Railway underbridge MVL3/25, Oaklands Road

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

MATERIALS: cast and wrought iron, rusticated and ashlar sandstone (shale grit/Kinderscout grit/millstone grit) with ashlar dressings.

DESCRIPTION: the bridge is located on the east side of the rural village of Grasscroft. It is a skew, girder bridge carrying the two-track railway line over a bend in the road below. The angled abutments have semi-octagonal piers and are constructed of squared, rusticated stone blocks with chamfered edges to emphasize the joints. The piers rise to track level where there is an ashlar band, above which there are slightly narrower octagonal parapet piers. The parapet piers are constructed of picked ashlar blocks with tooled margins and deep horizontal joints. The abutment stonework courses through to gently curving and angled wing walls with square-moulded ashlar coping. The wing walls terminate in octagonal piers.

The bridge has cast-iron panels forming the parapet balustrades with a relief pattern of closely-spaced Gothic arcading. The balustrades are supported on deep cast-iron fascia beams with small, relief flower rivets. The bridge deck has two separate spans with riveted wrought-iron or steel beams carrying transverse joists and riveted iron plate jack arches.