Victorian progress

The railway finally did reach Knaresborough in 1851, when this impressive railway viaduct was completed across the steep valley of the river.  An earlier bridge had collapsed three years before, just as it was almost finished.  (That must have been annoying!)  Victorian times, in Knaresborough as elsewhere, saw rapid progress in improving the town and living conditions for its inhabitants. Chapels and schools were built, gas street lighting established and a sewerage system installed.  But much of its earlier history is still very evident in its buildings, lanes, street names and the now ruined castle that towers over the town.