The Worcester Riverside Engineering Trails

EXPLORE ENGINEERING The Worcester Riverside Engineering Trails

This leaflet describes two walking trails, along the banks of the in Worcester, to see some of the many works that engineers have built that have transformed medieval Worcester into the busy but pleasant place we now live in. Both trails start from the Newport Street carpark, but you can join them at any point along the river bank. Marked on the trail map are some of the many works of engineers.

The NORTH TRAIL is a short and gentle walk of about an hour around Worcester Bridge and Sabrina Bridge, over a distance of about 1 mile. From the car park carefully cross the road to the riverside walkway. Turning right, the walk takes you to Sabrina Bridge where you can cross the river and walk back along the opposite riverbank to Worcester Bridge to re-cross the river.

The SOUTH TRAIL is longer and takes in , the canal basin, the river lock and the new footbridge at Lower Wick. Distance 2¼ miles. From the car park turn left and walk along the riverside past the river bridge, towards the cathedral. Carry on, until you come to the sign post at the junction of the canal and river. Here you can leave the river and view the and the many moored craft. Returning to the river you can either turn to the right, back up the river to your start point, or turn left to carry on to Diglis Lock and weir, and the splendid new foot and cycle bridge beyond, returning via the west bank.

We hope that you will enjoy these walks, and will keep this leaflet to remind you of some of the benefits that engineering has given us all.

Before the Engineers

Try to imagine what life in Worcester would have been like in the middle of the 18th century. A medieval bridge spanned the river, but very few people travelled far as the roads were poor and few could afford a horse. There were no cars, no trains, no electricity, and no gas.

A lucky few would have had clean water, but sewage would have gone straight into the river, the same river that the water may have come from! Education was basic and and not many could read, even if they could have afforded books. Phones and the internet were still far in the future. NORTH TRAIL

ST JOHNS RIVER SEVERN THE MALVERNS

CRIPPLEGATE PITCHCROFT PARK RACE COURSE

NEW ROAD CRICKET GROUND

WORCESTER CITY CENTRE WORCESTER FOREGATE STREET RIVER SEVERN

CATHEDRAL KEY: SUGGESTED WALKING ROUTE RAILWAY RAILWAY ON VIADUCT

1 Worcester New Bridge Originally built in 1781 at a cost of £30,000 Worcester New Bridge replaced a bridge just to the north. The 1781 bridge was designed by John Gwynne who was generally accepted as second only to Thomas as a designer of Severn Bridges. Worcester wanted a traditional bridge so it has five semi-circular arches in its overall length of 82 metres (270 feet). The bridge was reconstructed and widened in 1932 to give northbound and southbound lanes, so it is in effect two bridges side by side, which can be clearly seen if you pass underneath in a boat. It had previously been widened in 1841 with elegant cantilever footways. The bridge is traditional and elegant, but is very restrictive in terms of flooding.

To ease the traffic in Worcester, a bypass was built in the 1980s which included the Carrington Bridge across the Severn. Now some of the bypass has been widened to dual carriageway, with a new railway bridge being installed in 2018. In the next few years engineers will build a new bridge, next to the Carrington Bridge, to extend the dual carriageway section on to . 2 Site of Worcester Old Bridge There was certainly a bridge here in 1088, but there may have also been one much earlier than that. The bridge at this site linked Tybridge St to Newport St and was the only between and . The bridge would have been responsible in no small part for the prosperity of Worcester at that time. It was rebuilt several times and in 1781, when the new bridge was built, there was even a plan to widen the old bridge.

Even until the end of the 1970’s this was proposed as the site of a second road crossing over the river. The planned bridge would have crossed over to link up to Angel Place, which is why the multi-storey cark park over the bus depot is built in an arch shape so the road could pass underneath!

Source: The Changing Face of Worcester

3 Worcester & Hereford Railway The Worcester and Hereford Railway Act was passed in 1853, which authorised the construction of the line. Construction work started in 1856 on the route that would link Worcester to Malvern, via a new station at Foregate Street, over a viaduct and bridge to Malvern on to Ledbury through two tunnels, and from Ledbury to Hereford via another viaduct. It would have gone by a more direct route, north of the but for the citizens of Malvern and Ledbury, who insisted the main line go through their towns.

The Worcester and Hereford Railway links to the North at Norton Junction, just outside Worcester, where the new Worcester Parkway station is being built. This new station will allow more people to use the railway, which will enable a two trains an hour peak service to London in a few years’ time.

