More info: The Ribblehead Viaduct or Batty Moss Viaduct carries the Settle–Carlisle railway across Batty Moss in the Ribble Valley at Ribblehead, in North Yorkshire, England. The viaduct, built by the Midland Railway, is 28 miles north-west of Skipton and 26 miles south-east of Kendal.
The Ribblehead Viaduct needed a workforce of some 2,300 railway builders ( navvies ) who lived in three hastily-constructed shanty towns at the base of the structure, many of them with their wives and families. The shanty towns were dubbed Belgravia, Sebastopol, and Batty Wife Hole
During construction of the Viaduct and line, hundreds of navvies lost their lives from accidents, smallpox outbreaks and fights, so much so that the railway paid for an expansion of the graveyard.
At 32 metres high and 400 metres long the Ribblehead Viaduct is a feat of Victorian engineering. The viaduct was designed by John Crosby for the Midland Railway in 1869. Crosby was the company's chief engineer and was responsible for most of the railway line's construction.
The Viaduct was begun sometime before July 1870 and finished in late 1874. The first train ran on 1 May 1876.