Railway accommodation underbridge MVL3/29, Wickens

Accommodation underbridge for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway. Mid-late 1840s by A S Jee.

MATERIALS: rock-faced and ashlar sandstone (shale grit/Kinderscout grit/millstone grit).

DESCRIPTION: the accommodation bridge carries the two-track railway line over a footpath which slopes down to the south. The bridge has deep, segmental arches with v-jointed voussoirs of picked ashlar with tooled margins and slightly projecting, taller keystones with diagonal tooling. They spring from a similarly detailed, ashlar impost band. The bridge abutments and spandrels are of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks and the bridge soffit is of smaller, coursed, ashlar blocks. The ashlar parapets have a slightly projecting, square-moulded band with deeper panels above. The raked and splayed wing walls terminate in slightly projecting, rectangular piers and are of coursed, rock-faced stone blocks with square-moulded ashlar coping.