The Struggle for Calstock Viaduct

Calstock Arts are delighted to host the launch screening of a new documentary film by Neil Gallacher: The Struggle for Calstock Viaduct.

It cost huge amounts of time and money. It may have cost lives. And it cost one man his reputation. But it gave us the Tamar Valley as we know and love it today.

This short film draws on an outstanding collection of stills in Calstock Parish Archive to tell the story of the long engineering struggle to build the viaduct. Much of it was a battle deep underwater to create the foundations on the riverbed.

Despite its troubled beginnings, the viaduct is a crowning success of Edwardian railway engineering. Today it’s one of the outstanding survivors from that era. The valley and the village would be unimaginable without it.

The black and white stills at the heart of the film were taken by a shopkeeper in Calstock Fore Street, Frederick Paul, who sold them as postcards. His descendants have made his pictures available through the Archive, and this is the first time they’ve been brought to life in this way.

The evening will include a talk by Neil, who is a retired BBC TV correspondent, and a Q&A led by retired Civil and Structural Engineer Vic Harman, a trustee of Calstock Parish Archive and author of "Calstock Viaduct, 100 Years and More.

Our timings should suit anyone looking to come and go by train, whether coming down from Gunnislake, or up over the viaduct itself.