Railway overbridge MVL3/17, Roughtown Road

Railway overbridge, 1845-1849, by AS Jee for the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway.

MATERIALS: buff sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: the bridge carries Roughtown Road north-south across the railway, to the east of Mossley Station. Due to gradients the deck slopes down towards the south. The bridge comprises a single segmental-arched span recessed between battered abutments to either side of the steep cutting, with a parapet.

The stonework is regular-coursed and quarry-faced. The stone of the arch piers and the voussoirs have tooled margins, the keystone breaking the arch above and below. The impost bands, sloping string course above the arch and the twice-weathered parapet copings are dressed. The abutments curve outwards slightly at all four corners and terminate in slender piers with shallow, pyramidal caps. The arch soffit is narrow-coursed masonry with tooled detailing.

The road surface is tarmac. A short section of parapet copings in the south-west corner has been rendered, and a short cement kerb with modern bollards has been installed next to the inner face of the south-west corner.