Midland Counties Railway Viaduct, Rugby

[1][2][3][4] The double track viaduct was built to cross the Avon valley in 1839 by Charles Blacker Vignoles as part of the Midland Counties Railway (MCR) and opened in 1840.

The MCR also connected with other lines at its northern end, making the viaduct part of the main railway route from London to the East Midlands and Yorkshire for the first decade of its life, until more direct routes were opened.

[1][2][4] The main line over the viaduct was closed in January 1962, but trains continued to use it until May 1965, serving the Oxford Canal basin at nearby Newbold-on-Avon.

[1][5] After being derelict for decades, the viaduct was brought back into use as a footpath and cycleway in 2012, as part of a £1 million scheme by Rugby Borough Council and the cycling charity Sustrans, in order to create a traffic free route from Rugby town centre to the northern suburbs of Newbold and Brownsover, and the Brownsover industrial estate.

It met the criteria for listing because of its "age, design quality, unaltered nature and its association with an important engineer and railway company".