COUND II BRIDGE 1818 NOW THE HALL PARKWAY BRIDGE Shrewsbury Thomas Telford N52o40' 44" W2o 27' 12.0"
Thomas Telford had designed an iron bridge with a distinctive grid pattern in the cast iron arch to span 55 feet over the Rea Brook near Meole Brace in 1811 to carry the Shrewsbury to Ludlow road. This iconic bridge was replaced in 1933 with a concrete bridge.
Telford built a second bridge using the identical design in 1818 to build a 55 foot wide bridge to carry the Shrewsbury-Much Wenlock road over Cound Brook. Telford would use this design a third time in 1822 near Craven Arms for the Stokesay Bridge over the River Onny. This third bridge was dismantled and replaced in 1965. The fourth Telford bridge with this distinctive arch design is the smaller 1813 Cantlop Bridge which is still in its original position over the Cound Brook, but parallel to a modern road carrying the traffic.
The 1818 Cound Brook Telford bridge was cast by William Hazeldine. This bridge was dismantled and replaced in 1967 with a pre-stressed concrete bridge, but its outer ribs were stored in the Iron Bridge Museum and were used in 1988 to build this shopping center foot bridge. The parapet railing is identical to that of Cantlop bridge and must have been the original design. It is a delight to have found such a creative reuse of a very significant bridge.