Source: The Changing Face of Worcester 4 Worcester Railway Bridge and Viaduct The Railway Bridge is the centre piece of a mile and a half long curved embankment and viaduct, linking Henwick on the west bank across to Shrub Hill station. The 68 arch viaduct is 855m (2085 feet) long and really quite impressive. If you walk through the arch at Croft Road the size and curvature are more obvious. The Croft Road arch is not square to the line of the main viaduct and would be a difficult structure to build even today. It is called a skewed arch and is believed to be the first of its type in the country.

When it was built, in 1860, the bridge for the river crossing had two arched cast iron spans, but these were too weak and were replaced 44 years later in 1904 by the simple stronger girders we see today.

If you look carefully towards the east end of the viaduct you can see the remains of the arches of The Butts branch line, a short single track railway that left the main line on a viaduct that descended steeply to the level of the river by the racecourse. From here it went south, through a gap in the main road bridge to terminate a hundred yards or so further along the river front. It was intended to go to Diglis but never got permission to pass the Catherdral.

5 Sabrina Footbridge The footbridge was built in 1992 at a cost of £617,000. It spans 69 metres (203 feet), weighs about 120 tons and the A-frame has a height of about 20 metres (66 feet). It has a similar appearance to a suspension bridge but actually it is a cable-stayed bridge. On a suspension bridge the deck hangs from the cables which are in huge tension so they need very strong anchors, but on a cable-stayed bridge the tower takes most of the load straight down into the foundations. The foundations for the tower are easier to construct than those for anchors, particularly in poor ground conditions, which makes this kind of bridge easier and cheaper to build. 6 Site of Worcester Power Station Worcester City Council and their engineers were pioneers in the production of electricity for general use. The city’s original electricity works were at Powick. The combined water and steam plant, one of the first - some say the first - in the world, provided power for electric street lights and homes.

Powick power station was the victim of its own success and with the increased demands to provide more electricity, a new coal fired power station was built in 1902 beside the river in the centre of Worcester. The huge chimney at this site gave the site the nickname of “The Queen Mary”. As we look back, it is difficult to imagine now that it would be acceptable to build a coal-fired power station in the city.

The Worcester power station was extended in 1944 but demolished in 1975 when power came from the national grid - another huge civil engineering undertaking. The site is now the playground in an extended Cripplegate Park, and all that remains of the power station is the cooling water intake structure on the river bank.

Source: The Changing Face of Worcester

7 The Hive Worcester’s stunning post-modern library houses over a quarter of a million books, including substantial academic and children’s libraries, with over 12 miles (19 km) of secure storage shelving. The Hive was the first library in Europe to house both a university book collection and a public lending library. It was officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year, 2012.

The award-winning engineering of the building uses advanced environmental technology to improve sustainability, including computer controlled ventilation & river water cooling to avoid the need for the use of a traditional air conditioning system. 8 Hylton Road Flood Alleviation Scheme The houses and business in Hylton Road were frequently flooded by the River Severn. Some temporary flood barriers reduced the problem, but after the 2007 floods the funded and constructed a permanent flood barrier, completed in autumn 2009. It has carefully landscaped bunds, which you may not even notice are there, with additional demountable barrier sections to close off the road.

The defences offer protection to Hylton Road from a flood with a 1 in 100, or 1% chance of happening in any one year, and helps to keep Worcester City Centre accessible for longer during a flood.

9 Site of Water Works Waterworks may not look very spectacular, but they are major civil engineering works, providing clean wholesome water, free of the health hazards of water taken direct from the river.

Water had been extracted from the river at Barbourne since about 1770. In 1854, to improve the water quality, the famous engineer Thomas Hawksley recommended taking water from the River Severn, and using steam engines to pump it to settling tanks and filters, then up to a new reservoir on Rainbow Hill. He was appointed consultant engineer for the new waterworks, at what is now Gheluvelt Park, which was completed in November 1857 and housed two large steam engines that drove the pumps. The works were demolished only in 1995, but the pump house building remains, as the Pump House Environment Centre.

(All CFOW images copyright and used with persmisson from http://www.cfow.org.uk/) 10 University of Worcester Arena The 2,000-seat capacity Worcester Arena opened in April 2013 and is a national centre of excellence for disability sports. Built on land at Hylton Road used previously as a fruit and vegetable market, the arena is a good example of modern design and construction techniques that enable us to provide buildings with minimal internal supports, such as columns.

