Other British Bridges
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WILLEY PARK BRIDGE 1829 Shropshire N52o 47' 30.2" W2o 1' 45.3"
This bridge creates an underpass beneath the B4376 Broseley-Much Wenlock road for the private carriage way to Willey Park. All that appears from the A4376 is the brick parapet walls and one has to look over them to see the brick abutments and wing walls below. From its appearance today, one would never guess that this bridge is formed by iron troughs which once had wrought iron fascia ribs on the outside with the characteristic Coalbrookdale diminishing circles pattern. Anthony Blackwall ("Historic Bridges of Shropshire" p. 59-60) notes that by 1985 the fascias had been removed and the troughs filled with reinforced concrete. One can still see the edge of the toughs and on the top of the parapet where there must have been iron posts for the railing, now cut off flush with the coping.
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STOURPORT IRON BRIDGE 1892 SO808 710 (not visited)
Single span cast iron arch bridge over Severn River with bold, embossed “gothic” circles in spandrels and elaborate balustrade also in high relief. Spiral pedestrian staircase.
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STAPENHILL FOOT BRIDGE 1889 Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire HEW1785 SK253 219 (not visited)
This elegant Victorian suspension foot bridge was the gift of Baron Burton. The width is six feet and the main span is 120 feet and the two side spans are each 60 feet. The suspension cables are wrought iron rods with staggered joints hanging from elaborate cast iron towers 6 feet in diameter which are footed in the river. The engineers were Thornwill and Warham.
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SMART’S BRIDGE, CLYDACH IRON WORKS, WALES (see Clydach Bridge)
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SHIPPEN LANE RR BRIDGE Yorkshire SE387 342 (not visited)
A cast iron arch bridge
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SCOTSWOOD BRIDGE 1829 Newcastle, Northumberland (not visited)
Designed by John Green, this suspension road bridge crosses the Tyne. The arched tower pylons of stone with a bracketed flat top are 353’ apart. The deck spanning that distance is supported by wrought iron suspension chains (replaced with steel cables in 1931).
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ROCKETTS (Rochetts?) BRIDGE 1809 Sir John Rennie TQ563 943 N510 48' 17.1 W0o 3' 24.0"
PRIVATE PROPERTY This delightful cast iron bridge was designed by Sir John Rennie for John Jervis, lst Earl of St. Vincent (1735-1823), who was Lord of the Admiralty during Admiral Lord Nelson's career, for his ornamental lake at Rochetts Hall in Brentwood, Essex. Although a good part of the 18th century house was destroyed by fire in 1975, it is still privately owned and not open to the public.
The bridge has a shallow arch with hoops in the spandrels. There are four identical ribs. The decking is cast iron plates with upstanding fin-like ribs which would act as strengtheners to the iron plates as well as to hold in place the surface of the roadbed which was probably dirt or turf. Its parapets are flared at either end and terminate in plain masonry piers. It would appear from the brick work under the bridge and lining the water course that it originally spanned a small weir.
Rochetts Hall is located on Weald Road opposite the site of the former Weald Hall which now a County Park.
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RHDYS Y CAR TRAM BRIDGE 1815 N51o74’16” W3o38’03” (?)
Watkins George This early cast iron bridge carried the tram line for the ore carts across the Glamorganshire Canal into the Cyfarthfa Iron Works. It has been relocated to a section of the reconstructed canal along Chapel Row in Merthyr Tydfi. The parapet and railings are cast as one piece. It was designed and constructed by Watkins George, the iron master at Cyfarthfa Iron Works.
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PELSHALL NORTH COMMONS BRIDGE 1824 SK019 044 N52o 38' 11.4" W1o 58' 47.3
This simple, early Horseley road bridge crosses the Wyrley & Essington Canal and was once adjacent to the Pelsall Iron Works (1832-1888), but is now in open fields. It has six ribs and solid arched spandrels with embossed cast detailing for decoration. The printing says Horseley Coal & Iron Works 1824. The masonry (alternating red and blue Staffordshire bricks) abutments and parapets give it quite a presence in the open commons landscape.
