Railway viaduct MVN2/196, Wheatley's Bridge

Wheatley's Bridge is a railway skew bridge built between 1836 and 1839, with a widening completed in 1884, designed by George Stephenson and Thomas Gooch for the Manchester and Leeds Railway. It is constructed from gritstone and blue engineering brick and spans the River Calder, visible along a significant stretch of Steanard Lane on the eastern bank.

The bridge runs in an east-west direction and features five segmental-arched skewed spans. At the western end, it is flanked by curved and canted wing walls topped with ashlar coping stones, modern two-rail tubular metal handrails, and low stone piers with capstones. The eastern end of the bridge slightly flares out. The river piers are battered with bull-nosed ends that rise above the springing points, featuring two dressed stone courses and a three-course ashlar terminal with a projecting lower course that has lower roll moulding and two stepping courses. Full-height three-faceted piers are present on both faces of the bridge on either bank, topped with stepped pyramidal caps. The abutments, spandrels, and parapets are made of coursed, quarry-faced rusticated gritstone, with a projecting ashlar band above the arches that continues across the bank piers, and a three-course parapet with ashlar copings.

The northern arches consist of tooled stone blocks that rise directly from the piers, featuring tooled, keyed ashlar voussoirs. The southern arches are made of seven courses of blue engineering brick, topped with a stone roll moulding above the exposed headers of the ring. These arches spring from a saw-tooth course of stone impost blocks along the top of each pier.

The eastern abutment of Wheatley’s Bridge is also faced with coursed, quarry-faced rusticated gritstone and has rounded angles. A box-girder bridge to the east is supported by a modern concrete footing that is integrated into the top of the abutment.