the lack of trees? The Dales used to be covered in woodland, a very long time ago before man started to farm sheep. The sheep have changed the upland landscape of Yorkshire forever, for better or worse.
Ribblehead viaduct from the slopes of Whernside
The viaduct isn’t a Roman construction; it was actually built in Victorian times to take the Settle-Carlisle railway across a stretch of moor.
The Settle-Carlisle line was the last to be built entirely by hand, built by the ‘navvies’ (‘navvy’ comes from the word ‘navigator’, the men who first dug the canals and then went on to work on constructing the railways). The names of the navvy camps in the Dales are fascinating: Batty Moss, Jericho, Sebastopol, and Salt Lake.
The following extracts are from comedian Mike Harding’s book, Walking the Dales:
"At one time as many as 3000 people were living on Batty Moss [the camp on the moor the Ribblehead Viaduct crosses] in a vast navvy camp of shanties, rough shelters and tents. Life was tough and hard. A hundred and eight men died building the viaduct alone... Cattle were driven here on the hoof from Hawes and slaughtered and roasted on the spot to feed the navvies... four pounds of beef and fourteen pints of ale a day was the navvies’ ration. There were camp followers too, women who followed the work-gangs from job to job... Many more men died than were accounted for and were buried rough on the moor. Those that were identified often had no names other than their ‘navvy names’, Banjo-Jack, Wheelbarrow-Charlie and One-eyed-Dick being just some of the colourful names that they sported. It was probably the worst job any of these navvies had ever worked on. What should have taken three or four years took seven. The boulder clay that much of north Ribblesdale and beyond is composed of was turned by the rains of winter into a glutinous mass that stuck in the tip-up trucks and caused them, when they were tipped on end, to be dragged down the embankment. In winter, or after hard frosts, that same boulder clay would become rock hard and had to blown apart with dynamite. Even when it wasn’t frozen, the boulders in the clay deflected blows from picks and shovels, often causing men to throw their tools down and ‘jack’ in disgust...."
"The Settle to Carlisle line runs through some of the most spectacular scenery in England... [it] is one of the finest, if not the finest, monuments to the skill of Victorian engineering and the labour of nameless navvies still standing in the country..."
It’s a fascinating bit of history, especially when you consider how bleak and unpopulated the moor is nowadays.
And the lack of trees? The Dales used to be covered in woodland, a very long time ago before man started to farm sheep. The sheep have changed the upland landscape of Yorkshire forever, for better or worse.