RABONE JUNCTION CANAL BRIDGES (aka Smethwick Junction) 1828 Thomas Telford/Horseley Iron Works HEW 1197 SP 029 890 N52o 29' 55.5" W1o 57' 29.8"
Thomas Telford was commissioned in the 1820's to shorten and improve the Birmingham Canal originally laid out along the contour lines by James Brinkley in the 1770's. Telford cut off some loops of the old canal to shorten the route and for these junctions he needed a number of footbridges and roving bridges. He designed a basic iron bridge which spanned fifty two feet with an arch rising nine feet in an elliptical curve which gave more headroom close to the abutments than a Roman arch. The Horseley Iron Works cast the iron as they proudly say on each bridge. The earliest ones are the most elaborate and have whimsical cut out decorations in the parapets. Gradually, the design is simplified such that the later ones have only a simple XXX pattern.
These two graceful roving bridges are at the junction itself and the single roving bridge is nearby at the Soho Loop where Matthew Boulton's foundry was located. The ribs and the parapets are integrated in one casting of opposing halves which are bolted together. The cast iron decking once had raised ridges to contain the earth composing the walkway for the tow horses, but today brick has been substituted for the bicylists and joggers. Brick and masonry abutments complement the Regency feel of the diamond lattice balustrades and decorative detail under the handrails.