Halton Dial Bridge, HUL4/30

Railway skew, basket arch underbridge. c1830-34 by James Walker of Walker & Burges for Leeds & Selby Railway.

MATERIALS: Sandstone ashlar and Bramley Fall gritstone.

PLAN: single-span with provision to accommodate four tracks and accommodate the turnpike beneath.

One of a sequence of bridges on the Leeds & Selby Railway which share a common design. The bridge is built of squared, coursed and tooled stone blocks. The basket arch of Bramley Fall gritstone has stepped, tooled and inscribed, v-jointed voussoirs springing from a wide, horizontally-tooled impost band. The arch soffit is constructed of large, skew-set stone blocks. The outer walls of the abutments and straight wing walls are formed of long, narrow blocks of tooled and inscribed, v-jointed sandstone ashlar. The inner abutment walls are heavily tooled with v-joints. The parapets are of larger blocks of Bramley Fall gritstone with pronounced horizontal tooling and terminate in characteristic oval piers. They are set on square-cut, tooled and inscribed string courses and asymmetrically-curved coping with horizontal tooling.