Railway Bridge C.400 Metres East Of Former Hagger Leases Station

The railway bridge located approximately 400 metres east of the former Hagger Leases station was built in 1830 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway by William Storey, with the builder named as James Wilson of Pontefract. Constructed from grit sandstone that is coursed and squared, the bridge features tooled ashlar dressings. It has a skew plan at an angle of 270 degrees with the River Gaunless. The bridge includes a low segmental arch made with chamfered voussoirs and a wider-arched fall roll-moulded dripstring that merges with a similar string at rail-bed level. The parapets extend out to round piers and have chamfered coping that is continuous with the top bands of the piers, which are topped with low ogee-domed coping. On the north face, there is a moulded rectangular inscription panel. This bridge is notable as one of the earliest surviving skew arches, which were becoming essential in railway engineering.