Description:
Taken from one of the last remaining wrought iron lattice-girder bridges in the country (see NCCC000157, and rightfully preserved as a fine example of industrial architecture.).
Lookin north-east from the west end of the viaduct.
In the foreground are Bennerly Fields and the Erewash Valley line of the former Midland Railway (opened in 1847).The sprawl beyond the railway is the Bennerley opencast mining site. Behind the footbridge is Bennerley Junction which now serves the coal site only; prior to 1916 it was a passenger and freight line to Nottingham via Kimberley, Watnall and Bulwell, joining the Leen Valley Line behind Highbury Hispital at Basford Junction.Midland Railway patriotism brought about its closure when they took up the track and presented it to the war department for use in Iraq to get supplies to the battlefields in Turkey.
In the centre is Shipley Opencast coal mining site. The grass banks of the River Erewash can be seen the other side of the railway.
The coal train on the Erewash Valley Line is enroute to Toton Sidings
[Reg Baker]