Visitors have been visiting the site of a Nottinghamshire landmark.
Bennerley Viaduct’s new visitor centre in Awsworth opened earlier this month after a series of delays. Known as “The Iron Giant”, the viaduct’s new centre was designed to pay tribute to the area’s industrial and cultural heritage and to draw visitors in to learn about its history.
Built by the Great Northern Railway, the bridge opened in 1878 in the age of steam, iron and coal, standing 18 metres above the Erewash Valley and spanning 442 metres, connecting Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It was used to carry passengers and goods by rail.
Train usage of the bridge ceased in the 1960s, and it was left derelict before the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct took over its care, opening it to the public in 2022 for walking, cycling and exploring.
Works began on the new visitor centre in 2025, and it was originally set to open in the autumn of that year, alongside the completion of the new accessible ramp, despite delays to fix a ‘crack’ in the ramp path.
This changed to an aim of having it open during the 2026 Easter holidays, but this was then pushed back to the summer.
The centre is mostly volunteer-run and features a café and displays of the Iron Giant’s 150-year history, and will also serve as an educational space for school and group visits.
Since opening on July 18, Broxtowe Borough Council leader Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance) said visitors have come from further afield, including the West Midlands and the north of England, to see the revamped site.
He said: “Business is doing extremely well… People have responded with, and to, this new destination with remarkable enthusiasm – they’ve turned out in their hundreds on a frequent and regular basis.
“It’s not just a monument to the past; it actually serves a real purpose now. It has fully disabled access, it’s got a visitor centre to draw people in to study, ensures the bridge will be there for future generations to observe our industrial past, to learn about our heritage, and to learn about our culture… otherwise, it will just become a fallen monument, a decaying monument to the past, and that’s not our intention.”
Cllr Radulovic said the new centre shows outside investors “we are open for business in Broxtowe and across the Erewash Valley” and hopes more companies invest in the “workshop of the country”.
He added: “That sense of pride I feel is that it’s a lasting and living memorial to our industrial heritage and our industrial past. We were, in the East Midlands, the workshop of the world that drove the Industrial Revolution through the coal and steel industries.”
Jordan Hazell, visitor centre manager, said: “It’s been queues most days out the door. Even on the days we’re not open, we’ve got people peering through the windows wanting to come in.
“Considering we’ve been open less than three weeks, we’ve had one group who’ve been here five times already, so we’ve got repeat customers.
“As we are all volunteers, we do want to start opening more, but we need some more volunteers, so if anybody wants to, we always welcome more volunteers to help.
“It’s great for the volunteers, though, whatever reason they want, whether they want to be around people or learn new skills. It’s training them up. We’ve got quite a few young people volunteering with us, so they’re getting to do their food hygiene and barista training.”
The centre’s café and retail shop sell food that has either been homemade or sourced from local companies, including Just Ice ice cream from Derbyshire, a charity that supports those who have experienced slavery, local Erewash honey and coffee from Stewart’s at Trent Bridge.
Bennerley Viaduct is one of two wrought iron viaducts in England still standing today.
Its visitor centre has been funded by Broxtowe Borough Council and the Kimberley Means Business Fund, is clad in Corten steel, and is designed to reflect the industrial heritage of the historic landmark.
By Lauren Monaghan, Local Democracy Reporter