M3 – Shawford Viaduct - Trust Annual Report 1984
The consultants' scheme, which met a large measure of acceptance in the Winchester area last year, has now been firmly adopted by the Department of Transport. Trust representatives, in meetings with the consultants, have been largely concerned with landscaping details. They agreed with the consultants' preference for a steep-sided chalk cutting instead of a wider grass-sloped notch through Twyford Down, and they liked the restoration of the bottom of Plague Pits Valley down to the canal. The Trust argued that apart from the removal of metalling and the healing of the chalk scars the landscaping should not disguise the original Winchester by-pass, the grassed-over track of which should be retained for historical reasons. This has not been accepted, although there is some willingness to reconsider if the Trust view were seen to be widely shared.
The Trust had hoped to go to the coming M3 Inquiry more as commentators with fairly minor suggestions for improvement than as objectors. Indeed, after all the bitterness of 1976 it was something of a relief to take a compliant attitude on this subject. It was not to last. The furore of that year was concerned with preserving the precious landscape of the Itchen Valley. The present scheme dams the valley in almost as brutal a way as the original scheme and no amount of tree-planting will prevent the imprisoning effect of this long, high uniform wall. It was previously acceptable because the higher viaduct in front preserves the impression of extension down the valley even if the trees beyond actually block the line of sight.
This viaduct, important in its own right and essential to the acceptability of the M3, is threatened by an indifferent, even flippant and antipathetic City Council and regarded by the Department of Transport as of no importance. Winchester has another fight on its hands.
Shawford Viaduct - Didcot Newbury and Southampton Railway c.1890