Shropshire
ABBEY FOREGATE RR BRIDGE 1851 Shrewsbury N52o 42' 25.6" W2o 44' 41.5"
This girder rail road bridge with cast iron ornamental parapet and railing carries the Shrewsbury & Hereford line across the western edge of the fore court opposite the ancient Abbey church in the heart of Shrewsbury. It was designed by Thomas Penson.
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SHREWSBURY STATION RR BRIDGE 1848 Robert Stephenson N52o 42' 40.5" W2o 44' 53.0"
This bridge also contains part of the station and carries the track for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway over the River Severn. Robert Stephenson's design was for stone viaduct, four of whose seven arches spanned the river. In 1903 the stone viaduct was supplemented by steel girders to include more track and a portion of the station. The girder trusses are riveted together, rather than welded and they rest on cast iron columns in mid-stream.
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OAKENGATES RR BRIDGE 1848 Shropshsire SJ695 109 N52o 41’ 42.5 W2o 27’ 16.4” In the Shrewbury suburb of Oakengates, this very plain railroad bridge crosses the old Roman Road known as Watling Street.
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MOR BROOK BRIDGE 1824 near Eardington SO733 885 N52o 29’ 39.4” W2o 23’ 38.1”
This bridge was added to the towpath along the Severn River to allow the horses to cross the side stream known as Mor Brook. about four miles south of Bridgenorth. It was designed and built by John Onion of Broseley. It has a single cast iron arch with a span of 30 feet. The tie rods are four inches in diameter between the ribs. The parapet and hand rail are integral and of cast iron .
This is an especially elusive bridge. Take the road out of Bridgenorth (A442) towards Highley. At the far end of the village of Eardington, be on the lookout for a right turn taking the road under a railroad bridge. Immediately before that curve are two roads on your left: one private, and one “rough” which has a crossbar on top of two iron posts and that is the one you want. It ends in a gravel parking lot for fishermen. Walk along the right edge of the planted field a few hundred yards to Mor Brook Bridge.
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LONGDON-ON-TERN AQUEDUCT 1796 Shropshire Thomas Telford HEW280 SJ617 156 N52o 44’ 8.8” W2o 34’ 6.6” This historic aqueduct is on private land and is well fenced off to discourage curious trespassers. One can glimpse it through a gap in the hedgerow along B5063 about five miles northwest of Wellington.
This was the first canal aqueduct to be made of cast iron. Telford, who had recently been appointed the Shropshire County Engineer, was responsible for completing the aqueduct which had been begun in masonry by his predecessor to carry the Shrewsbury Canal over the River Tern. The trough is three feet deep and nine feet wide, the iron section being 186 feet long. The slim ironwork section on its cast iron supports seems very unsubstantial between those two very substantial arched brick approaches. However, his design has stood the test of time.
It is interesting to note that the concept of creating an iron “box” carrying water supported on diagonal cast iron supports was probably borrowed by Telford from a very original aqueduct/bridge, Pont y Cafnu, designed and built in 1793 by Watkins George, chief engineer at the Cyfarthfa Iron Works. It is known that Shropshire iron master William Reynolds sketched that Pont-y-Cafnau bridge/aqueduct in 1794 and Reynolds worked with Telford to build this Longdon-on-Tern aqueduct in 1795.
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