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NEWLAY & HORSFORTH BRIDGE 1819 Yorkshire HEW 189 SE239 368 (See write up under Horsforth Bridge)
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Subcategories
Demolished Bridges (and some other notes)
Meole Bridge 1811 (demolished 1933)
Long Mill 1812 (demolished 1883)
Cantlop Bridge 1812 or 13 (still standing intact but not used by traffic)
Cound II 1818 (demolished in 1967 and recycled at Hall Park , Shrewsbury)
Betws-y-Coed 1816 (still carrying traffic)
Icknield Street Bridge 1818 (demolished)
Engine Arm Aqueduct 1827.
For bridges needing to span more than 100 feet, Hazledine and Telford came up with a design for a segmented arch having vertical or angled struts in the spandrels. The following bridges are cousins with this detail in common:
Bonar Bridge 1811 (demolished 1892)
Craigellachie 1814
Eaton Hall 1824
Windsor 1823 (Charles Hollis was engineer - demolished)
Bigsweir Bridge 1827 (Charles Hollis was engineer – demolished)
Mythe Bridge 1823
Holt Fleet Bridge 1827
Cleveland Bridge 1827
Galton Bridge 1829
Chepstow 1816 (John Hazledine and either John Rennie or J.V. Rasrick)
On the canals, a certain type of iron foot bridge called a “split bridge” was used and they are all very similar in design. The bridge crossing the canal is not a completed arch: the sides are cantilevered toward each other but do not meet at the center of the span, thereby leaving a gap through which the tow rope can be passed as the barge goes under the bridge. There are reportedly five split bridges on the Stafford & Worchester Canal built in 1772. No one in Great Haywood knew of one made by James Brindley (1716-1772) reportedly there on the Stafford to Stourport Canal and there are several on the Stourbridge Canal locks at Audnam dating from 1779 as well as one at Wordsley on the same canal. There is also one at the Iron Bridge Museum as well as one at the Spon Lane Locks in Birmingham.
As you will note in the description for the Rugby foot bridge at Cathiron, several identical bridges were made by the Horseley Ironworks from a design by Thomas Telford in the early 1830’s for improvements being made on the Oxford Canal. They are usually identified by the village they are near but trips to Brinklow and Newbold on Avon turned up no such bridges for a good distance in either direction from those villages. So, it is my thought that they are in places not accessible by road and can be viewed only by going by boat on the canal.
BRIDGES TORN DOWN RECENTLY
THREE FURNACES BR. aka WATERY LANE BR, Tipton, Staffordshire This road bridge over the canal at Tipton on Watery Lane as replaced in 2007/8 with a new steel bridge because of increasing industrial traffic.
FT BR IN TOWN CENTER, Brownhills, Staffordshire The old iron town foot bridge crossing the canal was torn down about 2006 and replaced with a modern bridge that can accommodate baby strollers and shopping carts and the handicapped "because the European Union gave us the money".
HEVENINGHAM HALL BR. 1812 Mentioned in 1980's H&H ICE book: designed by Sir Robert Taylor & James Wyatt for Capability Brown landscape in the early 1800's. The property has had many owners since and is now being re-landscaped for M/M Jon Hunt owners since1994 by Kim Wilkie & Assoc. who could find no evidence of an iron bridge anymore, even in storage. In fact, he is copying the stone bridge at Alnwick for the new lake and consulting Brown's original drawings.
BROWNHILLS FOOT BRIDGE There was an arcjed iron footbridge crossing the canal at the center of town until 2008. The municipality was given an EU grant for handicapped access projects. Since the old bridge had many steps, it was discarded in favor of the handsome modern ramped bridge.
BOSTON FOOT BRIDGE AT COWBRIDGE A 2009 search the length of Cowbridge Drain taking Wainfleet Road from the center of town revealed only one brick bridge over the ditch. It may be the original Rennie bridge's successor. A road crew was working on it and said it was the only one: they had never heard of the iron one.