Deep Pit railway footbridge WBS/24, including brick piers, northern setted access path and southern access ramp

A railway pedestrian overbridge of 1882, probably designed by Sturges Meek for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and made by Walker Brothers.

MATERIALS: wrought-iron span and ramp supported by engineering-brick piers and cast-iron frame, sandstone setts to the northern access path.

PLAN: an approximately north-south span of around 40m, with an east-west ramp around 35m long at its southern end.

DESCRIPTION: unusually for a railway footbridge, the bridge is of a bowstring-truss type, with a basket-arched upper chord rising to around 4m above a flat deck around 2m wide. The upper chord and deck are connected by vertical ties creating 26 bays or sections, with additional diagonal ties in the outer sections, and crossed diagonal ties in the central four sections. Swan-necked vertical stays drop from the upper chord and return across the soffit of the deck. The upper chords are tied horizontally by lateral and crossed diagonal ties, as far as the outer three sections at either end. Here, as the arch drops towards the deck, the vertical stays extend above the arch to carry the horizontal ties. This flat ‘roof’ extends to the end of the arch, where it meets an arch-headed portal of lattice work. This is crowned with a vertical finial with decorative diagonal supports (that to the south end broken and without its supports, in 2023). The feet of the bridge are bolted to the support piers. Modern mesh is fixed to the trusses.

The southern ramp is also of wrought-iron, with riveted lattice balustrades surmounted by rails with welded supports with splayed feet. Outer diagonal stays are tied beneath the soffit of the deck. The ramp is supported by two frames, each comprising two cast-iron columns with wrought-iron diagonal ties. The columns have palmette capitals.

The south end of the bridge rests on a rectangular blue-brick pier with stone cap. This carries an L-plan brick wall enclosing the landing at the top of the ramp, with a stone coping on the angle and bullnosed brick copings elsewhere. The north end rests on a similar pier, buttressed to east and west by a wall of the same material, sloping down at 45 degrees, which retains the earth ramp of the northern approach.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the bridge is approached from the north-east by a setted path approximately 25m long, with (in 2023) a small section of missing setts in its northern edge around half-way along.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 5 September 2024 to amend details in the description