Bridgewater Canal Pickering's Bridge

Pickering's Bridge is a canal bridge built in 1770 by James Brindley for the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal. It is constructed from red brick in English Garden Wall bond, with ashlar sandstone dressings.

The bridge has a rectangular plan and features a single-span segmental arch with a brick soffit and voussoirs. Above the arch is a projecting ashlar sandstone band that springs from ashlar skew back stones, set within the curved splayed abutments and wing walls. The road surface over the arch is a secondary humped concrete, with steep macadamised gravel approaches. The parapet walls have flush sandstone coping stones that step down over the curved wing walls. These coping stones show mason's marks, and their upper surfaces have incised graffiti.

Beneath the bridge, the canal banks are supported by inclined sandstone block retaining walls that canted back to either side of the abutments. The tow path under the arch on the northern side is laid with stone sets. There are some repairs to the brickwork, including hard orange-coloured bull nose bricks used in alternate bands to fill former timber roller recesses in the corners of the north abutment. These bricks show damage and grooves from barge tow ropes.

On the outer face of the south-east wing wall, there is a small carved stone head, with a legend beneath it in wet cement that reads: FRANK. Some coping stones have been replaced with brick and concrete, especially in the west parapet wall; otherwise, the bridge remains largely unaltered. A late 20th-century aluminium rectangular name plate is attached to the ashlar band of the west arch, reading: PICKERINGS BRIDGE in green raised lettering on a white background.