In a space like this, it gives us an uninterrupted view of the basketball action, and in commercial units these techniques mean we can use bigger machines, have better production lines and more flexibility of space.

11 New Road Flood Alleviation Scheme This scheme began in 2018 to raise 200 metres of New Road and its footpaths by just 400mm (16 inches), this allows New Road to stay open for longer during major flood events, so that people trying to get in and out of the city centre across the river will face fewer problems. It also permits New Road to be converted to take two-way traffic while surrounding areas and roads are flooded.

Source: The Changing Face of Worcester ST JOHNS + THE MALVERNS

NEW ROAD

CRICKET GROUND CATHEDRAL RIVER SEVERN RIVER

CHAPTER MEADOWS

DIGLIS WATER

SOUTH TRAIL DIGLIS WEIR

LOCKS SEWAGE ISLAND DIGLIS WORKS

12 Worcester and Canal The Worcester and Birmingham Canal starts in Worcester at a junction with the River Severn, just above Diglis Weir, and ends in in Birmingham. It is 29 miles (47 km) long. There are 58 locks in total on the canal, including the flight of 30 locks at Tardebigge, which is one of the longest lock flights in Europe. The canal climbs 130 m (428 feet) from Worcester to Birmingham.

Work on the canal began in Birmingham in 1792 and the whole length was opened in 1815, providing a vital outlet for goods from the and stimulating commerce in Worcester. 13 Diglis Canal Basin and Locks At the start of the canal two locks 4.3 m (14 feet) wide allow wide-beam river craft access from the river to Diglis Basin. Here goods would be transhipped to and from narrow boats, taking raw materials to Birmingham and bringing manufactured goods back for sale around the world.

Today Diglis Basin is home to a thriving canal side marina community, surrounded mostly by new residential property where once was industry and rundown warehouses.

14 Diglis Lock, River Severn Since records began the Severn was open to all, free of charge. Boats of 60 tons could reach the Gorge and in the mid-18th century around 100,000 tons of coal a year came down the river from the collieries there. Though the Severn was tidal up to Worcester, and navigable almost as far as , the navigation has never been easy. Water levels were very low in summer and above Gloucester navigation was difficult. Between 1842 and 1844 the navigation of the upper Severn was at last improved. Locks and weirs were built including those at Diglis, and the river was dredged. In 1890 further improvements were made to encourage larger vessels.

The lock at Diglis, built in 1844, is actually two locks. The largest lock chamber is 43.4m (142 feet) long, by 9.2m (30 feet) wide and allows passage of craft up to a maximum draft of 2.8m (9 feet). 15 Diglis Weir, River Severn The weir marks the upper reach of the tidal River Severn. Around five hours after a high tide at , the river rises 30 cm (12 inches) up the face of the weir. It is said that anglers’ floats move upstream, and unwary fishermen may get water in their wellies!

The weir was built to aid navigation above Worcester, by controlling the water level. The design of Diglis Weir ensures that the river banks are not overtopped, and that headroom under bridges is maintained. Engineers managed this feat without any moving parts, such as flood gates, by having a very long crest set diagonally across the flow so that water level variation is small in response to changing flow conditions. When flood levels reach the top of the riverbank the weir is fully submerged and causes almost no restriction to the flow

16 Diglis Foot and Cycle Bridge The foot and cycle bridge at Diglis, is one of a series of structures built around the country with funding from Sustrans, who won government money in late 2007 for their nationwide Connect2 cycle routes scheme. It was built in 2010 at a cost of £1.8m. It has a main pylon 28 metres (92 feet) high and spans 66 metres (217 feet), and weighs about 70 tons.

The Diglis Bridge links cycle ways and footpaths across the River Severn in south Worcester, and in the first five years it carried more than 1.5 million pedestrians and 270,000 cycles.

17 Worcester Sewage Treatment works Sewage treatment works are also major civil engineering works, even if they are often hidden from view. Standing on Diglis footbridge Worcester’s sewage works is almost completely concealed, but it plays an important role for our civilisation, making our dirty water clean so that it can be safely returned to the environment.

Worcester’s main sewage treatment works at Lower Wick is operated by Water, and is connected to the centre of Worcester by a tunnel under the river. Institution of Civil Engineers One Great George Street Westminster London SW1P 3AA UK

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