Chelfham Viaduct
Chelfham Viaduct is a railway viaduct built in 1896–97 to carry the single track, narrow-gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway across the Stoke Rivers valley. Designed by L&B engineer, FW Chanter, and containing over a quarter of a million Marland bricks, its eight arches - each wide and high - meaning that the -long viaduct is the largest narrow gauge railway structure in England. Chelfham Viaduct was Bridge number 22 of the 80 that carried or spanned the railway over its length. The viaduct was classified as a Grade II listed structure on 25 February 1965.
After closure
After the L&B closed in 1935, the rest of the trackbed, buildings and land from the line was sold at auction in 1938. The viaduct, however, was not sold. In 1943, it featured as a location in the war-time film The Flemish Farm, representing a Franco-Spanish border crossing. It is probable that such a redundant structure would normally have been dismantled, either then, or shortly afterwards during the Second World War, as happened to the smaller viaduct at Lancey Brook, which was destroyed as a demolition training exercise by the Army. However, a school and other buildings at its base made it uneconomical to dismantle, so it remained in Southern Railway ownership, passing to British Railways on the nationalisation of the railways in Britain in 1948, and in 2001, becoming part of the Historical Railways Estate. until, on 30 September 2013, The Highways Agency took over properties held and managed by BRB prior to it being wound up.The Highways Agency Annual Report for 2013-14 stated the following: